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Alycia’s lawyer: We want facts
Domino's launches Pizza Tracker service
Hub TV’s Super scramble
All Soul games set for WPEN
Sinkoff sunk
FOX's pregame show will mix celebs with football
CTV makes the most of its Super Bowl rights
Super Bowl Advertisers and Mobile Sports Web Sites Aim for Touchdown – Keynote to Report the Online Action Play by Play
Pirates, FSN announce TV pact
Tina’s NESN departure a Super mystery
No clear winner yet in TV sports battle
NBA China to manage Beijing arena during and after Olympics
Office Tower to Rise in Harlem for Baseball TV Network
Bills score agreement to play in Toronto
Super Bowl Fever Sidelines Employees on Monday Morning
Fox Super Bowl Sunday Ad Take to Reach $260 Mil.

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Alycia’s lawyer: We want facts
Philly Inquirer

Alycia Lane's civil attorney went to court today, saying that he is looking "for the facts and circumstances" surrounding her firing from KYW-TV (CBS3), her former television station.

Paul R. Rosen would not say whether the move was a precursor to a lawsuit. "Upon completion of this investigation, Alycia will then determine what course of action is in her best interest," Rosen said.

Rosen asked Common Pleas Court to issue a writ of summons. He wants to take depositions from CBS3 president Michael Colleran and news director Susan Schiller in connection with Lane's firing on New Year's Day, about two weeks after she was arrested in New York and accused of hitting a police officer.

Lane, who received no severance in her dismissal, on Jan. 2 hired Rosen, of the Center City firm Spector, Gadon & Rosen.

"It is our position that KYW 3 terminated Alycia Lane based on inaccurate press reports, innuendo, rumor and gossip," Rosen said. "What has been filed [today] is to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the reasons why KYW 3 terminated Alycia, which appear to be contrary to the express terms of her contract. This procedure is to examine KYW 3's motives and actions for the conduct it expressed when it went public to terminate Alycia."

Rosen, seeking reams of documents from CBS3, claims that the station did not notify Lane in writing that she'd been terminated and never set forth the reason for her firing. Rather, he writes, CBS3 made the firing "the lead story on its own afternoon newscast" on Jan. 7.

In a Jan. 7 statement, Colleran said: "After assessing the overall impact of a series of incidents resulting from judgments she has made, we have concluded that it would be impossible for Alycia to continue to report the news as she, herself, has become the focus of so many news stories. We wish to make clear that we are not prejudging the outcome of the criminal case against Alycia that is pending in New York. We understand that Alycia expects to be fully vindicated in that proceeding."

In effect, Lane had become the news, rather than reporting the news.

A CBS3 spokeswoman said today, "We've seen the filing. There is nothing new here. We believe we made our position on this matter clear in our previous statements."

Rosen seeks Lane's personnel file, documents surrounding the firing and investigation and documents surrounding the firing of other reporters, and specifically "any other anchor or reporter of Latina descent, African American descent or the descent of any other minority group."

Rosen also seeks CBS3 documents relating to "Dr. Phil" McGraw, with whom Lane appeared twice to talk about her relationship issues; sports anchor Rich Eisen and his wife, Suzy Shuster, likely relating to last spring's "bikini-gate" brouhaha; Prince Albert of Monaco, whom the
New York Post intimated that Lane had danced a mite too closely with; and former Lane husbands Dino Calandriello and Jay Adkins.

Lane's five-year contract began in May 2006. Her salary, not including bonuses, was about $700,000 a year. She was released without pay.

She was last seen on the air on Dec. 14 - about 261/2 hours before she was arrested in Lower Manhattan. Her case there is listed for April 3. Her criminal attorney, David Smith, had no comment about today's filing.

Rosen, known as a tenacious litigator, has a high-profile client list including David Cutler in his years of legal battles against his former wife, 6ABC anchor Monica Malpass, and TV personality Larry King in his divorce against Julia Alexander King.
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Domino's launches Pizza Tracker service
Detroit News Staff and Wire Services
Domino's Pizza Inc., the operator of 8,510 pizza stores in 55 countries, started a service that allows U.S. customers to track their orders' progress to the delivery van, Bloomberg News reported today.

Pizza Tracker is available at more than 3,200 Domino's stores in the U.S. starting today, the Ann Arbor-based company said in a statement.

"Once customers place an order, they can go to www.dominos.com and click on the Pizza Tracker icon," the statement said.

"They will see a horizontal bar that lights up red as each step in the process is completed. Customers will see confirmation of their order being received by the store; when it's being prepared; when it's been placed in the oven; when it's been boxed and placed in the
Domino's HeatWave(TM) bag; and finally, when it's on its way for delivery."
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Stations battle for football fans
By Jessica Heslam

The gloves are off as Boston TV stations battle for viewers by pumping up football coverage and exploiting every possible angle in the days before Sunday’s Super Bowl showdown between the Pats and Giants.

One squabble erupted before last Sunday’s Pats’ sendoff at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.

Originally, WBZ-TV (Ch.4) was going to be the only station allowed to broadcast the rally live. The Pats organization made that decision because of “logistical hurdles” and because the CBS-owned WBZ was the team’s official playoff station, Pats spokesman Stacey James tells MediaBiz.

But when the competition got wind of it, they were none too pleased. WBZ rivals rang the Pats and (rightly) argued that they, too, should be able to carry it live, as it was open to the public and Gov. Deval Patrick planned to speak. The governor’s office echoed their concerns.

