NETWORKS: NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol, on the
altercation between the Colts' Jim Harbaugh and NBC Sports'
Jim Kelly: "Usually, we're criticizing ex-athletes who
become announcers for either saying nothing or being too
timid to stand behind what they do say. This certainly has
not been the case with Jim Kelly" (USA TODAY, 10/29).
Kelly, in a statement, on the incident with Harbaugh: "I
don't know how he hurt himself, since I never saw a punch
and certainly did not get hit" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/29).
...The AP's Ron Sirak profiled The Golf Channel and notes
that the network expects to finish this year with nearly 14
million homes. TGC CEO Joe Gibbs said the net gets 60% of
its revenue from advertising and 40% from subscribers.
Gibbs: "We've found that our average viewer plays more than
100 rounds of golf a year and watches over 7 1/2 hours of
The Golf Channel a week" (AP, 10/28).
PUBLICATIONS: Having invested $500,000 in brand
research, The Sporting News (TSN) will unveil its "new look"
December 8. Cost of the redesign and a supporting ad
campaign will be $30M over three years. AD AGE's Ann Marie
Kerwin reports that a prototype "looks and feels closer to
the New York Times Sunday Magazine than the current
newsprint tabloid" (AD AGE, 10/27 issue)....Miller
Publishing Group President Robert Miller, on two of his new
magazine acquisitions: "Tennis and Snow Country are both
easily conceived as having active television presence,
probably in the cable arena" (MEDIAWEEK, 10/27 issue).
