TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET edition of FSN's
"Fox Sports News," and the 11:00pm ET editions of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" and CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight" all led with
Univ. of NC-Stanford Univ. NCAA men's tournament game,
followed by Univ. of Tulsa-Univ. of Cincinnati. The 60-
minute broadcasts of "Fox Sports News" and "SportsCenter"
devoted 16:46 and 14:36 to college basketball coverage,
respectively, while the 30-minute broadcast of "Sports
Tonight" had 14:32 of college basketball action (THE DAILY).
NHL: In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich reviewed ABC's NHL
coverage on Saturday: "ABC showed ... the game is indeed the
thing. ... Maybe ABC has realized you can't teach people
about hockey in the course of a 60-minute game and you can't
win new fans with flash and trash. All it needs now is good
hockey to win over new viewers" (TORONTO STAR, 3/20).
..."HNIC" Exec Producer John Shannon, asked whether the
CBC's relationship with the NHL prevents it from being
"tougher" on issues facing the league: "On some issues
viewers probably want a better understanding, a harder edge.
But then you run the risk of when you ask the hard question
of never getting that person to come back on. If you don't
get access to the players, then you're no better off than
the guy who doesn't own the rights." Zelkovich: "Networks
are in business to make money and knocking the product is
plain and simple bad business" (TORONTO STAR, 3/18).
