RATINGS: Wayne Gretzky's NHL finale on Sunday against
the Penguins earned a 3.09 rating on MSG, or 210,506 TV HHs
in the N.Y. arena (THE DAILY). The NHL game produced a
combined N.Y.-area viewership of 496,633 TV HHs on MSG and
WNYW-Fox, which joined the game in progress after the
Yankees-Tigers was completed. The Yankees-Tigers produced a
combined viewership of 449,627 TV HHs (N.Y. TIMES, 4/20). In
Detroit, Sunday's Yankees-Tigers game earned a 4.9 Nielsen
rating on Fox Sports Detroit, making it the most-watched
Tigers telecast in FSD's two seasons carrying the team,
surpassing the previous high of 4.4, set in '98 (FSD)....The
Devil Rays-Blue Jays game, going up against Wayne Gretzky's
finale in Canada last Thursday, pulled in 317,000 viewers on
TSN, compared to CTV SportsNet's 304,000 viewers for the
Rangers-Senators game (GLOBE & MAIL, 4/21)....ESPN's first-
day coverage of the '99 NFL Draft earned a 3.7 cable rating
and was seen in 2.794 million homes, making it the most-
watched NFL Draft telecast in history. ESPN's two-day
coverage was up 8% over the previous high of 2.579 million
homes in '93 (NFL)....HBO earned a 10.6 universe rating for
Saturday's Angel Manfredy-Ivan Robinson fight, making it the
highest-rated bout for its "Boxing After Dark" series (HBO).
NOTES: CBS MARKETWATCH's John Thorsberg wrote on the
cost of domain names, as "SuperBowlSunday.org" is being sold
for $8M, but "a little less pricey" is "SuperBowl2000.com,"
available for $900,000. The asking price for Sport.net is
$100,000 (CBS MarketWatch, 4/18). ...Turner Studios will
open a $37M all-digital production studio, to be the largest
in the east, next January. It will be equipped with $15M in
technology and provide production studio space for Turner
Sports (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 4/21).
