| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | Salt Lake City Tops Metered Markets For NBC’s Athens Games Coverage |
| • | IOC President Jacques Rogge Cancels Coordination Commission Meetings |
| • | BMI Airlines Inks Sponsorship Deal With English Premier League Club Arsenal |
| • | USC QB Matt Leinart Graces Another College Football Preview Cover |
| • | U.S. Gold Medalist Paul Hamm Appearing Tonight On CBS’ “Late Show” |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
NEWS FROM THE ATHENSGAMES, DAY 13: SALT LAKE CITYTUNING IN
The following details the topten Nielsen metered markets for NBC’s primetime coverage of the Athens Olympicsthrough Tuesday, Day 12 (NBC):
| RK | MARKET | AVG. RAT/SHR |
| 1) | Salt Lake City | 27.0/46 |
| 2) | Portland | 23.3/41 |
| 3) | San Francisco | 23.1/39 |
| 4) | Indianapolis | 22.6/35 |
| 5) | Denver | 22.2/38 |
| 6) | Columbus | 22.1/35 |
| 7) | Oklahoma City | 21.9/34 |
| 8) | San Diego | 21.5/37 |
| 9) | Minneapolis-St. Paul | 20.9/37 |
| 10) | Kansas City | 20.8/33 |
NBC’s primetime Olympiccoverage tonight will highlight track and field, volleyball and diving. Click here for a listing ofevents across the NBC Universal networks.
AROUND THE RINGS reports thatIOC President Jacques Rogge has“canceled the remaining meetings of the Coordination Commission he’s beenchairing in the mornings to sort out problems with the Athens Olympics.” Rogge said that there are “no issues tosolve.” Rogge: “Actually I could havecanceled by the end of last week, but you don’t want to bring a sense ofcomplacency. Yesterday there was no meeting, Sunday there was no meeting. Ikept the one of today, but frankly speaking, there is no need to have a furtherone and I hope that will materialize” (AROUNDTHERINGS.com,8/25).
The NBA todayawarded the 12 members of the U.S.men’s basketball team the Community Assist Award for August. As part of the Hoops for Troops program, theplayers hosted U.S.military personnel at practices, scrimmages and games (NBA).
Speedo and MTV will co-host aparty at Akrotiri in Athensat 11:00pm local time.
PREMIER LEAGUE CLUB ARSENAL INKSSPONSORSHIP DEAL WITH BMI
MEDIAWEEK.co.uk reports that U.K. airlineBMI has secured a sponsorship deal with English Premier League club Arsenal,becoming the official airline of the team. BMI receives use of the franchise’s logo and name on marketingmaterials, and will have a presence at Arsenal’s Highbury stadium. The deal also gives BMI access to Arsenal’sfan database, with the “opportunity to offer flight promotions for fanstraveling to matches” (MEDIAWEEK.co.uk,8/25).
ESPN PRESIDENT GEORGE BODENHEIMER DISCUSSESSIZE OF NETWORK
Today in a conference call onthe net’s 25th anniversary, ESPN/ABC Sports President George Bodenheimer said of whether ESPNhas become bigger than the sports it covers, “I’m not sure I even know whatthat means. We are just ... a collection of media entities here thatoperate under one umbrella trying to entertain fans and show sports. Idon’t even know how to react to that. I think the fans like what we doand we’re in business to serve them. I just don’t know how to react tothat” (THE DAILY).
BUZZER BEATERS
Sporting News this weekfeatures USC QB Matt Leinart on itsnational cover, and a Hockey World Cup preview for select northern markets.
Sports Illustrated this weekfeatures the U.S.women’s softball team showcasing their Gold Medals, with the header “The RealDream Team.”
| | |
| Sporting News | Sports Illustrated |
MLBAM today announced that ithas sold a record nine million tickets online for the ’04 season. Last year, 7.6 million tickets were soldthrough MLB.com (MLBAM).
The Orioles today signedaffiliation extensions through ’06 with the Triple-A IL Ottawa Lynx, Double-A Eastern LeagueBowie Baysox, Single-A Carolina League Frederick Keys and Single-A SouthAtlantic League Delmarva Shorebirds (Orioles).