James said the team decided to use a pool feed and WBZ, WCVB-TV (Ch.5) and WHDH-TV (Ch.7) all aired it live.

Adding salt to Channel 4’s wounds, despite a promotional blitz touting exclusive live rally coverage, the station finished last in the ratings. WHDH drew 178,700 total viewers, WCVB had 138,800 and WBZ had a shockingly low 44,900.

WBZ blamed the low ratings on being last to the air with Pats coverage because they couldn’t cut into network programming.

Meanwhile, a small army of local TV staffers have touched down in Arizona, joining the more than 4,800-member media circus. WBZ sent the biggest crew - 25 in all - and is the only Hub station broadcasting all week from the Pats’ hotel, the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Boston stations are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their staff out West. They’re also pulling in ad dollars from a plethora of pregame football specials.

All things Pats top every newscast as well as reports throughout. The stations are bolstering their Web coverage with behind-the-scene blogs.

But the big winner is WFXT (Ch. 25), which is airing the Super Bowl and stands to make millions. Sources tell MediaBiz a 30-second local spot is selling for about $250,000.

“It’s a significant windfall for the station in both total viewership, which translates to ratings, and an enormous revenue opportunity for us as well,” said FOX 25 Vice President and General Manager Gregg Kelley.

For WBZ news anchor Jonathan Elias, it’s a homecoming of sorts. Elias spent five years in Arizona before moving to Boston last year. His old contacts have come in handy as he shows off a slice of Arizona life.

One interview included a local biologist “who has a house full of every brand of snake, scorpion and tarantula that lives out here.”

Working for the network broadcasting the Super Bowl has its perks. FOX 25 sports anchor Butch Stearns said he had two hours in a room to interview football greats Howie Long, Troy Aikman, Jimmy Johnson and others.

WCVB sports vet Mike Lynch says the “volume of people” covering this Super Bowl has “mushroomed beyond comprehension.”

Media day provided plenty of laughs. One female reporter donned a wedding dress and proposed to Pats quarterback Tom Brady [stats]. “It doesn’t border on the absurd,” said WHDH news anchor Frances Rivera. “It is the absurd.”
NECN, Comcast SportsNet, Boston newspapers and several radio stations also have a major presence in Phoenix. Nearly all of the WEEI (850 AM) sports hosts are on scene except for John Dennis and Gerry Callahan.

The duo stayed behind because Arizona is two hours behind the Hub, and it would have been impossible for them to get guests on the show from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m.

The pair took a ribbing when Pats owner Robert Kraft called in this week.

“You’re not down here?” Kraft asked in disbelief. “You’re not at the game Sunday? Oh my goodness. We don’t want to cause any problems with management. The ratings you’re getting? Oh my goodness.”
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All Soul games set for WPEN
Philly Daily News

All Soul games will continue to be aired by WPEN (950-AM) and sr950.com this season. The team announced an extension of its deal with the station yesterday.

The Soul opens its fifth Arena Football League season on March 1 against visiting Orlando. *
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Sinkoff sunk
Schenectady Daily Gazette

Sportscaster Brian Sinkoff came into a unique situation when he joined WTEN (Ch. 10) in September 2005.First of all, he was replacing sports director Dan Murphy, whose contract wasn’t being renewed after 16 years at the station. Second, WTEN was experimenting with doing sports features, and not the traditional three-minute sportscast.

Then you come to find out that Sinkoff was hired before Murphy had even left. And then you learn that Sinkoff had previously worked with WTEN station manager Rene LaSpina in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. So, you think there would be some loyalty shown to Sinkoff by her.That didn’t happen on Tuesday. Sinkoff, along with several other staffers, were laid off by WTEN.

I have mixed emotions about it. First and foremost, I feel bad for him because I don’t like to see people lose their job.On the other hand, Sinkoff never stood out when I would watch him. The sportscasts were OK, but they didn’t make me want to come back to watch every night.

To his credit, he did get WTEN to restore the regular sportscasts, and he helped start “Friday Night Frenzy,” the high school basketball highlight show.The timing of letting Sinkoff go is horrible. We are in the middle of the high school basketball season, and the Giants are getting ready to play in the Super Bowl. Weekend sports anchor Jamie Seh will be very busy.

It will be interesting to see how quickly WTEN hires a replacement for Sinkoff, but I bet it won’t be as fast they hired him to replace Murphy.
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FOX's pregame show will mix celebs with football
Newsday

Here's the thing: If you care about the particulars of Super Bowl XLII, you will know all there is to know by 6 p.m. Sunday.

And if all you care about Sunday are the commercials, guacamole and a fruity cocktail or two, you didn't want to know the particulars in the first place.

That's more or less Fox's theory as it plans its pregame extravaganza.
The more its people explained it here the other day, the more sense it made.

"To me, four hours on one game just doing football is pretty narrowcasting," said Scott Ackerson, the four-hour show's producer.

"There will be plenty of football, but it's not your basic pregame show. There are a lot of celebrities and a lot of stars, so let's get them on the air, take advantage of that . . . The NFL Network alone is doing 240 hours on the game. Really, what can we possibly say that hasn't been said already?"

Fox's news release last week promised "to mix the safety blitz with Hollywood glitz."

Or, as host Curt Menefee said, "Instead of doing the economic impact or tailgating parties, the same old crap, OK, let's do celebrity interviews. I'd rather hear Adam Sandler being goofy for four minutes."

Enter Ryan Seacrest, who happens to host a show on Fox that is reasonably popular.

