The $325,000 "Challenge" tennis event, featuring John
McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Yannick Noah, and Andres Gomez, will be
telecast July 6-7 on ABC. The scheduling is designed to follow
NBC's Wimbledon coverage. The event is presented by Quality Inns
and will be directed and produced by Terry Jastrow of Jack
Nicklaus Productions, who created the event along with the Nuveen
Tour (Nuveen Tour)....The FTC probe into the proposed merger
between Time Warner and Turner is examined in the WALL STREET
JOURNAL. Despite a FTC staff recommendation to stop the deal,
company officials have taken "a risky end run," making their case
directly to a "few senior officers." Gruley & Shapiro notes the
sides are "girding for courtroom war" (WALL STREET JOURNAL,
6/27).... DirecTV President Eddy Harstein said they are 30-40%
ahead of last year's subscriber pace, with 100,000 sign-ups
expected in June (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 6/24 issue)....TNT will
kick off its 7th NFL TV season on August 8 with a new "NFL on
TNT" campaign (CABLE WORLD, 6/24 issue).
