TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET edition of FSN's
"Fox Sports News" and the 11:00pm ET editions of CNN/SI's
"Sports Tonight" and ESPN's "SportsCenter" all led with Dan
Marino announcing his retirement from the NFL. "Fox Sports
News" and "Sports Tonight" both followed Marino with Lakers-
Nuggets. The first men's college basketball report on "Fox
Sports News," at 9:17 into the broadcast, was an update on
the health of Univ. of AZ C Loren Woods, while the first
college basketball report on "Sports Tonight," at 11:43, was
Univ. of Cincinnati C Kenyon Martin being named the Naismith
Player of the Year. "SportsCenter" followed Marino with the
Vikings offering Jeff George a one-year contract. The first
men's college basketball report, at 13:04, was the Univ. of
NE firing men's basketball coach Danny Nee (THE DAILY).
NHL RULES! ESPN presents its second "NHL Rules!"
telecast of the season for tonight's Mighty Ducks-Avalanche
game at 8:00pm ET. Between-period player interviews will
take place live online on ESPN.com (Minneapolis STAR
TRIBUNE, 3/14)....In Denver, Sam Adams reports that the
Avalanche-Oilers game on Friday night earned a season-best
8.2 local rating for KTVD-UPN (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 3/14).
NOTES: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir offers possible
choices to fill ABC's "MNF" booth, including FSN's Jim Rome.
Sandomir writes that Rome "could succeed [Howard] Cosell as,
simultaneously, the most-hated and most-liked sportscaster
in America if given the 'Monday Night' platform. Pull Paul
Maguire off ESPN's Sunday night telecasts and the team is
complete" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/14)....In N.Y., Neal Travis reports
that with "golf enjoying its greatest popularity ever," the
N.Y. Times Magazine Group "couldn't have picked a better
time to debut its Golf Digest Woman." The first issue is
out this week with Fox News Channel's Paula Zahn on the
cover (N.Y. POST, 3/14)....CTV's Board of Dirs accepted a
"sweetened takeover offer" from BCE Inc. yesterday, putting
the value of the broadcast network at US$1.61B. The CTV
Board said that the BCE bid "was fair and would be
recommended to its shareholders" (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 3/14).
