TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET 60-minute edition
of FSN's "National Sports Report" led with a 5:46 report on
the firing of IN Univ. men's basketball coach Bobby Knight,
followed by Red Sox-Yankees. "NSR" had 9:15 of total
coverage on Knight. Last night's 11:00pm ET 30-minute
edition of CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight" led with a 6:17 report
on Knight, followed by Red Sox-Yankees. "Sports Tonight"
had 8:17 of total coverage on Knight. Last night's 12:00am
ET 60-minute edition of ESPN's "SportsCenter" led with Red
Sox-Yankees, followed by Tigers-White Sox. The first non-
MLB report, at 9:35 into the broadcast, was Knight, and
"SportsCenter" had 6:14 of total coverage on Knight.
KNIGHT GOES TO ESPN TO TELL HIS STORY: Bobby Knight
"will discuss his firing" in a live one-hour interview
tonight at 7:00pm ET with ESPN's Jeremy Schaap. Schaap:
"This is not theater, it's journalism. This is not an
interrogation, it's an interview. The goal is to elicit as
much information as possible" (INDY STAR, 9/12).
NOTES: Inside.com's Stephen Battaglio wrote that Fox,
NBC, ABC and CBS "have passed on" MLB's "initial asking
price" for a new TV deal. MLB is seeking $345M per year for
the contract currently held by Fox, which includes regular
and post-season coverage. But one source said that MLB "has
already gone back" to Fox with a lower figure, but
"apparently it still isn't low enough." One network sports
exec said that MLB's rights fee "would have to be in the
range" of $150M per year for the net "to make a small
profit" (Inside.com, 9/10).....Visitors to NFL.com increased
to 1.6 million for U.S. home Internet users during the week
ending September 3, a 46% gain from the previous week. More
male users visited NFL.com during the week, making up 78% of
the total Internet traffic for NFL.com. Female users
comprised 22% (Nielsen//NetRatings).
