TV MONITOR: Last night's 11:00pm ET edition of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" led with Red Sox-Orioles followed by Indians-
Blue Jays. CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight" led with Indians-Blue
Jays followed by Red Sox-Orioles. FSN's "Fox Sports News
Primetime" (Fox Sports Net South) led with Marlins-Mets
followed by Expos-Braves (THE DAILY).
FINAL NHL NUMBERS: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir reports
that Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals pulled a 3.51 rating
for ESPN and "helped the cable network to a 3.09 average"
rating for three Stanley Cup Finals games, up 17% over last
year's broadcasts (N.Y. TIMES, 6/23)....In Toronto, William
Houston writes the CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada" averaged
1.898 million viewers for Game Six of the Stanley Cup
Finals, up 37% from '98. "HNIC"'s cumulative for the Finals
was 1.616 million viewers, up 49% (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/23).
INTERNET NEWS: CABLE WORLD's Alan Breznick cites a
Media Metrix report that shows the "typical ESPN.com user
now clicks onto 35 pages a month on the sites and spends
about 42 minutes on the site each time." ESPN Internet
Ventures GM Steve Zales: "We've seen some very good numbers.
People come back and back and back" (CABLE WORLD, 6/21
issue)....BROADCASTING & CABLE lists foxsports.com as it's
Site Of The Week and writes that the site is averaging 60
million page views monthly. NBA Draft coverage on the site
"was a big draw" and video clips "continue to be among [the]
most popular features on the site" (BROADCASTING & CABLE,
6/21 issue)....In Toronto, Josh Rubin writes "the hardest
battle for women's soccer may well be on the Internet," as
"some popular soccer Web sites have all but ignored" the
Women's World Cup. Rubin cites the British-based Soccernet
site as an example, which doesn't feature a "single mention
of this year's tournament" (TORONTO STAR, 6/23)
HILL SPEAKS OUT: Fox Sports Group President David Hill
tells USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke that "he's not interested in
ABC's Triple Crown, which will be negotiated in August."
But Hill is interested in Wimbledon TV rights, with NBC
beginning renewal talks with the All England Club. Hill, on
ABC obtaining the NHL rights from Fox: "We didn't lose the
NHL. We gave it away." Hill added that he is "not
interested" in hiring NBC's Dick Enberg (USA TODAY, 6/23).
X GAMES: ESPN will televise over 13 original hours of X
Games programming to more than 180 countries and territories
worldwide via its int'l networks and syndication agreements.
The X Games start Friday (ESPN Int'l). In a USA TODAY
Sports cover story, Sal Ruibal writes, "Extreme sports have
become so big, so mainstream, they face [a] ... terrible
fate in today's short-attention-span culture: overexposure."
Ruibal notes that "many athletes say they are under pressure
to perform bigger and crazier tricks to get more TV time,
which pleases their sponsors" (USA TODAY, 6/23).
