News from the interactive TV market.  AT&T and Zenith
Electronics along with Sun Microsystems and Thomas Consumer
Electronics SA are "promising to transform the passive act of
watching television."  It could give consumers instant access to
news headlines, weather, traffic reports, etc.  Sun Microsystems
and Thomas Consumer Electronics SA introduced Open TV, a
operating environment for interactive television through a
decoder box.  AT&T will have the "AT&T Information Center" that
has a special device to connect peoples TV sets to their
telephone outlets (Washington Post, 1/6)....Nintendo will no
longer "actively" market its original Nintendo Entertainment
System (USA TODAY, 1/6).

     The work stoppage in the NHL has already "done severe
damage" to the league's "long-coveted, five-year, $155M national
TV deal with Fox."  Whether the season starts at all, the league
has "dug itself a deep hole, taking a huge step backward in its
quest to maximize desperately needed national TV exposure,"
according to Bob Raissman in this morning's N.Y. DAILY NEWS.
Some Fox affiliates are taking a "wait-and-see" approach. Lou
Abitablio, General Sales Manager of NYC's WNYW-TV:  "If we have
games in April, we still have time to get things together.  But
we haven't gone out on the street to sell advertising for hockey.
We can't until we know what we are selling."  The NHL "could have
counted on mega-doses of hype on Fox nightly prime-time sked and
would have gotten a major shot on the network's NFL telecasts.
Now even if the Puck Heads vote to end the lockout, the NFL
window is closed."  So don't expect a big hockey push during the
NFL Championship game on Fox, as Tracy Doglin, Exec VP/Marketing
for Fox Sports says:  "We haven't shot a thing.  There are no
promos sitting in my vault ready to come out during the NFC
Championship Game."  But while Dolgin admits the lost promotional
opportunities, he "is still confident of Fox's ability to sell
the game, even on short notice."  Dolgin: "We bought hockey for
the future. ... Hockey is not dead. Our marketing plan, all the
things we need to do to make hockey the sports of the 90's is
still the same" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 1/6).

     Time Warner is close to an agreement with Cablevision
Industries, which controls cable systems of about 1.3M
subscribers.  The company could fetch between $2.5 and $3B.
Sources close to the deal said there are still hurdles to
overcome, including how Time Warner would finance the deal. If
Time Warner completes the deal, it would service over 10M cable
subscribers, making it a close second to TCI, Inc., the largest
U.S. cable operator (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/6).