RATINGS: HBO's "Don King: Only In America" earned a
9.9/15 rating last Saturday, beating all broadcast networks
from 8:00-10:00pm ET (N.Y. POST, 11/19)....USA TODAY's
Michael Hiestand reports that Tiger Woods' TV "impact
continues," as TBS' golf "Grand Slam" on Monday night
received a 1.3 overnight rating, up 18% from '96 (USA TODAY,
11/19)....SRI's SMART TV ratings service was profiled by
Valerie Block in this week's CRAIN'S N.Y. BUSINESS. Block:
"While hardly a threat yet, the budding service is gaining
credibility. ... SMART is already forcing Nielsen, which
annually takes in $350 million for its services, to be more
responsive." Block writes that SMART "will need to raise"
more than $100M, and that observers "doubt that money will
ever materialize" (CRAIN'S N.Y. BUSINESS, 11/17 issue).
WEB: Wall Street Sports, at www.wallstreetsports.com,
was profiled in today's WALL STREET JOURNAL. More than
17,000 people have joined the game where "investors" can buy
and sell shares of athletes (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/19).
...InterZine Productions launched The Mountain Club -- the
World Wide Web's first year-round membership program for
skiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers and other mountain
sports enthusiasts. The membership is accessible via
InterZine's sports-specific sites. InterZine publishes THE
SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY (InterZine)....UPS has launched its
World Wide Web site dedicated to the company's Olympic
sponsorship. The site is www.ups.com/olympics/ (UPS).
