Media Notes

PORTFOLIO's Jeff Bercovici reported Jim Bell, the Exec Producer of NBC's "Today" show, is "widely thought to be the leading candidate to take over NBC Sports" if NBC Sports & Olympics Chair Dick Ebersol steps down after the Beijing Games, "as has been persistently rumored." If that were to happen, "Today" would have lost "both of its guiding hands in quick succession," as NBC News Wednesday promoted Senior VP Phil Griffin to MSNBC President (PORTFOLIO.com, 7/16).

PROGRAMMING POWER: FSN Houston VP & GM Steve Tello said that he and Exec Producer Jeff Hallas are "working on program ideas to fill in the hours that FSN doesn't devote to local games or a beefed-up Big 12 presence this fall." Hallas: "We're talking to the local colleges and high schools, and I would like to take advantage of the Medical Center and its horsepower and put together some kind of sports wellness or sports medicine show." Tello said that the net "may attempt to provide morning updates as well" (David Barron, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 7/18).

ESPN, MediaFLO To Offer Live Coverage Of X Games 14 For Mobile Phones

NOTES: Amid the severe cost-cutting measures the Tribune Co. is undertaking with several of its newspapers, rumors are the L.A. Times Sports and Business sections "may eventually be folded into one section, as they were during parts of the 1960s" (LAOBSERVED.com, 7/17)....ESPN and MediaFLO USA for X Games 14 will air a combined 31 hours of live coverage on mobile phones from July 31-August 3 through video channel EXPN. MediaFLO USA is a sponsor of the event and will support its sponsorship with TV ads on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Mobile TV, as well as with print ads in ESPN The Magazine and Web banners on ESPN.com and EXPN.com (MediaFLO)....The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jamin Brophy-Warren writes the Nintendo Wii "All Play" version of EA Sports' "NCAA Football 09" has succeeded in "captur[ing] the spirit of the game without bogging it down with verisimilitude" (WSJ.com, 7/18).