Dow Jones and ITT "plan to announce next week a January
launch date for their long-awaited business and sports TV
network," according to Angela King of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. The
new WBIS+ is expected to present national business news in the
day and sports events and entertainment shows at night (N.Y.
DAILY NEWS, 9/26). The network is now home to the Classic Sports
Network, which is profiled by NEWSDAY's Steve Zipay. Since July
1, when WBIS+ began showing CSN, "more and more fans have been
discovering the fledgling network," and "amazingly, CSN's praises
have been spread largely by word of mouth" (NEWSDAY, 9/26).
FAN FRIENDLY: With new sports networks, including ESPNEWS,
CNN/SI and Fox Sports Net, set to debut by the end of the year,
the "biggest question is: Who'll make the cut?," according to
Alan Breznick of CABLE WORLD. John Mansell, Senior Media Sports
Analyst at Paul Kagan Associates, said he is "not sure all are
going to survive and flourish ... [but] most of these networks
are fairly low-cost spinoffs. these sports services are not going
to have huge programming costs" (CABLE WORLD, 9/23 issue).
