DISNEY PULLS A POWER PLAY; FOX READY TO SURRENDER FINAL YEAR OF NHL DEAL.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

Disney, about to make the NHL officials the happiest guys on Earth, should find out any day now that its preposterous decision to throw $600 million at the league so it can retain full custody of the TV rights starting with the 1999-2000 season has been approved.

As a bonus - or is it a curse? - it'll probably come gift-wrapped with the '98-'99 season as well.

The deadline passed a week ago for incumbent NHL rights-holder Fox to match Disney's offer (all it has to do is agree to pay 90 percent of the offer).

Fox might be crazy, but it isn't stupid. The network hasn't officially passed, but consider it a pocket veto.

The delay in the announcement is caused by Fox's attempt to hit the dump button on the $45 million final year of its five-year, $155 million deal. Fox has lost about $12 million on last season alone.

Rupert Murdoch knows all about overpaying for sports TV rights if it means establishing a hold on something worthwhile. A few years ago, Murdoch's troops were convinced the NHL could be the sport of the '90s - they even went so far as to approve a glowing-blue puck.

But then those pesky ratings showed - again - that a national package of games, even if sold to viewers as regional broadcasts, aren't worth more than a bunch of shaved ice. Might as well show live coverage of the Miramar Air Show every weekend.

Disney's desired need to spend $350 million for the NHL as a staple to ESPN and ESPN2 programming (in addition to a $250 million deal for ABC) is greater than Fox's need to fill a few Saturday or Sunday afternoons in mid-winter. Fox already has what it wants from the NHL - regional team coverage on the Fox Sports Net (with 19 of the 20 teams in the U.S.). Fox will gladly give Disney the package and laugh out loud as it pays three times what Fox feels the deal is worth.

And don't think Ted Turner won't have a say in all this Murdoch-Eisner mess eventually. His Atlanta Thrashers join the league next season.

NOT-SO-SMALL SOLDIERS

In the sports-media octagon, there are plenty of us who actually enjoy getting our brains kicked in once in awhile.

Some will even rush out to buy one of those cute little 18-inch DSS systems because we enjoy paying hundreds of dollars a month for sports programming.

Expect the small dish sales to ignite even more. Because the NFL is starting up soon? Hardly.

Try tonight's Commando Knockout Challenge II, live from the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C. (Think Ultimate Fighting Championship meets ``Officer and a Gentleman'' without Debra Winger mucking it up.)

Assuming you missed Commando Knockout Challenge I, a brief debriefing:

Two teams of 11 military men - Team USA vs. The World Team - slug it out in a ring shaped like (what else?) a pentagon. They can use whatever hand-to-hand combat discipline they feel will achieve the desired effect during the three-round battle.

So who's the referee, some guy from Switzerland?

The U.S. team will have Navy Seals and Army Special Forces, not George Peppard and Mr. T. The World Team has Russian KGB, British SAS and Lebanese Special Commando Force members.

In their last battle on Jan. 31, Team USA rallied for a 6-5 victory. How? Don't ask. We won't tell.

So let's get this straight: The UFC can't get a license to hold its human cockfights anywhere on U.S. soil because it's considered too barbaric, but if you're on Uncle Sam's payroll, then it's perfectly fine to find some back alley on Tobacco Road to settle these non-Cold War disputes in a manly fashion?

Again, they'll deliver an 11-fight card, and each can go the full three 1-1/2-minute rounds. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is get a dish, turn to USSB Channel 905 at 6 p.m. and pay $14.95.

Or don't, and go out to see ``Saving Private Ryan'' again.

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH

AM-1150 will carry Clippers games this season - if there is one - and do so with a new radio voice. The team recently decided not to renew the contract of analyst/play-by-play man Rory Markas. . .

Major League Baseball's decision to take back three Sunday night games in September from ESPN that the network had planned to farm out to ESPN2 because of its coverage of NFL games could mean - do you believe in miracles! - one extra Dodgers game shown locally. Channel 5 has first dibs on the Sept. 6 Dodgers-Giants game from Dodger Stadium, but with a 5:05 p.m. start, Fox Sports West 2 will likely get it. ESPN has the scintillating Philadelphia Eagles-Arizona Cardinals matchup that night as the opener to its new full-season NFL Sunday night package. . .

No more Tom Kirkland on Fox Sports Net. The anchor has packed up the family and relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he'll be the sports director of NBC affiliate KSL-TV. . .

Fox sends Saturday's Houston-Chicago baseball game to 48 percent of the country - Randy Johnson starts for the Astros, but Kerry Wood doesn't for the Cubs, going tonight instead. L.A. is among the 29 percent who will take in another potential Dodgers humiliation to the Braves in Atlanta.

SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth

WHAT SMOKES

Since Monday, Time Warner Cable in the West San Fernando Valley has snuck in ``sneak peek'' of ESPN Classic (formerly Classic Sports Network) on Channel 65. Just be warned the freebie runs out at the end of the month. Meantime, all living and breathing viewers are required to call (800) 585-PEEK to let those who monitor such things know that they in fact saw the promotion (even if they're not in Time Warner's coverage), fully embrace the idea and want it added to the system ASAP, even (and especially) if it means knocking out the Fox Family Channel.

WFTV, the ABC affiliate in Orlando, Fla., has moved the kids' show called ``Young America Outdoors'' from 1 p.m. to 9 a.m. so it can carry live the ArenaBowl XII - HEY, THAT'S AN INDOOR FOOTBALL GAME - between the Orlando Predators and Tampa Bay Storm. If the kids don't want to watch, they can go outside and play.

WHAT CHOKES

With the addition of live coverage for all four U.S. regional finals that lead up to the most terrifying TV experience any 12-year-old kid must endure this side of having to stand next to Summer Sanders on a Nickelodeon Channel game show, ESPN2 has officially reached the full saturation level at the Little League World Series tournament. The nine pre-final tournament games on ESPN2, starting with two Sunday, are punctuated with team coverage of a made-for-inferior-cable TV All-Star Game as well as a hitting contest Friday, which has traditionally been the only day of the week that the tykes get any sort of free time to enjoy spit-wad contests and drop cherry bombs in the Williamsport, Penn., restrooms. Whatever happened to ABC just covering the final game as part of ``Wide World of Sports'' - and witnessing the robust Chinese Taipei kids drive the U.S. coach to drink in the tiny caged dugout - and then moving on to some cliff diving from Acapulco?

WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV

The top 10 Nielsen-rated sports events (with their share numbers) on L.A. television from Aug. 13-19:

Event Date Station Rt/Sh. (x)

NFL: Dallas-New England 8/17 KABC 7.8/15

NFL: Oakland-Green Bay 8/16 Fox 7.5/17

NFL: Seattle-San Fran. 8/15 KCBS 6.8/16

PGA Championship: Final rnd. 8/16 KCBS 6.2/15

PGA Championship: 3rd rnd. 8/15 KCBS 5.4/15

Dodgers-Atlanta 8/14 KTLA 4.6/9

Dodgers-Atlanta 8/15 Fox 4.1/12

Angels-Toronto 8/14 KCAL 3.9/9

Angels-Toronto 8/13 KCAL 3.2/7

Acura Tennis final 8/16 KNBC 2.0/5

(x) One rating point equals 50,092 TV homes in Los Angeles; a share is the percentage of all the TV sets in use at that time.

CAPTION(S):

2 Boxes

BOX: (1) SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth (see text)

(2) WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV (see text)