ABC Sports/ESPN President Steve Bornstein is
interviewed by Steve Donohue in ELECTRONIC MEDIA as part of
its special "Sports on TV" section. Bornstein, on ESPN
being seen "as the villain of the cable industry," and its
rate hikes potentially causing new cable regulations: "It's
ridiculous to say any one contract or any one rate increase
would drive re-regulation of our industry. No one with an
ounce of common sense would buy that." Bornstein, on some
reports of ESPN moving to a sports tier from basic cable: "I
have seen no demands for a la carte." Bornstein, on whether
he regrets not forming RSNs before Fox did: "ESPN has
considered for over 10 years the regional business, and we
never found an opportunity that made any sense for us. The
answer is no, I don't regret it." Bornstein, on whether
ESPN will try to launch another RSN after dropping plans for
ESPN West: "Only where it makes sense. To me that business
is highly local; it's nice to get a big market share in the
local market. To the degree that can make sense in our
business, that would be great, but we're not preoccupied by
it and never have been. My only frustration is that some of
the people in your [journalism] business believe that this
has come about in the last two years. I've been competing
with these guys forever" (ELECTRONIC MEDIA, 8/24 issue).
SUPPLY AND DEMAND: EM's Lee Hall looks at all-sports
news channels under the header "Sports News Channels Off To
Slow Start." Hall, on CNN/SI and ESPNEWS: "Despite
marketing muscle and name recognition, they just can't get
on the screen." CNN/SI is available in "only about" 12
million households, about half of which is satellite, while
ESPNEWS has a distribution of 8.5 million, "mostly" via
satellite. Hall writes that in an industry "struggling with
skyrocketing sports rights, the channels can survive because
their costs are low" (ELECTRONIC MEDIA, 8/24 issue).
