TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET edition of FSN's
"Fox Sport News" and the 11:00pm ET editions of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" and CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight" all led with
Hawks-Spurs and Spurs F Sean Elliott's return to the
starting lineup after his kidney transplant. The first
college basketball report on "Fox Sports News," at 5:03 into
the broadcast, was the Univ. of AL's Shea Cotton withdrawing
from classes. The first college basketball report on
"Sports Tonight," at 4:48, was its report on allegations of
abuse by IN Univ. men's basketball coach Bobby Knight. The
first college basketball report on "SportsCenter," at 26:16,
was the Wake Forest Univ.-Vanderbilt Univ. men's college
basketball NIT First Round game (THE DAILY).
CNN/SI'S REPORT: CNN/SI heavily promoted its interview
of former IU players claiming that Knight verbally, mentally
and physically abused them. The report is running on
CNN/SI, "Sports Tonight" and will air on tonight's edition
of CNN's "Newsstand" (CNN/SI). In Indianapolis, Walton &
Aamidor writes that it took CNN/SI "about a year to produce"
the story (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 3/15). FSN's Keith Olbermann
cited IU's SID, who said the timing of the report was
"calculated" and meant to embarrass Knight before the eve of
the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Olbermann: "As a
commentator who has now bashed Knight annually for 21
seasons, it's tough to say this, but this report has cheap
shot written all over it" ("Fox Sports News," 3/14)
NOTES: The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Langdon Brockinton
reports that Turner Sports "has begun offering sponsorship
packages for its coverage of Wimbledon this summer and the
2000 Presidents Cup later this year." Ad agency execs say
that Turner's asking price for "top-tier Wimbledon
sponsorships," which include two 30-second commercial spots
an hour, is nearly $900,000. For packages that include one
30-second spot an hour, the price is reportedly almost
$550,000. For the Presidents Cup, agency execs said that
Turner "is asking for just less than" $500,000 for packages
that include 30 30-second spots (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL,
3/13 issue)....In Chicago, Ron Rapoport notes that NBC "had
its worst Sunday night in at least 13 years" with last
week's ratings and writes that the NBA, which had primetime
regional action, "is partly responsible." Rapoport writes
that, overall, NBA ratings are down 27% from last season and
31% from the '97-98 season (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/15).
