CBS Corp. announced plans to acquire its Dallas affil,
KTVT, for $485M in stock, from Gaylord Entertainment. CBS
Corp. will also increase its Internet investment by taking a
35% stake in Hollywood.com, an online entertainment site,
and a 50% stake in storeRunner.com, an operator of an online
shopping mall (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/13)....ESPN Now and
ESPN Extra will be the names of two previously announced
channels to be featured on the new HITS sports transponder.
The service will offer ESPN's GamePlan college football
package, Full Court college basketball package and MLS/ESPN
Shootout (ESPN). DAILY VARIETY's John Dempsey notes the 24-
hour cable channels are part of the deal with HITS to
"create an eight-channel digital tier of sports
programming." HITS will "use the sports tier to tempt cable
subscribers to buy the new digital boxes that will add
dozens of extra channels" (DAILY VARIETY, 4/13)....Jazz F
Karl Malone lifted his "ban" against talking to NBC, as he
conducted two separate interviews with NBC Sports over the
weekend for the team's first game back on the network on
Sunday, despite "saying last month that he'd never speak to
them again" (Loren Jorgensen, DESERET NEWS, 4/12).
