Rupert Murdoch's "football mega-investment has fumbled in
its drive to carry an audience in to Fox' prime-time lineup on
Sunday's."  Ratings are down 13% compared to last season when
there was no football lead-in and two Sunday shows have already
been cancelled.  Murdoch's quest for new affiliates has led to
"viewer confusion," left a trail of "bitter" former Fox affils,
and two "simmering lawsuits."  These troubles, combined with a
17% drop on "advertiser-rich" Thursday, were enough to cost Fox
Network Chief Sandy Grunshow his job (Eric Mink, N.Y. DAILY NEWS,
10/5).
     PEACOCK WATCH:  "Speculation mounted on Wall Street" that GE
was close to selling its retail brokerage operation, Kidder,
Peabody & Co.  A Wall Street source said "the disposition of
Kidder was linked to an effort by GE to sell its NBC television
network" (REUTERS/BOSTON GLOBE, 10/4). ....The Patriots are a
"financial bonanza" for WBZ Channel 4 in Boston.  The team is
attracting huge audiences at a time when "TV sponsor money that
would have gone to baseball and hockey is looking for action and
... political advertising, always sold for a premium, is pouring
in" (Jack Craig, BOSTON GLOBE, 10/4).  After declining ratings,
NBC declined to renew its deal to cover the Heisman Trophy
presentation.  ESPN announced it had reached agreement to cover
it in '95 (Milton Kent, Baltimore SUN, 10/5).
     EASY AS ABC:  ABC won the second straight week of the new
fall season, finishing with a 12.2 rating, .2 points over NBC,
and .5 points over third place CBS (Mult., 10/5).  Bad News --
Monday Night Football continued to be slide, and fell 3% below
last year's average.  In Baltimore, it placed third in its time
slot (Milton Kent, Baltimore SUN, 10/5).
     BOXING'S BACK ON CBS:  CBS Sports is now the only broadcast
net with boxing, and N.Y. TIMES' Richard Sandomir writes they may
have scored a "coup" by "snaring a fighter like Oscar de la
Hoya."  CBS hopes it can "sustain boxing beyond this year" and
that their sponsor Quaker State will return.  In the past,
advertisers have been "reluctant about the image" of boxing.  CBS
Sports Senior VP Rick Gentile: "We're not in this to be minor
leagues. We're optimistic we'll be in boxing for a long time"
(NEW YORK TIMES, 10/5).

     New Pres. Harvey Schiller "is expected to use his contacts
with event organizers" to help secure Ted Turner's position in
sports.  Michael Hiestand of USA TODAY writes of a "very
preliminary" interest in a Winter Goodwill Games, possibly in
'99.  Schiller and Turner also still hope to "secure some
involvement" in the '96 Atlanta Games (USA TODAY, 10/5)....TNT
posted strong ratings for the third quarter as all five NFL on
TNT games ranked among the seven highest-rated basic cable
programs in the quarter.  TNT is averaging an 8.7, its best start
ever (THE DAILY)....Avis has allocated part of its baseball
advertising investment to Prime Network telecasts of the Arizona
Fall League next month.  Eight games will be covered (Jack Craig,
BOSTON GLOBE, 10/4)....N.Y. POST's Phil Mushnick criticizes
SportsChannel New York for selling a half hour of airtime to "a
trio of the country's most notorious scamdicappers" -- those 1-
900 football handicappers (N.Y. POST, 10/4)....CCTV, the national
network of the People's Republic of China, has acquired the ATP
Tour's Tier 1 broadcasting package, which includes the IBM/ATP
Tour World Championship in Frankfurt and the ATP Tour World
Doubles Championship in Indonesia (THE DAILY)....Empire Sports
Network and Greater Rochester Cable launched an agreement that
will bring the Sports Network to Rochester.  Time Warner's
Greater Rochester Cablevision has nearly 200,000 subscribers.
Empire Sports carries the Sabres (THE DAILY)....Time Warner cable
TV systems in New York City announced today that a $1.045M
license fee credit received from Madison Square Garden Network
for canceled Yankees games will be passed on to system customers
as credits on their cable bills during the next several weeks.
For subscribers to SportsChannel, Time Warner's cable systems
previously announced that subscribers would receive the premium
service for free from August 12 through the end of September (THE
DAILY).