CBS is close to selling the final sponsorship package for its coverage of the 1999 PGA Championship.
Pfizer Inc. is in talks with the network about a sponsorship deal, sources said.
CBS, which declined comment, is looking to sell all the ad time for the Grand Slam golf tournament to only eight sponsors, a tactic the network adopted for last year's PGA Championship. This year, CBS is said to be offering sponsorship packages (which include category exclusivity) at almost $2.5 million apiece.
If pharmaceutical marketer Pfizer completes the deal, CBS' sponsorship roster would consist of it and another new sponsor, Merrill Lynch & Co., as well as incumbents Oldsmobile, IBM Corp., Nike Inc., MasterCard International Inc., KPMG Peat Marwick and Sprint Corp. Two of last year's sponsors, Canadian bank CIBC and Danka Copiers, dropped out.
The network is scheduled to broadcast the third and final rounds of the PGA Championship, which will take place at the Medinah Country Club outside Chicago, Aug. 7-8.
In other media news involving professional golf, Compuware has struck a deal with NBC to be a sponsor of the network's broadcasts of the 1999 Ryder Cup, sources said. As part of the agreement, Compuware gets an option to renew for the 2001 cup. The 1999 event is scheduled to take place at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., Sept. 24-26.
TELLING IT LIKE IT IS: HBO Sports plans to air its Howard Cosell documentary in November.
Because of Cosell's connection to "Monday Night Football," HBO is considering airing the one-hour special — titled "Howard Cosell: Telling It Like It Is" — on a Monday evening. Under that scenario the documentary, part of HBO's "Sports of the 20th Century" series, would run on the East Coast in the hour before the start of "Monday Night Football." On the West Coast, the show would air after "MNF."
Muhammad Ali is one of the many people that HBO interviewed for the Cosell special, according to Ross Greenburg, senior vice president and executive producer of HBO Sports. Ali, who has Parkinson's disease, rarely grants interviews these days. Others who will be interviewed are Roone Arledge, Frank Gifford, Billy Crystal and Tony Randall. The Crystal and Randall connections: Crystal was a one-time guest on Cosell's short-lived variety series on ABC, and Cosell played himself in an episode of "The Odd Couple," the 1970s sitcom that starred Randall and Jack Klugman.
The Cosell special will look to "explain where this icon came from — from his very aggressive days in radio in the 1950s through his tumultuous and groundbreaking days on TV in the late '60, '70s and '80s," Greenburg said. "You loved him or hated him, but [either way] you listened to him. He helped shape our consciousness."
MLB ON FOX: For the first five Saturdays of Fox's Major League Baseball coverage this season, Nissan Motor Co. will be the title sponsor of an in-game enhancement called the "All-Star Drive to Boston," sources said. (Boston's Fenway Park is the site of the 1999 MLB All-Star Game, which will be broadcast July 13 on Fox.)
On each of those Saturday afternoons, viewers will get the chance to guess the distance between a selected MLB stadium and Fenway Park, sources said. Viewers who register their answers on Fox.com will get the opportunity to win prizes. The promotion's details are still being worked out.
Fox declined comment.
Meanwhile, A&W Root Beer will sponsor another enhancement, called "Fans of the Game," airing on each Fox MLB telecast this season. The network's game-of-the-week coverage begins Saturday.
SALES VOLLEYS: CBS has sold about 50 percent of the ad time for its broadcasts of the 1999 U.S. Open Tennis Championships. While the network has renewed deals with such advertisers as Infiniti, Johnson & Johnson, Hertz Corp. and Smith Barney, it also has completed agreements with two newcomers to its U.S. Open coverage, sources said: Marsh & McLennan and US Airways. As it did last year, J&J will sponsor the CBS "Mac-cam," the high-tech camera able to determine with great accuracy whether shots are in or out.
USA Network, which has cable TV rights to the Open, has sold 42 percent of the ad inventory for its telecasts of this year's tournament, said John Cronopulos, USA's vice president of advertising sales, corporate accounts and special events. Among the advertisers on board: incumbents J&J, General Motors Corp. and Alliance Capital Corp., as well as newcomers J.P. Morgan & Co., Circuit City, AT&T Corp., Pacific Life Insurance Co. and Ford-Lincoln. The 1999 U.S. Open begins Aug. 30.
NFL DEAL MAKING: CBS has renewed NFL ad deals with American Honda Motor Co. and Staples Inc., sources said. Staples will be back as the sponsor of the "NFL Coach of the Week" feature, which again is slated to air weekly as part of the network's "NFL Today" pregame show.
A newcomer to CBS' NFL telecasts this season will be Applebee's, which also has bought ad time on the network's college football coverage.
