CBS will follow ESPN and use "First Down," a
computerized line that marks the first-down distance during
NFL games. CBS will use the technology for four playoff
games and three regular-season games. The device, developed
in conjunction with Princeton Video Image, costs $25,000-
$30,000 per game (USA TODAY, 11/10)....Sports Illustrated
has agreed to a two-year deal with Tokyo newspaper Yomiuri
Shimbun, giving the newspaper the right to publish one to
three SI stories a week in an SI-branded section of the
paper. SI has retained the right to sell advertising in
that section (Langdon Brockinton, SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL,
11/9 issue)....In Charlotte, Langston Wertz writes that the
pregame talent for CBS's "NFL Today" -- Jim Nantz, George
Seifert, Marcus Allen and Brent Jones -- seem "stiff and
uncomfortable" with each other, compared with the "know-it-
alls" at ESPN and the "over-the-top revelry" at Fox. Wertz:
"So what's CBS to do? Make changes, man" (CHARLOTTE
OBSERVER, 11/10)....Saturday's UCLA-Oregon St. game on Fox
Sports West earned a 4.5 cable rating, the net's highest
college football rating ever. The game earned a 10 share in
the L.A. market, and peaked with a 7.8 cable rating in the
last hour of the game (FSW)....The Bonham Group President
Dean Bonham will write a weekly column on the business of
sports for the Memphis Commercial Appeal for at least the
next six months. Bonham currently writes a bi-weekly column
on the same subject for the Rocky Mountain News (THE DAILY).
