Capital Group Companies, Inc., one of the largest
institutional shareholders in CBS Inc., declined to vote its
6.22% stake in favor of management's slate of directors. Gordon
Crawford, the Capital Group fund manager who oversees most of
their media investments, is said to believe that CBS Chair
Laurence Tisch "dismantled what was once a great communications
empire, and that the company could be performing far better"
(WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/24)....With the Stars out of the NHL
playoffs, ratings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for last Sunday's
Flyers-Rangers game dropped to 0.9 -- the lowest among cities
with NHL franchises (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 5/23).... The Baseball
Network's Mike Trager says that TBN has signed more than 30
advertisers -- nearly double last year's total, with a dozen more
possible. Trager argues that ESPN's 32% ratings drop-off isn't
an adequate indicator for TBN's regionalized coverage. Trager:
"Local baseball ratings aren't off anywhere near ESPN's numbers
(Mike Heistand, USA TODAY, 5/24)....Nintendo, NBC and Blockbuster
will join together on an estimated $5M fall promo to push
Nintendo's new 3D "Virtual Boy" system, drive retail traffic at
Blockbuster and hype NBC's fall lineup (BRANDWEEK, 5/22).
