TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET 60-minute edition
of FSN's "The National Sports Report" led with Dodgers-
Braves, followed by Giants-Marlins. The first non-MLB
report, at 9:38 into the broadcast, was on the season-ending
ankle injury to Pistons F Grant Hill. "The National Sports
Report" had 8:05 of coverage on the NBA. Last night's
11:00pm ET 30-minute edition of CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight"
led with Raptors-Knicks, followed by Hill's injury. The
first non-NBA report, at 4:53, was Reds-Mets. "Sports
Tonight" had 6:23 of NBA coverage. Last night's 11:00pm ET
60-minute edition of ESPN's "SportsCenter" led with Dodgers-
Braves, followed by Raptors-Knicks. "SportsCenter" had
12:34 of total NBA coverage. Neither "The National Sports
Report," "Sports Tonight" and "SportsCenter" did not report
on the Isles sale to Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar.
O' BABY, IT'S A WIDE WORLD: BLOOMBERG NEWS reports that
ABC is "planning to resurrect" "Wide World of Sports" next
year. The show was canceled in '97 after a "record run of
37 seasons." ABC Sports President Howard Katz: "It's a real
challenge. We've got one of the best-known brands in
sports. Now it's up to me to figure out how it can work."
Former BBDO Dir of Sports Marketing Services and current
Sportvision Exec VP/Sales & Marketing Larry Novenstern: "If
they want to put on something that would get about a 1
rating, that's their business. I applaud them for trying,
but I don't see how it could work" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 4/26).
STERN'S HONEST ANSWER: In Chicago, Ron Rapoport gives
NBA Commissioner David Stern credit for being "frank" when
answering why the first round of the NBA playoffs is being
drawn out so long: "It's done to get more of our games on
NBC. It also was done so we could earn more money -- in
case there were any doubts about that" (SUN-TIMES, 4/27).
...FSN's Keith Olbermann, on Stern saying sports newscasts
"need a director or producer to tell [anchors] to get on
with their report": "That's right, Commissioner, we only
have a handful of directors and producers here and as I
remember, ESPN has -- none. ... A final observation, sir, if
you want fewer TV jokes about the NBA, get rid of the
Clippers" ("The National Sports Report," FSN, 4/26).
NOTES: In St. Petersburg, Eric Deggans reports that
local station WTSP-CBS will discontinue its "regularly
scheduled sports reports" in its 5 and 5:30pm ET newscasts,
part of a trend "that experts say is affecting local TV
newscasts nationwide," as local news directors are seeing
"less need" for sports reports, "particularly in early
evening newscasts dominated by female viewers" (ST.
PETERSBURG TIMES, 4/27)....MVP.com Chair John Elway, on the
company's progress: "We're meeting our projections. Sales
are going well, the response has been good" (ROCKY MTN NEWS,
4/27)....ESPN2 will tape and later carry Major League
Lacrosse's second game of its inaugural season on July 15.
The game will air July 17 at 1:00pm ET (ESPN). FSN will
cover MLL action live on August 11 at 8:00pm ET (FSN).
