TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET 60-minute edition
of FSN's "The Keith Olbermann Evening News" led with a
report that U.S. shot-putter and Marion Jones' husband C.J.
Hunter tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs,
followed by Jets-Bucs. The first report on the F1 U.S.
Grand Prix was at 17:08 into the broadcast, while the
"Olbermann" featured 5:03 of total Olympic coverage. Last
night's 11:00pm ET 60-minute edition of CNN/SI's "Sports
Tonight" led with Jets-Bucs, followed by Rams-Falcons. The
first non-NFL report, at 11:02, was a report on Hunter. The
first report on the U.S. Grand Prix was at 56:35, and
"Sports Tonight" had 3:13 of total Olympic coverage. Last
night's 11:30pm ET 60-minute edition of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" led with Jets-Bucs, followed by Redskins-
Giants. The first non-NFL report, at 13:04, was A's-
Mariners. The first report on the U.S. Grand Prix was at
25:24, and the first Olympic report was at 17:56.
"SportsCenter" had 2:59 of total Olympic coverage.
PLANS FOR THE GOLF CHANNEL: The Golf Channel (TGC)
Founder & CEO Joe Gibbs said "the most immediate step" for
TGC is to increase distribution from "30-plus million to 50-
plus million homes." Gibbs: "Those next 20 million homes
are really important to us. We'd be limited if we stayed
where we were today. Other networks would have an advantage
over us because of their distribution." Gibbs added that
TGC "is growing by approximately" 20% per year by "relying
on advertising" for 60% of its revenue and cable operators
subscriber fees for the rest. Gibbs also plans on "tweaking
his lineup of shows and expanding the channel" to Australia,
Hong Kong and Taiwan (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 9/24).
