NEWSDAY's Steve Zipay notes technological additions to
this weekend's NFL coverage. ESPN will use "Preplay" for
its Redskins-Giants game, "sort of a '90s version of the old
electric football game, with triangles and squares gliding
from formation." ESPN will also debut a triple box, a
screen split in thirds to replay how the secondary covers
the wide receivers and how the quarterback reacts. Fox "is
expected to debut" its Fox Tracker during its postgame show
this weekend. Fox Tracker "purports to calculate how many
actual yards" running backs "actually have run (including
change of direction) and the speed in miles per hour"
(NEWSDAY, 11/21)....NBC Sports airs a one-hour "Nike
Presents Hoop-it-Up" special tomorrow at 5:00pm ET (NBC
Sports)....TBS has the NASCAR Thunder Special -- Suzuka
demonstration race for the second-consecutive year live from
Japan tomorrow at 10:00 pm ET, with a race replay Sunday at
8:05am ET (TBS)....HBO's "Don King: Only in America" topped
Showtime's replay of Holyfield-Moorer fight last Saturday,
earning a 9.9 rating to the fight's 2.8 (NEWSDAY, 11/21).
...ESPN SportsZone's Expansion Draft coverage helped attract
846,450 visits that day, a new SportsZone record. The
site's Draft coverage alone accounted for more than 1
million impressions on November 18 and more than 2 million
total impressions from November 17-19 (ESPN)....An incumbent
NFL network source on the upcoming NFL TV rights
negotiations: "We haven't had a meaningful conversation with
the NFL on renewing, and we don't expect to until after they
talk to CBS. After that, we expect to get it done in a
matter of days" (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 11/17 issue)....Jim
Lampley will host TNT's '98 Winter Olympics coverage (TNT).
