Pavel Bure's debut with the Panthers led to a jump in
ratings for SportsChannel FL, as Wednesday's Panthers-Isles
game drew a 1.4 Nielsen rating, while Thursday's Panthers-
Rangers drew a 1.5 Nielsen rating. Ratings for the team's
first half of the season have averaged a 1.1 (SportsChannel
FL)....In N.Y., Adam Buckman reviews ESPN's "SportsCentury"
segment on O.J. Simpson and writes that producers "did an
admirable job packing so much" into Friday's show (N.Y.
POST, 1/27)....In Sacramento, John Schumacher examined the
"success story" of The Golf Channel, which has doubled its
viewership reach from '97 to now reach 21 million homes. He
wrote The Golf Channel "appears to know its audience" and
has "quieted" skeptics by "giving viewers just what they
want" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 1/26)....DAILY VARIETY's Richard Katz
reported that Statistical Research Inc. (SRI), a Nielsen
competitor, has begun to build its Smart national TV ratings
system "without having raised any" of the $100M needed to
finance the venture. SRI will also close its Philadelphia
lab for a "smaller and less expensive" test panel of 50
households in NJ (DAILY VARIETY, 1/26)....SportsTicker will
provide sports scores, schedules, game recaps and other
information to the e-commerce ticket site Tickets.com,
located at www.tickets.com (SportsTicker)....USA Today and
Justballs! have reached agreement where USATODAY.com will
promote Justballs! storefront and product line (THE DAILY).
