CYBERSPORTS SPORTSLINE.COM TAKES HANDOFF AND PLOWS AHEAD.Byline: - Tom Hoffarth As many sports Internet sites walk on a month-to-month tightrope of survival, CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. SportsLine employees held their breaths waiting for their company to pull off its part in a $350 million new media deal with the NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga . When it finally happened, all was well at the Fort Lauderdale-based site. But if this deal fell apart? ``We were prepared to go on if ESPN.com had retained the contract with the league,'' said site CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and founder Michael Levy. ``We would have continued to fight the battle.'' How successfully? Who knows? Instead, the five-year agreement gives SportsLine, with TV partner CBS and America Online See AOL. , a lot to boast about. During last week's announcement, Levy referred to the deal as ``an incredibly powerful partnership that will certainly change the landscape of the new media business as it relates to sports.'' While AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. will become the ``official Internet Service Provider'' of the NFL, SportsLine is designated the ``official online sports partner'' of the league, in charge of producing NFL.com as well as SuperBowl.com, PlayFootball.com and NFLEurope.com. Each of the league's 32 teams will continue to hire their own site producers independently. SportsLine.com receives some other key NFL kickbacks, such as four video clips a week, an audio game of the week, plus contests and sweepstakes that will no doubt tie in with its successful fantasy-league operation. Because of all that, Levy sees the landscape of sports sites as a competition with only his company and ESPN.com left standing for the longer haul. ``To be successful today, you have to be part of a bigger media company that televises major sports, and with CBS as our partner, it's just us and ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network ,'' Levy said. ``I think this shows we've passed ESPN in everyone's eyes.'' According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the July 8 Nielsen/NetRatings of sports sites, ESPN.com had the most unique users at 2.1 million to CBS.SportsLine.com's 1.6 million, but the average time spent at the CBS site (14 minutes) was about twice as long as those who visited ESPN. In an interesting subplot sub·plot n. 1. A plot subordinate to the main plot of a literary work or film. Also called counterplot, underplot. 2. A subdivision of a plot of land, especially a plot used for experimental purposes. to this deal, high-profile NFL reporter Len Pasquarelli left CBS SportsLine early last week to join ESPN.com as a senior writer. He wrote that his decision to switch was ``based on the stability that ESPN offered contractually and the unknown viability of SportsLine for the long haul.'' |
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