Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin acknowledged yesterday that his
company has abandoned efforts to acquire a percentage of NBC.
Levin emphasized that Time Warner is racing to meet the planned
launch of its own broadcast net in January (WALL STREET JOURNAL,
10/21)....For the first time since 1980, AFC ratings are ahead of
the NFC's after 7 weeks. NBC's AFC coverage is up 23% to 11.7,
Fox's NFC is minus-5% from CBS in '93 to 11.2. College football
ratings continue to climb with ABC up 11% to 6.9, Notre Dame
games up 49% to 5.5 and ESPN up 52% to 3.5 (Rudy Martzke, USA
TODAY, 10/21)....ITT Corp. said yesterday that it has asked two
investment banks to look into selling all or part of its hotel
franchising business, about 220 of its 395 Sheraton hotels
worldwide (N.Y. TIMES, 10/21)....In Miami, CBS' Harlequin romance
movies have received higher ratings than Fox's NFL coverage the
past two Sundays (MIAMI HERALD, 10/21).... SportsChannel New
England will air delayed coverage of the Japanese Baseball
Championship Series between the Yomiuri Giants and the Seibu
Lions (HARTFORD COURANT, 10/21)....ESPN SportsCenter analyst
Chris Meyers has been offered Roy Firestone's host job on ESPN's
"Up Close" (MIAMI HERALD, 10/21)....ESPN ran "Super Dogs! Super
Jocks!" last night, a SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY "must see"....TNT
will show "A Salute to Michael Jordan" on November 1 (TNT,
10/20).
