CYBERSPORTS DELAY THE GAMES AGAIN FOR TV, BUT NOT THE NET.

Byline: - Tom Hoffarth

The first thought after hearing of the joint decision for NBC's West Coast affiliates to tape-delay coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics from Salt Lake City is that the Internet stands to become a major media source. Again.

Ronda Thomas, founder of The Exordium Group, a consulting firm in Cupertino, told the San Francisco Chronicle the Internet will be a very reliable option for fans who want more detail.

``Given the wired-ness of the West Coast, people will be turning to the Internet,'' said Thomas. ``That puts much more emphasis on NBC and potentially MSN to deliver the goods on the Net.''

That said, Microsoft announced a partnership with MSNBC and NBC to operate the three major Winter Olympic sites, which helps NBC protect its $3.5 billion investment with the IOC for exclusive broadcast rights.

NBC decided on Microsoft two months after Quokka, which originally held the Olympic Web rights, went under in April. Microsoft, which gets the Web rights for free, will now run SaltLake2002.com, Olympics.com and NBCOlympics.com.

During the Sydney Games last summer, NBCOlympics.com had 5.6 million unique visitors.

--Industry reports indicate the NFL is about to sign a record Internet agreement with America Online, Viacom and CBS SportsLine - $110 million over five years, by far the richest Web sports-rights deal ever.

ESPN.com's current three-year contract with the NFL ended in May and did not turn a profit. No sport site, for that matter, has managed to be profitable.

--Major League Baseball reports more than 1 million users cast more than 2 million votes online in balloting that ended Saturday. Last year, it had 800,000 online voters.