The CHL AustinIce Bats today announced an affiliation agreement with the Wild. The agreementwill make the Ice Bats the official CHL affiliate of the Wild (Ice Bats).
A LIGHTER BUZZ
SPORTSILLUSTRATED notes that the Kenyan government will award Olympic Gold Medalistsflat-screen TVs, Silver Medalists home theater systems and Bronze Medalistswashing machines (SPORTS ILLUSTRATED,8/30 issue).
TONIGHT’S EVENTS
ESPN will host a private HDscreening of “SportsCentury: Andy Roddick” at 7:00pm ET at Post Works inN.Y. Roddick will attend, and ESPN Classic Exec Producer John Dahl and Coordinating Producer Dan Weinberg will participate inQ&As.
CHANNEL SURFING
NBC’s “Nightly News” willprofile the newest U.S.track stars at 6:30pm ET.
ESPN will air Yankees-Indians at 7:00pm ET andOrioles-A’s at 10:00pm.
ESPN Classic’s“SportsCentury” will profile Jeff Gordonat 8:00pm ET.
Travel Channel will air WPT’s“Commerce Casino’s L.A. Poker Classic” at 9:00pm ET.
Gold Medalist Paul Hamm will appear on CBS’ “Late Show”at 11:35pm ET.
IRL driver Scott Dixon will appear on ABC’s “JimmyKimmel Live” at 12:05am ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headlineguests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Josh Hartnett |
| “The Late Late Show” | Carl Reiner |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Aaron Eckhart |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
KJR-AM host David Lockewrites in the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, “Sports fans' passion for theOlympics is an amazingphenomenon that defies logic. We haven't followed the athletes throughtheir journey to Greece.More often than not, we are seeing these people for the first time. Most of thesports are not our favorites and moreover, we often know very little about thescoring or the technique. … If we don't know the sport and aren't connected tothe athletes, it should never work. Instead, we are engrossed for nearly threeweeks” (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER).
Sporting News’ Kara Yoriowrites, “End NHL participation in the Olympics. The World Cup should be this league's Olympics. … The World Cup, a jointventure between the NHL and the NHL Players' Association, can be for the cash and exposure and hockey.It can be a showcase event. It can help bring the NHL the internationalpresence it wants by alternating having the semifinals and final in NorthAmerica and Europe every four years” (FoxSports.com).
See The Daily Insider’s Articles ofInterest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Mindbenders: The letters of the alphabet have been split into twogroups. In which group would you put the letter Z?
1. AEFHIJLPRSUVW
2. BCDGKMNOQTXY
THE DAILYSTAT: OLYMPICS SWEEPS PRIMETIME NIELSEN RATINGS
The following lists the finalNielsen ratings for the top ten broadcast primetime shows for the week of August16-22 (TV.YAHOO.com, 8/25).
| RK | SHOW | NET | DAY | RAT/SHR | HHs (IN MILLIONS) |
| 1) | Athens Olympics | NBC | Thu | 19.3/32 | 20.9 |
| 2) | Athens Olympics | NBC | Tue | 18.3/30 | 19.8 |
| 3) | Athens Olympics | NBC | Wed | 17.3/29 | 18.7 |
| 4) | Athens Olympics | NBC | Mon | 16.6/27 | 18.0 |
| 5) | Athens Olympics | NBC | Sun | 15.8/28 | 17.1 |
| 6) | Athens Olympics | NBC | Fri | 14.4/27 | 15.6 |
| 7) | Athens Olympics | NBC | Sat | 13.6/26 | 14.7 |
| 8) | CSI | CBS | Thu | 7.6/12 | 8.3 |
| 9) | Without A Trace | CBS | Thu | 6.5/10 | 7.0 |
| 10) | CSI: Miami | CBS | Mon | 6.4/10 | 6.9 |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
Theletters in group one have Morse codes that start with a dot. The letters ingroup 2 start with a dash. Z belongs ingroup 2because its Morse code is "--.."
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