The new online venture between Paul Allen's Starwave service
and ESPN (see THE DAILY, 3/10), which unveils a new sports
service next month, is looking for sponsors. According to
Charles Waltner of AD AGE, ESPN is asking for up to $1M each for
the six to eight sponsorships for the service. ESPN will
guarantee advertisers a presence on all of ESPN's Online services
-- including its current Prodigy site, a version slated to run on
the developing Microsoft Network, a World Wide Web site and on
AT&T's Ziff-Davis Interchange. Tom Hagopian, VP of ESPN
Enterprises: "It seems more efficient than carving up advertising
into a hundred different ways." Ticketmaster, owned by Allen,
will also have a presence on Starwave, something ESPN "is
anxiously awaiting." Ticketmaster's site "eventually will offer
transaction capabilities" (AD AGE, 3/20 issue).
TECHNO-TRAILBLAZER: With the announcement over the weekend
that he invested $500M for a 20% stake in DreamWorks, Allen, the
owner of the NBA Blazers, is profiled in this morning's L.A.
TIMES and USA TODAY. In L.A., Amy Harmon notes one theory on why
Allen invested in DreamWorks: He was "star-struck and the Dream
Team" of Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen
needed money. But friends and business associates "dismiss as
typical Hollywood conceit and jealous griping the suggestion that
Allen is star-struck." They say that Allen thinks the people who
will drive technology are going to be the people that "make the
content" (L.A. TIMES, 3/21). Allen is also the cover story in
this morning's USA TODAY Money section. Kevin Maney notes that
since '91, Allen has spent about $1B assembling a "promising
empire of 27 small companies aimed at the information highway."
Worth $4B, Allen says he is using his wealth to nurture new
technologies and, perhaps, find the next Microsoft (USA TODAY,
3/21).