At times Menefee will throw to Seacrest, the show's "entertainment host," who will interview celebrities as they enter the stadium, red-carpet style.

"The reality of it is he's on the No. 1 show in America," he said. "He has an audience that is different from our demographic . . . Now if he wanted to do Week 16 in the studio, we have issues."

The festivities also will feature Jordin Sparks, the reigning "American Idol," singing the national anthem and Paula Abdul, an "Idol" judge, performing her new song, "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow."

"It's going to be good. I know what everybody thinks, and they are going to be wrong, because I know what it's going to be."

The challenge for Seacrest will be making the celebrity arrivals seem interesting.

Yes, there will be many famous people. But Super Bowl crowds notoriously are full of anonymous ad managers for corporate sponsors, fans fortunate enough to answer four questions from WFAN's Marquis and the occasional Brady jersey-clad season ticket-holder.

"I think you'll see less glitter tanning cream than you see on most red carpets," Seacrest said.

Presumably the ladies will not be wearing formal evening attire, and thus it will be difficult for him to inquire about dress designers.

And if Scarlett Johansson does show up, will we care whether she likes the Giants against the spread or what she thinks of Eli's confidence level?

"There will be other things to talk about than the number of sequins on one's dress," Seacrest said.

Regardless of the reviews Monday, Ackerson said he will have his cell phone off and his car pointed toward his Southern California home.

Notable: A wager between Mayor Bloomberg and Boston's Thomas M. Menino pits Manhattan clam chowder vs. New England clam chowder.
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CTV makes the most of its Super Bowl rights
Toronto Globe & Mail

Canadian television has never given the Super Bowl the level of hype and hoopla seen this week.

The rights holder, CTV, is promoting and carrying content on four of its media platforms as well as airing programming on the main network.

CTV's sports channel, TSN, has sent four broadcasters to Phoenix, where SportsCentre has been based since Monday. ESPN Classic Canada, also owned by CTV, will begin a Super Bowl marathon of vintage telecasts tomorrow. The cable news channel, CTV NewsNet, is also airing reports.

As well, CTV News is providing coverage. Canada AM will begin airing features this morning, although it's unclear what Joe Theismann, the broadcaster and former CFL and NFL quarterback, knows about Super Bowl party tips.

CTV's eTalk will put a celebrity spin on the coverage. Another show, Fashion Television, will explore "the history, marketing, design and branding of NFL uniforms." And during the game telecast (New England Patriots-New York Giants), there will be content on CTV.ca.

Is that enough? Or is it too much?

"It's pretty amazing," an advertising source said. "They've embraced the property in every way that an NFL fan would want. They're really being smart about it."

The wall-to-wall, multi-platform coverage illustrates the enormous cross-promotional and program-sharing opportunities that exist when a large media company buys the rights to the leading sports event in North America.

"It's been kind of a perfect scenario for us," said Rick Brace, CTV's president of business planning, revenue and sports. "The vision has always been, how can we take advantage of the rights that we have across as many services and programs as possible?"
CTV and Rogers Sportsnet together paid a total of about $15-million for NFL rights, a price that was too rich for Global Television, which had been the league's rights holder for 25 years. It was a package deal, but CTV would have paid more than $5-million for the Super Bowl alone.

"CTV's [profit] margin will be smaller than it has been for Global, because it paid more for the rights," a source said. "But CTV will make a substantial profit."

To help pay the bills, CTV increased advertising rates by 10 per cent from last year to about $110,000 for a 30-second spot.

Brace refused to comment, except to say, "We're very pleased with how the deal has turned out. Advertisers have been enthusiastic. Our ratings [for the 1 p.m. regular-season NFL game and postseason] have grown as the year has gone on. For us, we see it as a tremendous success."

Super Bowl records?
If the Super Bowl is close — ideally, the underdog Giants would need to be leading in the fourth quarter — CTV and Fox Television in the United States could be looking at record audiences.

In addition to the Patriots gunning for an unprecedented 19-0 season, Pats quarterback Tom Brady is a major star and the teams involved are based in large markets.

However, Fox Sports president Ed Goren expressed only cautious optimism during a conference call this week.

"I think that if the game is competitive it will be one of the most watched television shows ever," he said. "So, I think viewership could be right up there in the top five of all time shows."

That may sound like a bold prediction, but it's a very attainable goal. The most watched television show of all time was the 1983 finale of M*A*S*H (about 125 million viewers), followed by the 1996 Super Bowl (Dallas Cowboys-Pittsburgh Steelers), with 94.08 million viewers, and last year's Super Bowl (Indianapolis Colts-Chicago Bears) with 93.2 million. The audience for a close game on Sunday could very well top the 1996 Super Bowl viewership.

A rating, which is the percentage of potential households tuned into a telecast, is a different story. Because of viewing fragmentation caused by the multiple channel universe, Super Bowl ratings have declined from a high of 49.1 in 1982.

Could Sunday's game earn a 50 rating?

"In today's world, I don't think you can get a rating of 50," Goren said.

Last year's telecast (CBS) had a 42.6 rating. The record 1996 telecast (NBC) earned a 46.1.

