Media Notes

Giants-Eagles Game Propels Fox To Sunday Night Win

Fox, which drew 27.8 million viewers between 7:00-8:00pm ET for the end of Giants-Eagles, “pushed its way to a Sunday night win in both key measures.” The performance topped the “return of ABC’s dramas and premieres of NBC’s post-football lineup even though ABC won at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. by a handy margin” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 1/9).

GAME OVER: The ’07 Las Vegas All-American Classic, a college football all-star game scheduled for January 15, has been canceled. The event was to air on NFL Network. In a statement posted on the game’s Web site, Game Dir Darry Alton said that “sponsorships and financing fell through” (USA TODAY, 1/9).

TEAMWORK: SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL’s Eric Fisher reports the MLBPA and MLBAM, which are appealing their legal defeat in a lawsuit brought by the parent company of CDM Fantasy Sports over the use of player names and stats, “recently gained the support” of the NFLPA, NFL Ventures, NBA Properties, NHL Properties, WNBA Enterprises, NASCAR and the PGA Tour through a series of amicus briefs. The entities “made a joint filing” led by N.Y.-based attorney Jeffrey Mishkin, a former NBA CLO. The NFLPA “filed its own amicus brief, as did the Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 1/8 issue).

GONE FISHIN’: The Sharks “have shut down their message board because of ‘repeated inappropriate abuse of the system.’” Sharks Exec VP/Business Operations Malcolm Bordelon said that he made the decision “to address the growing presence of porn links from spammers, as well as the foul and inflammatory language of some of the regular posters.” The “two main problems are the lack of password-protected registration, and all of the moderation resting with one team employee” (MERCEXTRA.com, 1/8).

HORSE SENSE: The NTRA presented ’06 Media Eclipse Awards to NBC (National TV –- live racing) for its coverage of the May 20 Preakness Stakes and to Philadelphia Daily News writer Dick Jerardi (writing –- news/commentary) for his coverage of Barbaro’s injury in the Preakness and its aftermath (THE DAILY).