IBM and Sears completed a deal to sell Prodigy to a group of
the online service's managers backed by American and Mexican
investors (Mult., 5/13)....The CHICAGO TRIBUNE's Tim Jones
examined the "boom" in sports on TV (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/12)....AD
AGE reports the pace in TV's advance sales season is "a lot less
frenzied than last year" (AD AGE ONLINE, 5/13)....ABC Sports
spokesperson Mark Mandel, on Grindstone's injury, which will
deprive the network of a Triple Crown run: "It's been a hard-
luck story in horse racing for the last few years" (ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION, 5/11)....Former Celtics President Red Auerbach will
do an "Andy Rooney-type routine" on the next "Real Sports" on HBO
when he discusses things he hates about pro sports today (BOSTON
GLOBE, 5/10).... Following the ValuJet crash, TBS Exec Producer
Glenn Diamond pulled all Delta ads from Saturday night's Braves
game. The move is "protocol" for airlines after a crash (ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION, 5/12)....As expected, ABC and the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway announced an extension of their TV deal --
covering the Indy 500, the IRL and the Brickyard 400 -- through
'99 (IMS)....In MI, at the site of the rival U.S. 500, IndyCar
President Andrew Craig noted that Indy will have "national reach"
on ABC that they won't have with ESPN. Craig did not rule out
putting the race on a broadcast network next year (CHICAGO
TRIBUNE, 5/12)....In Atlanta, Prentis Rogers notes NBC managed to
"slip in a couple of [Olympic] venue shots" while covering the
Hawks-Magic game yesterday (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 5/13)....The
Pro Beach Soccer Tour has signed a contract with ABC Sports to
air the Tour's opening event on "Wide World" (Pro Beach
Soccer)....TNT analyst Danny Ainge has had contact from teams
about jobs next year, but he said he "prefers to stay with TV for
now" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/12).
CLARIFICATION: An addition to Friday's ESPN Chilton numbers
for the first place people check for sports news: 6.2% of female
fans cited ESPN/ESPN2, putting it fourth behind local paper,
network TV and local TV.