The largest Canadian audience for the Super Bowl was Global's 4.307 million for the 2006 game (Pittsburgh Steelers-Seattle Seahawks).
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Super Bowl Advertisers and Mobile Sports Web Sites Aim for Touchdown
BusinessWire.com

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), today announced it would make itself readily available to media immediately following Super Bowl XLII 2008 for reporting on the technical quality (responsiveness and reliability) of four leading mobile sports Web sites, three popular sites streaming Super Bowl commercials and 35 of the Super Bowl advertiser’s Web sites. Media interested in receiving “Keynote Media Updates” regarding how leading Web sites are performing during this period of time and/or to schedule an interview on Sunday night or Monday should email their request to: svandermay@citigatecunningham.com and dberkowitz@keynote.com.

Leveraging the company’s global test & measurement network, Keynote will collect mobile performance data to measure the response time and availability of the following four mobile sports Web sites: ESPN (NYSE: DIS), Yahoo Sports (NASDAQ: YHOO), FOX Sports (NYSE: NWS) and CBS (NYSE: CBS). Keynote will also offer comparisons between the sites average performance to their Super Bowl Sunday performance.

Using Transaction Perspective® 8.0, Keynote’s market–leading Web site performance measurement and monitoring service, the company will also measure the performance of three popular sites that will be streaming Super Bowl commercials online including AOL Sports (NYSE: TWX), YouTube (NASDAQ: GOOG) and MySpace.

Additionally, Keynote will monitor site responsiveness and reliability of 35 of the Super Bowl advertiser’s Web sites including: Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD), Audi of America, Bridgestone Firestone North America, Cars.com, Careerbuilder.com, Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: CCE), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), E*TRADE (NASDAQ: ETFC), FedEx (NYSE: FDX), Frito Lay, Gatorade, Garmin GPS (NASDAQ: GRMN), General Motors (NYSE: GM), GoDaddy.com, Hershey (NYSE: HSY), Hyundai Motor America, Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT), NFL, New Line, Paramount Pictures (NYSE: VIA.B), Pepsi-Cola North America (NYSE: PEP), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Salesgenie.com, Sony Pictures (NYSE: SNE), Taco Bell, T-Mobile, Toshiba, Toyota Motor Sales USA, Unilever, Universal Pictures, Under Armour (NYSE: UA), Victoria’s Secret (NYSE: LTD), Warner Brothers, Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DI) and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The data used to create Keynote’s Web site performance indices is collected in real time on an hourly basis from 10 cities across the U.S. providing an up-to-the-minute barometer of the online Super Bowl experience before, during and after the game.

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PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates and Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh have announced that the regional sports station will be televising 125 regular season Pirates games this season. That total of 125 games is a record high for FSN and up from 117 telecasts in 2007.

"We are extremely pleased that FSN will showcase more Pirates games and programming for our fans in 2008 than ever before," Pirates president Frank Coonelly said in a release sent out on Wednesday.

In addition to the regular season coverage, FSN will also televise two games from Spring Training in Bradenton, Fla. The Pirates' March 19 contest against the Yankees at 7:05 p.m. ET will be shown live from McKechnie Field, as will the club's 1 p.m. game against the Twins on March 25.

The station's regular season coverage will commence on March 31, when the Pirates play their season opener at Atlanta's Turner Field. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., with the FSN pregame show set to start 30 minutes earlier.

FSN will also televise all but one of the Pirates' six games during the team's first homestand of the season. The April 7 home opener against the Cubs, which will begin at 1:35 p.m., will be shown on FSN and will be preceded by pregame coverage from PNC Park beginning at noon.

Other notable games that will be televised by FSN include all three of the Pirates' home games against the Yankees from June 24-26. In all, FSN will carry all but two of the 15 Interleague games Pittsburgh will play next June.

FSN will continue to employ the same group of broadcasters again this season, with Lanny Frattare and Greg Brown holding down play-by-play duties and Steve Blass, Bob Walk and John Wehner complementing them as the station's color analysts.

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Tina’s NESN departure a Super mystery
Boston Herald

PHOENIX - Now don’t say you heard it here. Because nobody’s supposed to know. But there may be more to the Tina Cervasio-NESN split than the Red Sox [team stats] network has let on.
Now NESN is denying all, but here’s what we hear: That Tina and the station had been in talks to renew her contract but that the NESN suits weren’t exactly showing their Fenway go-to gal the love. And the two sides had not come to terms.

Meanwhile Tina, who had just finished the grueling Red Sox season, covering just about every single one of the team’s 162 games -and the playoffs - was dispatched to Foxboro to cover the Patriots [team stats] as they chased a perfect record.

We’re told that, after the Pats became AFC champs, Tina was assigned to cover the Super Bowl. But then, as her contract negotiations dragged out, she was suddenly told to unpack her bags!

“She got an e-mail (last) Wednesday telling her she wasn’t going to Arizona,” said Someone Who Knows. “They sent Hazel (Mae) instead.”

That, word is, was the last straw.

But NESN spokesguy Gary Roy said it’s so not true.

“Tina was not told anything in an e-mail on Wednesday,” Roy said in an e-mail. “She was indeed pulled from the Super Bowl assignment, but it was to allow her time to make this important decision with her family. We can’t speak for Tina regarding the reasons for her decision, except to pass along the statement she gave us for the press release. Thanks for checking with me to help clarify these points.”

The press release, issued Tuesday, said Tina was moving on and that it was a mutual parting of the ways. Tina, whose hubby lives in New Jersey, wanted to be closer to the homefront, according to the statement. But we’re told that, in fact, Cervasio did want to re-sign with NESN but not at the lowball number they threw out.

“They had been jerking her around at every turn,” said another Cervasio fan. “But that’s just a BS move to pull her off the Super Bowl to get her to sign the contract.”

