TV MONITOR: Last night's 11:00pm ET edition of CNN/SI's
"Sports Tonight" led with Pete Rose's latest effort to be
reinstated by MLB, followed by the MLB umpires voting to
replace the MLBUA with the newly formed MLB Independent
Organizing Committee. The first non-MLB story, at 5:48 into
the broadcast, was the Univ. of IA-Univ. of MD college
basketball game. FSN's 11:00pm ET edition of "Primetime"
led with Pistons-Spurs, followed by Knicks-76ers. The first
non-NBA story, at 5:48, was the Notre Dame-Univ. of IN
college basketball game. ESPN's "SportsCenter," which aired
at about 11:19pm due to its college basketball coverage, led
with an update on the Lakers-Sonics game, followed by Kings-
Magic. The first non-NBA story, at 5:23, was the Duke-Univ.
of IL basketball game (THE DAILY).
END OF GAME? USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke reports that the
proposed NBC/Turner football league "has been sacked" by the
networks' new $1.2B NASCAR deal. An official announcement
is expected this week. Meanwhile, Pilson Communications
President Neal Pilson tells Martzke "the stakes are so high"
for both ESPN and MLB in their upcoming court case and says,
"ESPN has higher risks than baseball. My question is
whether baseball can get a substantial increase in rights
fees if they win the case [and open bids to other
networks]." SFX Sports Group VP Mike Trager: "Baseball has
undoubtedly less to lose than ESPN. ESPN is trying as hard
as they can to get this settled" (USA TODAY, 12/1).
MEDIA NOTES: MULTICHANNEL NEWS' R. Thomas Umstead
reports that DirecTV, "having already shattered its all-time
subscriber record," will offer its NFL Sunday Ticket PPV
package "free-of-charge to new residential customers
throughout the rest of the season." DirecTV says that more
than 850,000 subscribers have subscribed to the package,
topping last year's total of 770,000 (MULTICHANNEL NEWS,
11/29)....In Orlando, Jerry Greene: "There's no doubt who
has had the best millennium list -- ESPN. ... What mileage
they've gotten from their great North American athletes of
the century" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 12/1)....One-on-One Sports
and Bloomberg have joined for a new segment called "The
Business Of Sports," which will air at 11:33am ET and 6:33pm
ET and will run two to four minutes in length (One-on-One).
