| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
4:00pm ET | |
| • | Salt Lake City Winter Games: Ratings, Schedules & Additional Links |
| • | SLOC Officials Say “Aggressive” Ticket Target Has Been Achieved |
| • | ISU President: Reversing Controversial Skating Decision Would Be “Very Hard” |
| • | Rawlings Shareholder Wants Company To Raise Shareholder Value |
| • | Bucs Fans Take Out Want Ad Beckoning Football Coach To Tampa Bay |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/In Other News/Articles of Interest/Channel Surfing |
THE SALT LAKE CITY WINTER GAMES, DAY 6: RATINGS & EVENTS
The following presents a day-by-day Nielsen ratings trend for the Winter Olympic Games.
| '02 | '98 | % +/- |
| Opening Ceremony | 25.5/42 | 17.1/29 | 49% |
| 2nd Day | 17.1/30 | 12.3/22 | 39% |
| 3rd Day | 17.6/27 | 20.2/30 | -13% |
| 4th Day | 19.6/30 | 14.8/23 | 32% |
| 5th Day | 18.5/29 | 18.2/30 | 2% |
| Cumulative | 19.8/31 | 16.6/27 | 19% |
NBC's five-day primetime nightly average stands at a 19.8/31, a 19% increase over CBS' Nagano five-day average of 16.6/27.
Tuesday's primetime 18.6 rating marked a 158% increase over NBC's season-to-date Tuesday night average of a 7.2/11. Additionally, NBC last night outperformed the combined competition by 18%, with CBS earning a 6.8/10, Fox a 4.7/7 and ABC a 4.2/6 (THE DAILY).
TONIGHT'S SCHEDULE ON NBC
TONIGHT'S SCHEDULE ON CNBC
WINTER GAMES ACHIEVE “AGGRESSIVE” TICKET SALES GOAL
The SportsBusiness Journal's Andy Bernstein reports from Salt Lake City that the SLOC hit its target today of selling $180M worth of tickets for the Winter Games. SLOC officials termed the target "aggressive," noting that it doubled the $90M in ticket revenue that the Nagano Winter Olympics totaled. About half of SLOC's sales were direct to consumers, and 82% of those sales came via the Internet.
SLOC execs said that through the first five days of the Games, daily ticket sales totals were close to $500,000. Meanwhile, 110 out of 167 events are now sold out. Most of the tickets remaining are for cross-country skiing events, but there are about 2,000 tickets left for the Closing Ceremony, priced at $85 and $320 (THE DAILY).
ISU PRESIDENT ADMITS FIGURE SKATING REFEREE VOICED CONCERNS
NBCSports.com reports that International Skating Union (ISU) President Ottavio Cinquanta said at a press conference today it would be "very, very difficult" to overturn the result of the pairs competition at the Winter Olympics, meaning Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze "probably will retain the gold medal they won … over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, even if allegations of collusion to predetermine the results is true." Cinquanta said that Ronald Pfenning, the referee of the pairs competition, "has made certain allegations" about the judging of the event, and admitted there were other allegations, "but the most important is the one of the referee. He is the coordinator of the competition" (NBCSports.com, 2/13).
The Olympic ice skating judging controversy will be debated tonight on "Crossfire" by Bill Press and Tucker Carlson at 7:30pm ET. We're setting our VCRs as you read this.
Read today's Olympic Articles of Interest, and view today's Olympic Daily Stat.
Click on the buttons below for additional Olympic links:
RAWLINGS SHAREHOLDER SEEKS TO INCREASE SHARE VALUE
The ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH reports that MI business exec Daniel Gilbert, who owns a 6.4% stake in Rawlings Sporting Goods, said in a filing with the SEC that the company's share price is undervalued, and he "may encourage Rawlings to explore strategic alternatives to increase shareholder value." Gilbert said that he "might pursue alternatives on his own or with third parties if he isn't satisfied with the company's response," but he "had no specific proposal in mind" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 2/13).
View Gilbert's SEC filing.
