Fox Sports has announced an agreement with the Int'l Skating
Union to broadcast five events of the new Skate International
Champions Series. Fox will carry four of the five Series events
(Canada, November 5; France, November 23; Germany, November 26;
Japan, December 1), as well as the Skate International Final from
Paris during prime time on Saturday, February 24. Skaters in the
Series include Michelle Kwan, Nicole Bobek, Surya Bonaly, Scott
Davis, Todd Eldridge, and Elvis Stojko (Fox Sports)....HBO's
"Real Sports" returns October 31, with features on college
football players recruited under false pretenses, Cowboys Owner
Jerry Jones and Nike (HBO)....Returning to MSG after 10 years,
new Exec VP Joe Cohen will run MSG Network, handle the arena's
sponsorship sales and new business development (which could
include an Arena Football franchise), as well as help develop
NYC-owned Channel 31 into a superstation built around MSG events
(N.Y. TIMES, 9/27)....USA Network's coverage of the Ryder Cup
scored a 1.5 Nielsen rating, up 36% from the 1.1 received in '93
(USA Network).... SportsTicker has expanded its relationship with
Data Broadcasting Corp. by entering into a long-term agreement to
provide sports news info to DBC's services, which include
SporTrax and SportSignal (SportsTicker)....SET President Mac
Lipscomb would not make any projections for this weekend's Shaq-
Hakeem PPV match-up, but did say they expect to exceed the 50,000
buys attained by a similar Dr. J-Kareem one-on-one bout. Bill
Walton, who will serve as one of the announcers, believes such
events should be come off-season "fixtures." Walton: "You don't
think Michael Jordan isn't sitting at home thinking, 'Why can't I
be part of this?'" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 9/27)....Phil Mushnick
sees NBC's "Made in America, played in America" NFL promos as a
not-so-veiled shot at Fox's Australian ownership (N.Y. POST,
9/27). ....ABC's Monday Night Lions-49ers game drew a 19.1, which
could make the top 5 for the week (WASHINGTON POST, 9/27).
....NBC will assign MLB playoff games next week to markets based
on which league their teams play in. NBC's Ed Markey claims that
only 10% of NBC's 215 affiliates "will be in sort of a gray area"
(USA TODAY, 9/27).
