ESPN is profiled in the BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE by Michael
Holley. The network, which took in $400M in ad revenue last
year, is "now a part of the worldwide sports culture. The
temptation is to say it is a symbol for an American nothing-to-
everything evolution. But this ain't America's animal. It's the
world's." Holley writes ESPN is "making money. It is hip. It
has the best studio shows ... Its production and equipment are
top notch. People like it. So, here's a frightening thought:
ESPN has not peaked." ESPN's Managing Editor John Walsh said
with the "expanding leagues, more money and difficult concepts to
understand," it is getting "more and more challenging to help a
viewer understand the world of sports in 1995." Although ESPN
will have competition from the News Corp./TCI sports venture,
Hollwey writes that ESPN was "doing fine without competition and
without Disney" -- now with Dimsey behind them, "it could make
things embarrassing for Murdoch" (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/12).
CROWDED FIELD: CNBC's Jerry Cobb profiled the growing
number of cable sports networks. IMG's Marty Ehrlich said there
"is an extremely skewed marketplace and dedicated viewership for
golf, motor racing, outdoor adventure type programming whereby
that can stand on itself and support itself ultimately in a
profitable mode." Michael Wolf, of Booz, Allen & Hamilton:
"Given the amount of money that these start-ups are going to have
to pay for rights it's going to take a long time for them to be
profitable. We're probably talking about a 3-5 year time
horizon. And by the way, it's possible some of them will never
be profitable." Cobb notes, "Deep pockets may make the
difference between winners and losers" ("Sports View," CNBC,
11/10).
BABE-WATCH: Nanci Donnellan, ESPN Radio's "The Fabulous
Sports Babe," is now heard on more than 150 stations and in 40 of
the Top 50 U.S. markets, according to Leonard Shapiro of the
WASHINGTON POST. Her salary, close to $400,000, makes her one of
ESPN's top paid personalities. But that and The Babe's status
"apparently also have led to some unhappy campers" at ESPN
(WASHINGTON POST, 11/11).