CTN PROGRAMMING DEAL MAKES ESPN BIG MAN ON CAMPUS
College Television Network (CTN) and ESPN entered into a programming distribution agreement today in which ESPN will provide a three-minute daily sports news segment that will be distributed to college campuses by CTN. The ESPN programming will include anchored sportscasts with ESPNews commentators, sports footage, news and highlights. The deal also includes the airing of ESPN's "SportsCenter" promotional segments regularly on CTN. Sales will be handled jointly by both CTN's and ESPN's sales representatives (THE DAILY).
IT'S CLASSIFIEDS: FANS HELP BUCS, POST COACHING WANT AD
The ST. PETERSBURG TIMES reports that the city's Fraternal Order of Eagles, in an effort to assist the Bucs' search for a coach, placed a classified ad in the North Pinellas section of the Times that read, "Head Football Coach in Tampa Bay Wanted ASAP." The ad went on the read, "Strong offense skills & ability to work with play-off caliber team a plus. Strong interpersonal skills with GM & owners a must." Eagles member Tom Masiuszek: "We figured maybe we'd try helping things along. … We thought it was cute, but we didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 2/13).
BUZZER BEATERS
Valvoline and NASCAR driver Johnny Benson today presented Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) with a $50,000 check in support of the "Caring Hands" program. Benson's on-track performance incentives contributed $30,000 to the donation, while the rest came from a Valvoline promotion that asked supporters to mail or fax in their handprints in exchange for a $1 donation to BBBSA (THE DAILY).
The DALLAS MORNING NEWS reports that "about 400 kids from the Steve Nash Youth Basketball League traveled to Seattle from Vancouver" to see last night's Mavericks-Sonics game. Mavericks G Steve Nash, who is Canadian, "picked up sponsorship of the league formerly known as the Junior Grizzlies League this year – after the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 2/13).
The AFL NJ Gladiators and the YES Network today announced a programming agreement in which YES, which is scheduled to launch on March 19, will televise seven Gladiator home games during the '02 season (THE DAILY).
OLYMPIC ARTICLE OF INTEREST
The SYDNEY MORNING HERALD on last-minute concerns that threaten the '04 Athens Games.
TODAY'S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The DETROIT FREE PRESS' Desiree Cooper on the politics behind Nike's Air Jordan XVII.
The BOSTON GLOBE runs an editorial supporting planned restorations to Fenway Park.
The FLORIDA TIMES-UNION's Don Coble on NASCAR's new NC-based think tank and its research regarding safety.
The ORLANDO SENTINEL's Ed Hinton on NASCAR's safety advancements, specifically from last year to this year.
The ORLANDO SENTINEL's Rick McKay on annual expenses Daytona Beach must absorb to host the Daytona 500.
The Nashville TENNESSEAN runs excerpts from Nashville Superspeedway VP & GM Cliff Hawks' recent overview of the facility and its inaugural season.
See The Daily Insider's Articles Of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TONIGHT'S EVENTS
Timberwolves F Kevin Garnett will buy a round of drinks for the first 10,000 fans who attend the team's home game against the Suns. The Timberwolves also will reduce $20 seats in the upper bowl of the Target Center to $5 for the game (THE DAILY).
Nike will host an All-Star rally to support the U.S. women's hockey team from 4:30-5:30pm MT at Galyan's in Salt Lake City. U.S. Gold Medal sprinter Marion Jones and actor Roma Downey are scheduled to attend (THE DAILY).
The NHL Panthers' mascot, Stanley C. Panther, will make Valentine visits to fans today and tomorrow, distributing roses and pairs of lower bowl ticket vouchers to future games. Valentine visits cost $250 and are available on a first come, first serve basis (THE DAILY).
IN OTHER NEWS….
Campbell Soup posted a 25% drop in Q2 '02 earnings today, as "lower soup shipments, higher marketing costs and softness in its Godiva chocolates business weighed on profits." Quarterly net earnings fell to $203M, or $0.49 a share, from $271M, or $0.65, in the same period a year earlier (REUTERS, 2/13).
