BRIAN ROBERTS EYEING PARTNER ON PHILLY SPORTS NETWORK

          Comcast "is exploring finding a partner for the
     regional sports network it plans to start in the fall,"
     according to Andrew Collier of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. 
     Comcast President Brian Roberts said that he has been
     speaking with three cable programmers, ESPN, Fox/Liberty,
     and CNN "about joining forces."  Roberts "characterized the
     talks as casual and said they would most likely lead to a
     cooperative venture and not the sale of Comcast's sports
     cable franchises to one of the other cable programmers." 
     Collier writes that merging the Comcast network with a
     competitor would "eliminate the growing competition in the
     region for cable sports programming," and that the "most
     likely candidate" is Fox/Liberty (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 6/26).