TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET edition of FSN's
"Fox Sports News" led with the Patriots naming Bill
Belichick as their new head coach, followed by Giants head
coach Jim Fassel signing a one-year contract extension. FSN
reported on the Pete Sampras-Andre Agassi Australian Open
semifinal match at 18:18 into the broadcast. The 11:00pm ET
edition of ESPN's "SportsCenter" led with an update on the
Univ. of WA-Stanford Univ. men's college basketball game,
followed by T'Wolves-Spurs. "SportsCenter" reported on the
Sampras-Agassi match at 28:36. CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight"
did not air last night due to commentary on President
Clinton's State of the Union address (THE DAILY).
GO FIGURE: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Bruce Orwall
writes that Disney said that it will "recast its important"
Go.com portal. The company is "narrowing the focus" of the
portal to "concentrate on entertainment and leisure."
Analysts "quickly applauded the move" (WALL STREET JOURNAL,
1/28). In N.Y., Justin Dini writes that Disney "began its
move to recast itself when" it named former ABC Sports/ESPN
President Steven Bornstein as Chair of Go.com last year, and
the company will now seek to "highlight Disney's strong
positions in entertainment, via Disney.com and ABC.com, and
sports, via ESPN.com." Dini writes "the question for Go.com
now is whether focusing on entertainment and sports will
work." Schroder & Co. analyst Arthur Newman: "Go.com is a
mediocre general portal but a fantastic entertainment and
sports portal" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/28). Meanwhile, the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated a preliminary
injunction that forces Disney to pull Go.com's green and
yellow traffic light logo from the Web, TV spots and other
promo materials until after a March trial (VARIETY, 1/28).