THE DAILY STATS: NIELSEN RATINGS & GALLUP POLLS
The following lists the final Nielsen ratings for the top ten primetime shows for the week of February 4-10 (USA TODAY, 2/13):
| RK | PROGRAM | NET | DAY | RAT/SHR | VIEWERS
(IN MILLIONS) |
| 1) | Olympics Opening Ceremonies | NBC | Fri | 25.5/42 | 45.6 |
| 2) | Friends (8:00pm) | NBC | Thu | 17.8/28 | 28.6 |
| 3) | ER | NBC | Thu | 17.6/28 | 27.4 |
| 3) | Winter Olympics | NBC | Sun | 17.6/27 | 30.2 |
| 5) | Friends (8:30pm) | NBC | Thu | 17.2/26 | 28.1 |
| 6) | Winter Olympics | NBC | Sat | 17.1/30 | 29.4 |
| 7) | CSI (9:00pm) | CBS | Thu | 15.8/23 | 24.6 |
| 8) | Will & Grace | NBC | Thu | 15.5/23 | 25.3 |
| 9) | Everybody Loves Raymond | CBS | Mon | 13.5/20 | 20.9 |
| 10) | Law & Order | NBC | Wed | 12.6/20 | 18.9 |
| |
| | NETWORK AVERAGES
SEASON TO DATE
| |
| | | NET | | AVERAGE | |
| | | CBS | | 8.4 | |
| | | NBC | | 8.3 | |
| | | ABC | | 6.8 | |
| | | Fox | | 6.3 | |
| | | UPN | | 2.8 | |
| | | WB | | 2.5 | |
| |
From February 4-6, the Gallup Organization asked 1,011 respondents what was their favorite Winter Olympic event. Below lists the top three results overall, as well as broken down by gender (GALLUP ORGANIZATION):
| EVENT | OVERALL |
| Figure Skating | 32% |
| Downhill Skiing | 23% |
| Bobsled | 8% |
| |
| EVENT | WOMEN |
| Figure Skating | 49% |
| Downhill Skiing | 18% |
| Bobsled | 4% |
| |
| EVENT | MEN |
| Downhill Skiing | 29% |
| Figure Skating | 13% |
| Bobsled | 12% |
| Hockey | 12% |
| |
CHANNEL SURFING
CNBC will air Winter Olympics coverage – Curling and Men's Ice Hockey – at 6:00pm ET.
ESPN's "SportsCentury" will profile Florence Griffith-Joyner at 7:30pm ET.
ESPN2 will air men's college basketball: GA Tech-Maryland at 7:30pm ET, and Memphis-Charlotte at 9:30pm ET.
NBC will air Winter Olympics coverage – Alpine Skiing, Luge, Ski Jumping and Speed Skating – at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN will air Blues-Avalanche at 8:00pm ET.
TNT will air Suns-Timberwolves at 8:00pm ET.
ESPN Classic's "SportsCentury" will profile Bonnie Blair at 7:30pm ET, and Denny McLain at 8:00pm ET.
NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon will be on ESPN's "Unscripted."
Rams CB Dre Bly, PGA Tour pro David Duval and actor Kevin Sorbo will be on FSN's "The Best Damn Sports Show Period."
PGA Tour pro John Cook and CBS' David Feherty will be on FSN's "The Last Word."
E!'s "True Hollywood Story" will profile the movie "Dirty Dancing" at 8:00pm ET.
PBS will air Spike Lee's one-man biography "A Huey P. Newton Story" at 9:00pm ET.
U.S. Gold Medal winning snowboarder Kelly Clark will be on CBS' "Late Show" with David Letterman
NBC's "The Olympic Tonight Show" with Jay Leno will feature U.S. skier Picabo Street and Barenaked Ladies.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight's headline guests on the following talk shows:
| "The Late Show" | Jeri Ryan |
| "The Tonight Show" | Freddie Prinze Jr. |
| "The Late Late Show" | Holly Marie Combs |
| "Late Night" | Pre-Empted |
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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