TNT SAYS IT WILL KEEP SAME CARRIAGE FEES DESPITE LOSING NFL

          TNT "will seek to maintain its cable-operator carriage
     fees that include a surcharge for NFL games and will not
     reduce the planned percentage increase in fees during its
     contract-renewal negotiations at year's end despite the
     recent loss of its NFL package," according to Scott Hettrick
     of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.  Industry observers "believe TNT
     will have a hard time extracting a significant increase in
     carriage fees from cable operators when most affiliation
     agreements expire at the end of the year."  Hettrick writes
     that TNT "built what some sources say was a 12-cent
     surcharge into its current per-subscriber fee of 54 cents to
     compensate for eight games of the NFL."  TNT spokesperson
     Jim Weiss said that it "has no plans to offer operators a
     kickback on the surcharge," and that TNT "still has
     additional programming costs to offset," including renewal
     of its NBA deal (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 1/23).