Web "experts agree" that Viacom's proposed purchase of
CBS "has the potential" of lifting SportsLine USA "even
higher," according to Mark Hyman of BUSINESS WEEK. A recent
report by NetRatings showed that "free-spending Gen Xers"
(ages 25 to 34) account for 34% of ESPN.com's audience,
compared with 22% for SportsLine. If the Viacom-CBS deal
"goes through, those numbers could change quickly." Jupiter
Communications' Patrick Keane: "If you can use MTV, VH1 and
Nickelodeon to drive traffic not just to CBS programs but to
its Internet properties, that could be very powerful." But
ESPN Internet Group Senior VP Steve Zales says, "Those
audiences are tuning in for music and for categories of
entertainment totally unrelated to sports. That's the
advantage we have. We're 100% targeted to a sports
audience." SportsLine USA CEO Mike Levy says that it's "too
soon to speculate about when -- or if -- SportsLine plugs
would pop up on MTV or Nickelodeon" (BW, 9/27).
MURDOCH'S $$ ON FOXSPORTS.COM: News Corp. Chair & CEO
Rupert Murdoch, on the company's recent spending: "It
concerns me that we're spending a lot of money in developing
things like foxsports.com, foxnews.com [and] similar sites
... because we're an established company that's judged on
its earnings. And when we get into all these new things ...
they take money to develop them. ... The market tends to
punish you for using your earnings and your mature
businesses to develop new businesses" (CNNfn, 9/20).
