Media Notes

ABC will televise the Antonio Tarver-Elvir Muriqi light heavyweight bout April 22 at 1:30pm ET, marking the first boxing match on the net since June ’00 (USA TODAY, 3/26).

ON THIN ICE: The Int’l Skating Union (ISU) has “reaffirmed its selection” of L.A. as the host of the ’09 World Figure Skating Championships. The organization backed away from “hints earlier in the week that it might move the event” due to no current U.S. TV contract (L.A. TIMES, 3/25). The U.S. Figure Skating Association’s $12M annual contract with ABC expires this spring, and the ISU’s $5M annual deal with ESPN ends next year, and in Chicago, Philip Hersh writes with the U.S. earning just one bronze medal at the recent world championships -– and no female medalists for the first time since ’94 –- there “isn’t much talent for U.S. skating to sell to TV” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/26).

NOTES: SCP Worldwide, owned by Blues and MLS RSL Owner Dave Checketts, has acquired the rights to Tupelo Honey Productions, which co-produces YES Network’s “Centerstage” and SportsNet N.Y.’s “Mets Weekly” (N.Y. POST, 3/26). Tupelo Honey does work for MLS (THE DAILY).... Columbus Sports Network will air 13 of the MLS Crew’s 15 home games this year, meaning all 30 games will be available live in central Ohio for the first time (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 3/24)....NBC’s Johnny Miller during yesterday’s final round of the WGC-CA Championships said Tiger Woods was “pissed” about missing several putts, but Miller “quickly apologized on-air” (USA TODAY, 3/26).