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To: Marc Newman who wrote (12946)	2/2/2000 3:16:00 PM
From: Mr. Aloha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14266

ERTS up 5+ points so far today. Near $90. 2 million PlaystationII's on the way. Keep on going....

To: Marc Newman who wrote (12946)	2/2/2000 5:20:00 PM
From: Brian MacDonald	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 14266

Marc, I noticed refenced to the following on the Yahoo Board. He's right, this will be BIG news if it happens. With this sort of deal in the making, wrestling is not about to die anytime soon!! Brian ------------ Rivals go to the mat for wrestling rights CBS, Fox grappling for WWF By CHRIS PURSELL, JOHN DEMPSEY, February 2, 2000 Sumner Redstone and Rupert Murdoch are grappling to dislodge the TV and cable rights to the World Wrestling Federation from the iron grip of Barry Diller. Sources say Redstone's Viacom/CBS was convinced it had locked up a deal with the WWF as late as a week ago. The proposed contract, which has gone back to the drawing boards, would keep the popular “WWF Smackdown” on UPN and shift the five weekly cablecasts on Diller's USA Network — including the Monday-night hours “WWF Raw” and “WWF War Zone,” the two highest-rated regular series on cable TV — to the CBS-owned TNN: The Nashville Network when USA's contract expires. The Viacom/CBS offer includes an undisclosed cash payment for an equity stake in the WWF, according to the source. The WWF is all ears, because Viacom/CBS is promising to engineer an unprecedented multiyear marketing campaign that would promote the wrestling matches on MTV (which Viacom owns); on 170 CBS radio stations, many of which appeal to the 12- to 24-year olds who make up the biggest proportion of the wrestling audience; and across all the Web sites controlled by Viacom and CBS. Contract in force The WWF's contract with USA still has a year and a half to run, although the federation's prospectus says that one of the parties can terminate the contract earlier if circumstances so dictate. Vince McMahon, chairman and CEO of the WWF, may be holding off as he entertains an offer from Murdoch's Fox Corp., which, sources say, is also prepared to put up cash for an equity stake in the federation as well as shift WWF programming to Fox and cabler FX. Both suitors may also dangle the producer carrot in front of the WWF as well, providing an outlet for other programming produced by the WWF, such as gameshows or comedies. But McMahon's staff sells the advertising time on the TV and cable shows of the WWF, and advertising revenues would fall dramatically if the four shows on USA (which gets in to 77.2 million households) gravitated to Murdoch's FX cable network (which reaches only 45.1 million households). Some of that revenue gap could be made up if “Smackdown” shifted from UPN, which clears an average of only 84% of the U.S., to the Fox Network, which hits 99%. Ratings stranglehold The main reason Viacom/CBS and Fox are inundating McMahon with candy and flowers is that WWF ratings are nothing short of spectacular. UPN has delivered an average rating of 4.6 for the first 19 telecasts season to date — 171% higher than the movies the network was running in the time period in 1998-99. For the USA Network, the two-hour Monday-night event averaged a smashing 6.3 rating in cable homes for January, a 17% gain over the wrestling bouts in January 1999. So Diller is not going to let the WWF go without a fight. In a statement, Stephen Chao, president of programming and marketing for USA Networks, said, “We absolutely plan to continue our relationship” with the WWF. All a spokesman for the WWF would say about deal negotiations is that “the USA Network has been our home for 17 years.” variety.com --------------------------- NOTES FROM BOB by Bob Ryder 2/2/00 According to a report in Variety, CBS and Fox are fighting to grab WWF programming away from the USA Network. The Variety story says a deal was almost in place last week that would have kept Smackdown with UPN and moved the USA programs to the CBS owned TNN cable network. The CBS offer reportedly included a proposal for CBS to obtain an equity position in the WWF. The deal is up in the air pending a similar offer from Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corp, which is also prepared to put up cash for an equity stake in the WWF according to Variety. The Variety report says the WWF has a year and a half left on their USA deal but that the contract could be terminated if certain circumstances dictate. This is potentially a huge story, fs.dai.net