Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s bid for CBS Inc. "is almost a
done deal," according to sources cited Sunday by REUTERS. The
remaining hurdle is now to determine "how best to prevent other
CBS suitors from crashing their engagement." An announcement is
expected some time this week (Sue Ziedler, REUTERS/DAILY VARIETY,
7/31).
ALL'S LEGAL IN MURDOCH-LAND: The FCC exempted Fox from
current foreign ownership limits and allowed the network to renew
its TV station licenses. News Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch:
"Despite the best efforts of our commercial adversaries and
political enemies, our good name has been restored" (Deborah
Orin, N.Y. POST, 7/29). The FCC decided that Fox served the
"public interest." FCC Commissioner Andrew Barrett: "The fact
is for some couch potatoes it brought something to the table"
(N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/29). The FINANCIAL TIMES examines Murdoch's
battle over global sports rights. Sports is described as "one of
the few genres of programming that television audiences have
shown they will pay to watch" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 7/29-30).
POST-SUPER BOWL "FRIENDS" PARTY: On July 26, NBC put up for
sale -- and within a few hours had virtually sold out -- a
special one-hour episode of "Friends" to be aired after the Super
Bowl. The spots are believed to have sold for about $600,000
each, with only one of 14 total units available as of last week
(AD AGE ONLINE, 7/31).