Tina didn’t return our calls yesterday. But, as we told you a couple of weeks ago, Cervasio was interviewed for a weekend sports anchor gig at FOX5 in New York. However, she has not yet landed the job. Do stay tuned . . .

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No clear winner yet in TV sports battle
The Capital Times

To listen to sports talk radio or read Internet message boards and newspapers, you would think a deluge of customers has abandoned Charter Communications for satellite to get the Big Ten Network and NFL Network.

Yet the available figures show little, if any, impact on Charter, and the company emphatically says its hard-line stance was the right decision.

"There would be much more negative impact to our customer numbers if we forced the high cost of both Big Ten Network and NFL Network on every customer, as they want us to, than (there has been) from taking the stand we have taken," said Charter regional spokesman John Miller.

Most of the available customer data is from the third quarter (July-September), which preceded the more high-profile games that really riled up local fans: the University of Wisconsin's conference football games, especially against Ohio State, on BTN; the Green Bay-Dallas showdown on NFL Network; and the start of UW's extensive basketball schedule on BTN.

Some expect that more significant Charter losses will be seen when fourth-quarter numbers are reported in a few weeks, although Nielsen's market share statistics show cable, which is mostly Charter, and satellite both gaining from July through November in the Madison Designated Market Area, which includes more than 370,000 TV households in 11 counties.

Cable has gone from 53 to 54 percent; alternate delivery, which includes satellite, from 28 to 28.5 percent; and broadcast from 19.7 to 18 percent.

"While the pain inflicted on the cable industry for not carrying the Big Ten Network during college football season has been moderate . . . we believe the pain is set to reach a whole new level as college basketball season tips off in November," cable analyst Richard Greenfield of New York-based Pali Research wrote in October.

Others point out that NFL Network's major impact began last season when its schedule included a Green Bay-Minnesota telecast, as well as the hassles in switching services and the fact that some people can't get satellite because trees or buildings block the signals or their landlord or condo association prevents them from installing a dish.

"There's a lot of venting but taking the step to actually switch is not a simple thing," said Barry Orton, a UW professor of telecommunications who doesn't think Charter suffered a jump in subscriber losses in the fourth quarter. "I think there's a lot more noise than actuality."

A big issue in switching to satellite TV is Internet access. A person can use Charter's high-speed Internet, but it is fairly costly outside of bundles with TV and/or phone services. Phone companies bundle with the satellite TV providers but DSL high-speed phone Internet doesn't reach everywhere. In addition, DSL requires landline phone service, which many have ditched for cell phones. There are satellite high-speed Internet services, but they are more expensive.

Even among those who have switched to satellite, it's no certainty that BTN and NFL Network were the deciding factors.

Scott Erickson, who bought a home in Oregon in June and recently switched to DirecTV from Charter, is a UW alumnus who played in the band and a huge sports fan, but the sports networks didn't drive his decision.

"I got Charter installed in June and I think I called them every week for eight weeks with some kind of problem," Erickson said. "I don't think I ever had my HD channels for more than five days in a row. The TV guide was always either to be announced or five channels off. My Video On Demand never worked. And I had billing problems. It took six calls and two office trips to apply the check I gave the technician when he came to install it. They figured out that they had one number off in my account number so my payment was applied to someone else's account. One call they gave me a $100 credit and when I called the next week they said they had no record of me calling in the last six weeks.

"(BTN and NFL Network were) a nice plus but there was no way I was going to stay with Charter if they had every channel in the world."

Erickson uses just a cell phone so for now he has kept his Charter Internet, but he's been looking into bundling Verizon phone, wireless and DSL with his DirecTV.

Nationally, Charter reported in its third-quarter earnings announcement that it lost about 40,000 basic cable customers. Coupled with Milwaukee and Fox Valley area cable provider Time Warner's reported third-quarter loss of about 83,000 basic cable customers, some asserted that BTN and NFL Network were driving significant business away from the companies.

That may be a reach.

First, the losses were concentrated in the Los Angeles and Dallas markets, where satellite and phone companies were heavily marketing their TV services, and where the Big Ten is a negligible factor. Charter said about 10,000 of its losses were in those markets, while Time Warner said about 66,000 of its losses were there.

Second, while the loss of basic cable subscribers hurt, both companies gained customers for their other services. Charter added 15,800 digital cable, 53,00 Internet and 102,300 phone, while Time Warner gained 128,000, 224,000 and 275,000 respectively.

Orton said cable companies have long been pushing customers from basic to digital, where they make more money and sell advanced services such as Video On Demand (VOD), so basic losses are good if they're turned into digital gains.

Still, Charter did lose more basic cable customers than it gained digital, which could indicate attrition in this region related to the sports networks, especially BTN.

Local statistics don't show that, however.

Citing competitive concerns, all of the companies routinely decline to detail customer counts beyond the national totals they report in their financial statements, but Charter does report total cable subscriber numbers to the city of Madison. And those figures were up solidly for each month of the third quarter of 2007 compared to the corresponding months the prior three years (see accompanying graphic).

Charter's Miller said the company has been benefiting from its bundles of services and its VOD service.

"The bundle provides so much value that it has driven those subscriber numbers much higher," Miller said. "And we're the only (Madison provider) with Video On Demand and you're going to see that product just explode with a wider array (of offerings) and hundreds of hours of high-def."

He conceded that BTN and NFL Network have cost Charter some customers, but reiterated the company's belief in its hard-line stance.

