COMCAST SET TO PURCHASE HTS AND MSC FOR REPORTED $300M

          Philadelphia-based Comcast has completed a deal to
     purchase Home Team Sports (HTS) and Midwest Sports Channel
     (MSC) from Viacom for a sale price estimated by industry
     sources to be about $300M, according to Leonard Shapiro of
     the WASHINGTON POST.  The sale, which "likely will be
     announced this week and as early as today," is not expected
     to have a "major effect" on HTS programming, which includes
     Orioles, Wizards and Capitals games.  An HTS source said
     that HTS "likely will not undergo many changes either in
     personnel or programming, though Comcast almost certainly
     will increase the amount of local sports news on the
     channel."  The source added that a name change "probably
     will occur to enhance the Comcast brand."  Fox has a
     "minority interest" in HTS, and sources "indicated much of
     the Fox programming will also be retained after the sale"
     (WASHINGTON POST, 7/11).  In Philadelphia, Patricia Horn
     writes that Comcast "is expected to pay for the networks not
     with cash or stock, but by distributing Viacom programming
     to its cable-TV systems."  Horn notes Comcast's purchase
     fits into the company's plans to "expand its ownership of
     sports teams" and RSNs (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/11).