FOOTBALL ROCKS IN RATINGS WARS.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

It's Monday night. On one Fox cable channel, you've got the Dodgers and Giants starting a four-game series that'll probably determine who stays home in October. On the other Fox channel, the Angels and A's are duking it out for the American League West lead.

Oh, there's a blowout on ``Monday Night Football'' over on ABC between two East Coast teams.

So which game had more eyeballs glued to the screen in Los Angeles?

Think blue? Think again.

This, my hardball friends, has become a hard-and-fast football town.

Continuing to defy logic, the NFL's grip on TV viewers means that, even in L.A., anything of substance the great American Pastime has to offer is getting the life choked out of it.

The Philadelphia Eagles' 37-7 victory over the Washington Redskins, which was a 23-7 game at halftime, brought a 12.4 Nielsen rating in L.A. Each rating point equals 53,180 homes here, so that's about 660,000 TV sets turned on to it - not counting the thousands of people who hung out in bars or restaurants to watch.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers' suspenseful 7-6 victory over the Giants that left both teams tied for the National League wild-card lead and had manager Jim Tracy calling it the ``best game I've ever been involved with as a player or coach'' registered a sizzling 3.0 rating on FSN2.

Over on FSN, the A's ninth-inning 4-3 triumph over the Angels that left both teams deadlocked atop the AL West did a resounding 2.1 rating.

Combined, the two baseball games didn't have half the audience as the NFL snoozer.

You figure it out. Or why bother?

After critics were sending doomsday signals about the future of ``MNF'' after the rating for Week 1 was the smallest opener in eight seasons, the fact remains this prime-time event is the most-watched show across the country for two weeks running. And ratings across almost every demographic are up from a year ago.

In those same two weeks of ``MNF,'' L.A. has done better than the national average - 12.7 vs. 12.3.

The closest L.A.'s two critical baseball series could come to that number this week was a 4.3 rating for the Angels' 1-0, 10-inning victory Tuesday - mainly because that game was on over-the-air KCAL Channel 9 and not relegated to cable, which, believe it or not, is not a vital component of every four-sided dwelling in these parts.

Tuesday's Dodgers-Giants game inched up to a 3.2, then fell to 2.7 Wednesday. Back on FSN on Wednesday, the Angels-A's game shrunk to 1.8.

For what it's worth, the Rams-Bucs game this Monday has no local baseball to compete with on TV. It's just as well. Baseball fans need a breather from all that exhaustive TV watching.

--More ratings rants: NFL games occupied the top four spots in last week's national TV Nielsen ratings, a first during the regular season.

Aside from ``MNF,'' three Sunday games took spots 2-3-4: The 4 p.m. EDT game on CBS (12.0), the 1 p.m. EDT game on Fox (10.3) and the 1 p.m. EDT game on CBS (10.0). Each of those ratings points equal 1.05 million TV homes.

--More NFL on the way: In a wide-range interview with The Sports Business Daily this week, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said digital cable is the next likely TV platform for the league to use for expanding revenues, with an NFL-specific channel - such as what the NBA has discussed - being possible.

``We have had discussions with a lot of people in the television business about an NFL channel,'' Tagliabue said. ``We don't want to do that if it just cannibalizes existing channels of distribution.''

The push for digital cable, which will allow entities such as The Tennis Channel and even a martial-arts channel called Blackbelt TV to become part of the programming menu soon, also will impact the future of ``NFL Sunday Ticket.''

DirecTV's $150 million annual contract with the NFL to offer all out-of-market games every Sunday for $149 a year to customers will expire after this season. DirecTV reportedly generates $284 million in revenue from that package.

This week, the NFL hired former ESPN and ABC Sports president Steve Bornstein as a consultant to specifically deal with the issue. Industry figures indicate digital cable could expand from its current 17 million subscribers to 40 million over the next five years.

DirecTV has 11 million subscribers, which could increase to 18 million if the merger with EchoStar's Dish Network is approved by the FCC.

Meanwhile, the league has the option to reopen network contracts in February even though the current deals with Fox, CBS, ABC and ESPN run through 2005. Asked how important it is to resolve expansion to L.A. before the next TV negotiations, Tagliabue replied: ``It didn't seem to be a factor when we negotiated last time.''

--Press release fodder: Newbury Park stunt woman and GT car racer Belinda Endress is profiled on the Women's Entertainment Channel's half-hour series ``Winning Women'' (today, 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.). ... Jimmy Johnson, part of the original foursome for the ``NFL on Fox'' Sunday morning studio show from 1994-96, will fill the chair next to Howie Long for the rest of this season. When Cris Collinsworth was moved to game coverage, the plan was to fill his seat with guest analysts (John Elway was there last week.) ... TBS uses Ron Thulin and former Tennessee wide receiver Charles Davis on the USC-Kansas State telecast Saturday (4 p.m.). The network also has a SAP audio feed using the Atlanta Braves' Spanish radio team of Jose Medellin and Marcelo Godoy.

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