Media Notes

ESPN's Atlas Serving One-Week Suspension Following Verbal Confrontation With Program Dir

BOXINGSCENE.com's Rick Reeno cited a source as saying that ESPN boxing analyst Teddy Atlas was suspended for a week for getting into a "verbal confrontation" with ESPN2 "Friday Night Fights" Program Dir Doug Loughrey during a January 11 broadcast. Atlas allegedly approached Loughrey about "showing favoritism to certain promoters and matchmakers" (BOXINGSCENE.com, 1/25). Atlas confirmed the suspension but said, "I'm going to be back at work next week." An ESPN spokesperson refused to comment on the situation (STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE, 1/29)....The Phillies have signed a multi-year contract with Arbitron for Portable People Meter custom radio ratings services, in which Arbitron will generate reports of pre-, post-, in-game and total broadcast listening estimates for the Phillies '08 & '09 seasons on WPHT-AM. The survey also will include average-quarter-hour and total audience estimates (Arbitron)....arenafootball2 (af2) and Network Foundation Technologies have partnered to create an online network that will provide fans with free af2 game coverage on the Internet (af2).