Time Warner chair Gerald Levin says the company's efforts to
purchase a minority stake in NBC are "on the back burner" and
that any major investments will "broaden our cable footprint"
(NEW YORK TIMES, 10/22)....Liberty Sports has created a new sales
department called Liberty Sports Ad Sales.  Former Prime Ticket
Senior VP Mike Kincaid is president, and there is speculation he
will consolidate advertising efforts (INSIDE MEDIA, 10/19
issue)....Despite the recent addition of five weekends to the
"NFL Sunday Ticket" pay-per-view package, NFL Enterprises Sales
and Marketing VP Tola Murphy Baran says "it would be bad
politics, bad business, bad economics and just plain dumb for us
to ever take Sunday afternoon football off broadcast television"
(SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 10/23)....WOR-radio is losing money on its 5-
year, $18M N.Y. Giants contract. Bob Raissman reports, if the
Giants' package becomes available after '95, WFAN could be
interested.  WFAN has only one-year remaining in its Jets
contract (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/23). ....DIRECTV announced it will
be the "flagship" sponsor of the Great Eight college basketball
festival (BC, Florida, UcOnn, Duke, Missouri, Purdue, Michigan
and Arizona) presented by ESPN and Raycom.  The event will air
from The Palace in Auburn Hills, MI, on November 29-30 and a
portion of the proceeds will go to Challenging Athletic Minds for
Personal Success -- CHAMPS (DIRECTV, 10/19)....Sportstel's
international sports and TV convention in Monte Carlo last week
awarded the "Golden Podium" award to NFL Films for cinematography
in a '91 Giants-Bucs game (NFL)....

     "NBC, ABC and CBS will soon begin a major push top sell
commercial time for their respective telecasts of the 1995 PGA
Tour, and all indications point to a robust golf marketplace for
the Big Three," according to a report in the latest issue of
INSIDE MEDIA.  A surge in spending from equipment and apparel
manufacturers "will again help drive the market," with equipment
sponsors likely to spend even more in '95 than they did in '94.
But sports media buyers also say the nets expect a "heavy
infusion of bucks" from computer companies.  With demand so
strong, some ad execs expect network rates to open 10-20% higher
than last year.  Notes one longtime sports media buyer:  "Not bad
for a f---ing three-rated sport."  Kathleen Brookbanks, Exec
Media Dir for Ogilvy & Mather/Chicago, which buys for Wilson
Golf, notes the golf market usually moves in mid-November, but
says, "NBC is trying to make the market move earlier than usual."
Whether CBS follows NBC's pace "remains to be seen."  CBS VP of
Sports Sales Michael Guariglia expects a strong '95, but adds:
"We haven't entered the marketplace yet" (Langdon Brockington,
INSIDE MEDIA, 10/19-11/1 issue).