Media

NBC's NBA ratings are showing no sign of improvement. After a regular season that saw national ratings plunge 21% from last year and 29% from two years ago, Nielsen Media national ratings for the prime time playoff game between the Utah Jazz and Seattle SuperSonics were down 32% from the same spot a year ago.

LOS ANGELES: Andrew Gellatly, SportBusiness.com new media editor, reports from the Interactive Sports 2000 conference.

Enic, the UK-based sports, media and leisure group with controlling interests in European club?s Slavia Prague and Vicenza as well as minority stakes in Glasgow Rangers, FC Basel and AEK Athens, has reported greatly increased half-year profits. The company made substantial gains on player trading, and the sale of part of its holdings in AEK and Autonomy, the new media company.

Squash media and enthusiasts will be able to participate in the sport's first live worldwide interview with the world's leading women players - including England's world champion and world No1 Cassie Campion and Australia's former three-times world champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald - during the Com4Net Munich Open which gets underway in Germany today.

The European Union and its member states could be treated as a single country and only host two grands prix a year in the future, according to International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley.

The court-appointed official sent in to untangle the financial situation at Atletico Madrid has warned that the club is "technically bankrupt" and in urgent need of 13,000 million pesetas ($74.75 million), according to local media reports.

Peter Velappan, the general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation, has attacked the decision by Saudi Arabian club Al Ahli to withdraw from the semifinals of this year's Asian Cup Winners' Cup.

German media firm, Kinowelt, is seeking to broadcast football league games live in cinemas from August.

The European Commission is today expected to approve the DM2.9bn tie-up between UK and German pay-TV groups, BSkyB and Premiere World, reports The Financial Times.

The future of the British Open squash championships, which came near being abandoned more than once in the last few years because of the scarcity of sponsors, has been made secure by a deal between the Squash Rackets Association and Fablon Investments.

Microsoft is poised to step up its positioning in digital television by joining forces with NDS, which supplies software for pay-TV operators.

BSkyB has signed a long-term agreement with Tottenham Hotspur to design, develop and maintain the club?s Internet site.

ESPN Star Sports has secured an exclusive cable and satellite deal with the ATP Tour for the new Tennis Masters Series, previously known as the Mercedes Super 9 Series and the Tennis Masters Cup for the 2000 though 2002 seasons.

International Olympic Committee money man Dick Pound has launched an extraordinary attack on Sydney Games chief Michael Knight, accusing him of consistently underselling the success of his own Olympics.

SFX Entertainment and XM Satellite Radio have announced an exclusive sponsorship deal that will introduce XM?s new band of national, digital radio to the millions who attend SFX?s more than 24,000 events annually.

Broadband Sports has named Marla Messing, the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup President and CEO, as vice president of partner marketing, effective Feb. 7, 2000.