ESPY: ESPN's "ESPY Awards" received a 2.2 cable rating,
doubling the "average college basketball audience" for a
Monday night (Rudy Martzke, USA TODAY, 2/19). In Miami,
Barry Jackson writes that the ESPY's were "filled with bad
jokes and awkward moments" and the "production continues to
be a major disappointment" (MIAMI HERALD, 2/19).
OTHER NOTES: In N.Y., Phil Mushnick takes a critical
look at Tiger Woods today and writes that "someone should
let [Woods] know ... that the last thing the world needs is
another spoiled brat superstar," following Woods "throwing a
fit" at the Buick Invitational. Mushnick notes that
national TV audiences "are beginning to sour on him.
They're beginning to see, on a regular basis, a spoiled
brat" (N.Y. POST, 2/19)....In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich
estimates that CTV's proposed purchase of TSN "instantly
lowered the value" of the Blue Jays by "about" C$20M, as the
"CTV/SportsNet/ESPN Canada combination will pretty well call
all the shots" for sports broadcasting rights in Canada
(TORONTO STAR, 2/19)....WBDC-WB has extended its contract
with HTS to carry Orioles, Wizards and Capitals games
through 2000. HTS agrees to buy the time on WBDC, sell the
ads and gives some commercial inventory back to the station
as well. WBDC can carry "as many as" 65 Orioles games, 20
Wizards games and 18 Capitals games (WASHINGTON POST, 2/19).
...N.Y.-based Gball, the Girls' Basketball Magazine, set to
debut in five months, has established a Web site (AD AGE,
2/19). The site's address is gball.magazine.com (THE DAILY).
