TELSTRA GROUP INKS NAMING RIGHTS TO AUSTRALIA'S RUGBY LEAGUE

          Australia's National Rugby League (NRL) has signed a
     six-year naming rights deal with telecom company Telstra
     "believed to be worth upwards of" US$22M, which "comes on
     top of" last week's $218M pay TV deal with Fox Sports,
     according to the AAP.  The naming-rights deal "ends NRL
     [CEO] David Moffett's two-year quest to find a major backer
     for the competition."  A name for next year's season is "yet
     to be decided, with the league reluctant to name it the
     Telstra Cup for fear of dredging up the Super League-
     Australian Rugby League war," as the Super League was called
     the Telstra Cup in its one year of existence in '97.  The
     AAP noted that Telstra "is the major shareholder in Foxtel,
     of which Fox Sports is the sporting arm, and both deals are
     for six years."  But Moffett "denied the two lucrative deals
     were linked," calling them "totally separate" (AAP, 12/17). 
     Moffett said that the Foxtel deal is the "largest pay-TV
     rights fee in Australian history" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 12/15).