"The value decision is whether it's worth it to appease the diehard sports fan at the expense of the vast majority of non-diehard sports fans," he said. "We literally watch (customer migration) numbers day to day and if we feel that we're going into a position where the loss of customers is going to force us into taking a bad deal with the Big Ten Network and the NFL Network then we're going to have to make that decision but we haven't had to yet."

The No. 1 comment customers make to Charter, Miller said, is not to force them to take new services when they are added. Instead, put them on optional tiers, which has been the company's philosophy.

To that end, he said Charter offered both BTN and NFL Network the compromise of free a la carte-style carriage on the basis that the networks set the price and keep all the revenue from customers that buy them, but both networks said no.

Miller said only the ESPN family of channels has the potential by itself to sway any provider's business plan or profit-loss statement.

"They have proven to draw broad viewership over the years and we're more than willing to pay for that," he said.

Orton said the sports networks have been a public relations disaster for the cable companies, which have seen their stocks "tank" in recent months. Debt-plagued Charter, for example, briefly fell under $1 per share this month, after being as high as $4.93 in the past year.

Both DirecTV and DISH reported gaining customers in the third quarter, but DirecTV increased its gains while DISH's dropped compared to a year earlier (see accompanying graphic).

DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer said in a statement that the company saw a "healthy lift in Big Ten markets as a result of our PR/marketing campaign during the months of July, August and early September." (DirecTV ran a heavy marketing campaign centered on NFL Network last season.)

Mercer said DirecTV installers "wore out a lot of tires on truck rolls for new installations in these (Big Ten) markets."

In September, the local office of DirecTV installer Premier Communications reported that the normal wait of two to three days from order to installation was more than 10 days. While one customer reported waiting 20 days in December, Erickson said he waited less than five days.

Premier reportedly sent installers from other states here to help with the crush.

A recent call to Premier here was referred to the company's general counsel, Kathy Terry, who said it wasn't unusual for crews to be moved to meet demand, although she had no specific info about Madison.

She also had no specific info about wait times here, but said, "we would be unhappy if customers were waiting 10 days to get installs."

DISH, which focuses on value pricing in much of its marketing, blamed the weakening economy, as well as operational woes for the slower third-quarter growth.

"If you go down some subdivisions in America today, every other house has a for sale sign, and that particular house may have a dish on the roof or may have cable running into the house, and there is nobody living there," CEO Charlie Ergen told analysts. "You have that kind of backdrop where it is much more competitive environment because of the economy."

DISH spokesman Parker McConachie said the company has seen "a lot of activations" due to the "very powerful combination" of BTN and NFL Network.

Orton said the satellite companies also have been gaining from their far larger HD offerings -- now at or headed to 100 channels -- compared to cable. Charter plans to roughly double its HD lineup from a little more than 20 to about 40 channels over the next year or two, with the timing varying by market.

TDS, which bundles DISH with its phone and Internet service locally, has been gaining about 1,500 DISH customers a month, about double a year ago, President and CEO Dave Wittwer said.

"I think it's a combination of factors," Wittwer said. "We've run some pretty strong promotions. There's a great selection of high-definition channels on DISH. And certainly the Big Ten Network and a second season of the NFL Network have had an impact."

Wittwer added that TDS would be gaining DISH customers even if Charter had the sports networks, just not as many.

NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky said the network believes that it prompted more than 200,000 people to switch providers in 2007.

In promotions this year related to the two Dallas Cowboys NFL Network telecasts, the NFL said three different cable companies with carriage deals saw subscriber increase of 1022 percent, 497 percent and 425 percent above typical for the times frames, while a Jacksonville Jaguar game-related promotion saw a provider post a 230 percent increase.

"Texas is going nuts," Palansky said. "And we're doing very well in Los Angeles, where there's not a team so people are fans of any team and they're just trying to get their content."

BTN spokesman Mike Vest said the network doesn't have access to detailed numbers but that "based on everything we're hearing from across the Big 10 region, a lot of fans are doing what they need to do to see the Big Ten Network."

While BTN's heavy hoops schedule may prompt additional switches here into February, especially if the Badgers are doing well, after that there are no more high-profile game telecasts until next season, meaning much of the incentive to switch is gone.

And since many of those who would switch may already have switched, there may not be much impact next season if Charter and the networks still haven't reached a deal.

But that isn't a universal view.

"I that the opportunity is wide open," DISH's McConachie said. "I think you've got sports fans that for one reason or another didn't take advantage of the opportunity this season but are going to next season."

The wild card in the issue is the phone companies' proprietary TV services, both of which carry BTN and NFL Network, and which don't face the issues that hamper satellite such as trees and buildings blocking a signal.

If Verizon brings "FIOS," which uses fiber lines to transmit services into the home at ultra high speeds, to its Madison area communities, it will be after 2010. But AT&T has begun offering "U-verse," which is delivered to homes like an Internet service over the company's fiber and copper network, in the Milwaukee area and is expected to offer it here later this year or in 2009.

Palansky predicted that once AT&T launches U-verse in Madison, Charter will "change their tune" in negotiations.

"Verizon's eating (Charter's) lunch outside Dallas," he said. "It's been a big trend."

Miller noted that AT&T has struggled with numerous technical issues with U-verse "that will make a consumer sit back and think besides whether the service has Big Ten Network and NFL Network."

U-verse suffered a national hours-long outage on Oct. 21, and some analysts have been skeptical that the Internet protocol architecture used for U-verse will be able to scale up to handle millions of customers comfortably.

