This season, 14 NFL games and "FOX NFL Sunday" are being
carried over Star TV, News Corp.'s Pan-Asian network. Star TV,
which covers the Far East, Middle East and Asia, has an estimated
audience of 220 million viewers in 53 million households. Star
TV joins News Corp.'s Sky (UK) and Canal TV (South America) in
covering the NFL (Fox)....ESPN's "Up Close," hosted by Chris
Myers, will present nightly news segments on the federal mail
fraud case against boxing promoter Don King (ESPN). Myers, on
the new "Up Close" format which includes more live coverage: "It
gives us a chance to be more topical, to be more like a
'Nightline'" (L.A. TIMES, 10/6)....Sandra Neil, formerly sports
anchor at Toronto's CFTO, has signed on as host of Fox's new
figure skating coverage and to work on their NHL broadcasts as
well (TORONTO SUN, 10/6)....PRIME/NewSport will re-establish Fred
Edelstein's Pro Football Insider, a newsletter which had stopped
publishing in August (PRIME/NewSport).... SportsChannel Pacific
tried to install an in-goal camera for the IHL Spiders' opener,
but the players demolished it during warm-ups. SportsChannel VP
Mark Shuken: "Our great innovation this time is to have the
NetCam installed after warm-ups" (S.F. CHRONICLE,
10/6)....Electronic Arts has released "NHL 96" on three different
hardware platforms -- Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo and PC CD-ROM
(GOULD MEDIA, 10/6)....Vancouver Sports Only, a new weekly sports
mag published by the Toronto Sun Corp., had its Toronto launch
yesterday. The paper starts "for real" on October 19 (TORONTO
SUN, 10/6)....Journalists Frank Deford and Mitch Gelman have
signed on with ESPNET SportsZone (ESPN)....NESN has launched a
page on the World Wide Web. Address: http://www.nesn.com
(NESN). ....VARIETY examines the potential new look for WTBS if
the channel is transformed into a basic cable, as planned under
the Turner-Time Warner merger. Sources say TBS will have to drop
the Braves since ESPN has the exclusive national cable rights to
MLB through '99 (VARIETY, 10/2-8)....ESPN2 will carry the New
York Marathon November 12. Trans World International, a division
of IMG, will produce (ESPN2).... A select group of NHL stars and
coaches will be available for a live online chat on the NHL's Web
site today from 4-7pm EDT. The forum will be hosted by MSG
analyst John Davidson and Panthers analyst Denis Potvin.
Address: http://www.nhl.com (NHL)....Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief
Norman Pearlstine has been encouraging senior staffers at Time
Warner magazines "to get to know" counterparts at Turner. This
week, Pearlstine, SI Managing Editor Mark Mulvoy and Time
Managing Editor Jim Gaines were to travel to Atlanta. Mulvoy:
"I'm sure over time we'll all work together on a whole host of
projects. But for now, this is a game of show-and-tell"
(VARIETY, 10/2-8).
