Richard Pound, head of the IOC's broadcasting group, hears
the bids from CBC and CTV today for the Canadian TV rights to the
'98 Nagano Games. The competition between the two networks "has
become the most bitter battle for Canadian telecast rights to any
sports event" (Ken McKee, TORONTO STAR, 6/1)....NBC's Marv Albert
sits in for Rudy Martzke in writing USA TODAY's "TV Sports"
column this morning. Some highlights: "The general public's
interest in ratings is down 17%. ... ABC didn't catch it, but
Arie Luyendyk drove the entire Indianapolis 500 with his left
turn signal on" (USA TODAY, 6/1)....In Orlando, columnist Larry
Guest takes on the NBA for the late start to the prime-time
playoff games on NBC. Guest writes, "Alas, the NBA seems willing
to let network brass sell out the game to the ratings gods like
baseball did. ... Will [the younger] generation sleep through the
NBA's showcase?" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 6/1)....U.S. West has put on
hold plans to develop an interactive network by 1996 (WALL STREET
JOURNAL, 6/1)....Seagram's intends to retain its 15% stake in
Time Warner "for the time being" (FINANCIAL TIMES,
6/1)....According to preliminary sweeps numbers from Nielsen,
basic cable showed an aggregate 15.8/26, up 17.9% from May '94.
The four networks showed a 40.5/68, down 5.2%. TNT, CNBC,
Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, CNN, Lifetime and Discovery all showed
increases over '94, while ESPN, Family Channel, MTV and WGN all
dropped (ELECTRONIC MEDIA, 5/29 issue)....MTV and NBA
Entertainment will celebrate the '94-95 playoffs and regular
season with "MTV's Slam n' Jam Wrap-Up" to air June 3 (NBA).