Orton predicted that AT&T "will pour marketing money like crazy" into the launch of U-verse here, but said it might not come in time to impact next football or even basketball season.

"Every single estimate for how many customers they'll reach cuts back on the previous one," he said. "I don't see it in Madison in any widespread way in 2008."
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BEIJING (AP) — The NBA has taken a stake in designing and running Beijing's Olympic basketball venue, during and after August's Summer Games.
NBA China - a joint venture of the NBA, broadcaster ESPN and Chinese companies - said Thursday it has joined promoter AEG and the Beijing Wukesong Culture and Sports Center to design, market, program and operate the stadium.

Basketball is growing in popularity in China, and the nation's top player, Houston center Yao Ming, is expected to be one of the Olympics' major stars. The NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball are all striving to crack the
China market and take advantage of the nation's burgeoning leisure spending.

The glass-walled indoor stadium in western Beijing seats 18,000, sitting beside baseball fields that will be torn down and replaced. There had already been an agreement among the NBA, the Beijing Olympics Organizing
Committee and FIBA - the game's world governing body - to run the facility during the Olympics.

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Office Tower to Rise in Harlem for Baseball TV Network
NY Times

Major League Baseball plans to build a home on 125th Street, Harlem’s premier boulevard, for its cable network, which is scheduled to make its debut early next year with some 50 million subscribers, real estate and baseball executives said on Wednesday.

The planned building, to be developed by Vornado Realty Trust, would rise 21 stories in an interlocking set of luminescent glass cubes at 125th Street and Park Avenue and would be the first prime office tower to be built in Harlem in more than three decades.

Vornado is also negotiating with Inner City Broadcasting, the second-largest radio broadcasting company aimed at black listeners, to move to the planned tower from its Midtown offices, according to real estate executives and local officials.

The Vornado project is an expression of how sky-high rents in Midtown Manhattan have contributed to Harlem’s renaissance, pushing residential developers in particular to build in the once economically struggling community. The Vornado project, to be called Harlem Park, would be the first major office tower in the area since the construction of the State Office Building, also on 125th Street, in the early 1970s.

But Vornado still has hurdles to cross, and if the project advances, it would not be the first to hold a groundbreaking at the site. Three years ago, Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg held a press conference there in anticipation of a $236 million hotel and retail project that never materialized.

Vornado is seeking an exception to proposed rezoning that would impose height restrictions on buildings along 125th Street before it starts construction in the spring, and Major League Baseball is negotiating with the city for an incentive package. Some elected officials are also seeking assurances that the project will provide jobs for local residents and will not displace small businesses in the area.

“We want to know about jobs and we want to protect indigenous businesses,” said city Councilwoman Inez E. Dickens, whose district includes the site, now a vacant lot.

Still, city officials are optimistic that a national developer like Vornado and a major tenant like Major League Baseball will propel the project forward.

“Harlem Park will be the area’s first Class-A office tower in decades and will attract major tenants, showcasing the economic growth under way in Harlem,” said Robert C. Lieber, the deputy mayor for economic development. “We’re still negotiating with Vornado and Major League Baseball, and if we are able to get it done, it will be a home run for the entire area.”

Real estate executives said that Major League Baseball was completing negotiations to lease about one-fifth of the planned 630,000-square-foot building. That would include the second and third floors for broadcast studios and editing, as well as the top two floors of the tower for the network’s executive and sales offices.

The area around Park Avenue is still frayed and has not seen as much development as other stretches of 125th Street. But Harlem has changed dramatically.

The average price for new apartments in Harlem has hit $895,000. The historic Apollo Theater on 125th Street is in the midst of a $96 million restoration and expansion. Two hotels are under development nearby, and national retailers like Old Navy, Starbucks and Sony Theaters have moved onto the boulevard. Columbia University has plans for a new $7 billion campus on 17 acres to the west.

Vornado took over the site at Park Avenue last year, after the hotel project died. The company said then that it viewed the spot as ideal for a commercial tower because it sits close to a subway stop, a Metro-North train stop and what will be the northern terminus of the Second Avenue subway. It has nearby highway access to the airports and has nostalgic appeal because it is also less than two miles south of 155th Street and the former site of the Polo Grounds, where the New York Giants played, and Yankee Stadium, in the Bronx.
Vornado hired Swanke Hayden Connell Architects. But it still needed a blue-chip anchor tenant for the project in order to begin construction. And Major League Baseball, which wanted to enter the lucrative world of cable television, needed space.

The league’s new network, like the channels already operated by the National Basketball Association, the National Football League and the National Hockey League, will offer a mix of live games, studio-based shows and archival, fantasy and reality programming. League-owned networks are vehicles to appeal to fans who want the type of concentrated fix on a single sport that they cannot get from ESPN or the local channels that carry teams’ games.

Unlike the N.F.L., baseball chose not to wage a protracted fight against cable operators to extend its subscriber rolls; it ensured major distribution by giving Comcast, Time Warner and Cox shares in the network that total 16.67 percent, the same stake that had already been provided to DirecTV for being the first to agree to carry the channel. Because of that deal, the baseball network is expected to be one of the most successful start-ups in television history.

After searching for space in Manhattan, Queens and New Jersey, the league’s broker, CB Richard Ellis, brought it to the Vornado project on 125th Street, where proposed rents are half those of similar buildings in Midtown. Tenants could also get tax breaks. Since Vornado does not expect to complete the tower until 2010, Major League Baseball has found temporary space in Secaucus, N.J.

