TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET edition of FSN's
"Fox Sports News" led with Pacers-Nets, followed by Raptors-
Cavaliers. Last night's 11:00pm ET editions of CNN/SI's
"Sports Tonight" and ESPN's "SportsCenter" both led with
Knicks-Kings, followed by Suns-Heat. The first NHL report
for all three networks was the Rangers firing coach John
Muckler and President & GM Neil Smith. "Fox Sports News"
reported on it at 6:46 into the broadcast, "Sports Tonight"
at 5:57 and "SportsCenter" at 12:05 (THE DAILY).
GOLF RATINGS: NBC's coverage of Monday's completion of
the weather-delayed The Players Championship (TPC) earned a
4.3/16 overnight Nielsen rating (THE DAILY). USA TODAY's
Rudy Martzke reports that the rating was "double the
network's normal rating" for that time (USA TODAY, 3/29).
In Jacksonville, Garry Smits reports that Monday's coverage
earned a 9.9 local rating, "much better" than the normal
morning programming of "Later Today" and "Donny & Marie."
Sunday's TPC coverage earned an 11.3/19 local rating,
"slightly higher" than last year's 10.8 (FLORIDA TIMES-
UNION, 3/29)....GOLF WORLD BUSINESS reports that the PGA
Tour "is demanding" a $2.1M rights fee for the August 28
made-for-TV "Battle at Bighorn" event, featuring Tiger
Woods-Sergio Garcia. The Tour, which received $900,000 for
last year's "Showdown at Sherwood" featuring Woods and David
Duval, "also wants control over the ground rules for the
event" (GOLF WORLD BUSINESS, 3/28).
NOTES: The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Langdon Brockinton
reports that John Hancock Financial Services signed an
advertising deal with NBC for the network's coverage of the
Sydney Games. Sources value the deal at $10-15M
(SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/27 issue)....In K.C., Jeffrey
Flanagan noted that former MLBer Mike Macfarlane debuts as
an ESPN MLB analyst on next Monday's Rockies-Braves game on
ESPN2. Macfarlane will do "about 15 games in all," plus
some studio work starting in May (K.C. STAR, 3/28).
...Tribune Interactive (TI) has launched ChicagoSports.com,
a Web site focused on breaking sports news (See THE DAILY,
3/20) (TI). Meanwhile, CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS' Jeff
Borden examines Tribune's $8B acquisition of Times Mirror
and writes that Tribune execs "are looking at a sale of non-
core assets," such as Times Mirror's magazines. But the
Tribune "isn't ready" to sell the Cubs. Tribune Exec VP
Dennis FitzSimons, on the Cubs: "We view them as a core
asset, a very important asset. Anyone who speculates that
we don't view the Cubs in that way is dead wrong. I can't
imagine a time when we would consider (a sale)" (CRAIN'S
CHICAGO BUSINESS, 3/27 issue).