The city is set to rezone 125th Street and restrict building heights in such a way that the tower would be about 40 feet too tall. The company is hoping for an exemption.

But local officials are also concerned that the current wave of gentrification is displacing not only longtime residents, but also small businesses on 125th Street that had stuck it out through the bad times in Harlem.

Major League Baseball’s decision “is an exciting way that they can deepen their relationship with the African and Hispanic communities,” said Robert J. Rodriguez, chairman of Community Board 11. “We’re interested in seeing how that develops. As a community, we recognize how an office development could add vibrancy to the surrounding community. But we remain concerned about how this development proceeds and about jobs for local residents.”

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Bills score agreement to play in Toronto
London Free Press

TORONTO -- The National Football League has reached an agreement with the Buffalo Bills that will allow them to play eight games in Toronto over the next five years, starting in 2008.

Two sources requesting anonymity said yesterday that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will make the announcement tomorrow at his state-of-the-union address in Arizona. The Bills, as well as the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL, would then hold a joint news conference in Toronto next week to officially unveil the details.

That, though, was news to Argos co-owner David Cynamon.

"I have no idea, I swear," he said when contacted yesterday. "I know about the Bills potentially coming here for games, but that's it."
However, news of the NFL's approval isn't surprising. Last week ESPN reported Buffalo would "almost certainly" get approval from league owners to play a regular-season game in Toronto in 2008.

The sources said the Bills will play a regular-season game at Rogers Centre in 2008 after the CFL season, avoiding possible conflicts with both the Argos and Ticats. As part of that deal, season-ticket holders with both clubs will be given some sort of priority at purchasing tickets to Buffalo's game here.
The Fan 590, a Toronto all-sports radio station, reported the Bills' agreement only ensures that the 2008 game won't conflict with the CFL schedule and that it wasn't clear whether that stipulation would also apply to the other four years of the deal.

The Fan also reported tickets would be done via lottery, with first crack going to Argos and Ticats season-ticket holders, then Bills season-ticket holders. The average price would reportedly be Cdn$250 a game and fans would have to purchase all eight tickets and pay for them upfront.

In October, Bills owner Ralph Wilson Jr. asked the NFL for permission to play eight home games in Toronto over five years, beginning in 2008. Buffalo would play one regular-season contest each year at Rogers Centre, with three exhibition contests sprinkled in over the five-year span.

The plan, Wilson said, was to an attempt to expand the Bills market as well as its fan base by playing games in a more vibrant Toronto marketplace. The hope would be that playing games in Canada might result in more
Canadian businesses purchasing the high-end seats at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

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Super Bowl Fever Sidelines Employees on Monday Morning
BusinessWire.com

CHELMSFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New survey findings suggest that an estimated 1.5 millioni employedii U.S. adults may call in sick to work the day after the Super Bowl. The “Super Bowl Fever Sidelines Employees on Monday Morning” survey of 1,430 adults employed full-time was sponsored by The Workforce Institute™ at Kronos® Incorporated and conducted online via Harris Interactive.

The survey shows that another three percent of respondents, or an estimated 4.4 millioniii employees, may arrive late to work the Monday after the Super Bowl. This number is in-line with the three percent of respondents who admit to, in the past, having arrived late to work the Monday after the Super Bowl. Interestingly enough, three percent also say that they have previously called in sick to work the Monday after the Super Bowl, indicating that the number of employees who actually do call in sick may be significantly higher than the number who say they might.

Super Bowl-related absences could be particularly striking for organizations with a high population of Gen X and Gen Y employees, as the majority of the employed adults who say they may call in sick the day after the Super Bowl are males and females between the ages of 18-34 years (4 percent and 3 percent, respectively).

Unscheduled absences, including those that organizations will experience after the Super Bowl, cost U.S. employers billions of dollars each year in lost productivity, impact production and customer service, and create employee satisfaction problems.
Until recently, few organizations were conscience of this hidden cost or were simply not focused on controlling it.

“Today, best practice organizations are using automated solutions to manage and apply attendance policies fairly and consistently throughout their organizations,” said Joyce Maroney, director of the Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated. “Managers benefit from the timely information, which enables them to quickly adjust to unscheduled absences without impacting production or employee satisfaction. Employees are empowered with self-service tools, which provide access to vacation and personal leave time balance information, encouraging them to plan appropriately for time away from work. This supports a healthy work/life balance and reduces unscheduled absences.”

Study Methodology
This Super Bowl survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Kronos Incorporated between January 24 and 28, 2008 among 3,091 U.S. adults aged 18 and over, of whom 1,430 were employed full-time. Results were weighted as needed for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.
Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the U.S. adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to be invited to participate in the Harris Interactive online research panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

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Fox Super Bowl Sunday Ad Take to Reach $260 Mil.
MediaWeek

Fox is expected to take in a total of $225 million in advertising revenue on Super Bowl Sunday, according to sources familiar with the situation. Sources explained that this will include the network's four-hour, pre-game show; Super Bowl game telecast; and hour-long episode of its hit drama, House, which leads out of the game. In addition, the Fox owned-and-operated TV stations are expected to take in about $35 million in ad revenue locally for the similar schedule of programming, bringing the total take to $260 million.

The Super Bowl telecast itself, which contains 63 ad units, is expected to bring in about $170 million, with the average spot selling for $2.7 million. Some of the multispot advertisers in the game paid less per unit; however, about five advertisers who bought individual units with ad time close to sellout, paid as much as $3 million per unit.