FOX NOW PICKING FROM SALE RACK.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

It's a move that, despite being executed swiftly and quietly, could rattle the future of TV sports down to its foundation.

Within six hours Wednesday, Fox allowed its most prized possession, NFL analyst John Madden, simply to walk away and complete a deal with rival ABC to join ``Monday Night Football.'' This, just months after allowing Pat Summerall to head elsewhere as well.

How can that be allowed to happen? Do networks have salary caps now?

Rupert Murdoch, the man in charge of the cash at Fox, sent out an e-mail to his employees several weeks ago, right after News Corp. reported its latest earnings plunge through the second quarter of the fiscal year. He might be able to explain it best.

``We all have to face the frustration arising from the worst advertising slump in many years. Although it seems to have flattened, there are few signs of any return to the levels of two years ago. This affects too many parts of our business. ...

``The challenging economic conditions of the past year and a half have created, in my opinion, more than a temporary operational slowdown. We are entering a new era for media companies: a highly competitive period marked by tight corporate budgets and carefully controlled costs, and one in which we must learn to excel in spite of much painful cost-cutting and new efficiencies.''

In other words, all things being equal, Fox will do its shopping at Pic-N-Save until the economy turns around. Does anyone take coupons for the ``First and Ten'' yellow line?

Fox can have that business philosophy - Murdoch isn't a financial nitwit - but ABC's ability to land Madden wasn't a matter of winning a bidding war, either.

First, ABC only had to spend $5 million a season - only 11 players in the NFL make that much per year, but it's the same amount as Fox basically was offering Madden in a three-year contract extension. It paid him about $7.5 million last season and would have paid him the same in 2002.

The reason here is ABC has the cachet, not cash. The ``Monday Night'' seat next to Al Michaels continues to be the gold standard for almost any NFL analyst, even one with Madden's storied career.

``Money had nothing to do with it,'' said Madden's agent, Sandy Montag. ``This had nothing to do with leverage or anything like that. John and I felt it was the right move.''

``The economics of the deal came quickly,'' said Howard Katz, ABC Sports president. ``When someone like Madden is available, you've got to get him.''

Second, with Mickey Mouse's money cushioning the blow for both ABC and ESPN, there are more budgets from which to draw to pay Madden, who also will contribute to ESPN's ``Countdown'' and ``SportsCenter'' shows.

``It should be noted that the combination of ABC and ESPN helps make these corporate decisions,'' Katz said. ``The fact John will be able to work for ESPN helps makes it a smarter corporate play.''

But what does all this say about the future of network sports if Fox was willing to cut loose its greatest asset to save money and ABC is willing to overhaul the crew for its most prized show in hopes of boosting ratings?

``You'll have to draw your own conclusions,'' Katz said.

How much will that cost us?

--Walking race: You're supposed to give yourself time to train for a marathon. For Sunday's coverage of the 17th Los Angeles Marathon, newcomer KCAL Channel 9 is ready to sprint and then see what happens.

KCOP Channel 13 had covered every L.A. Marathon live since the first in 1986. The sale of the station last fall to Cox Broadcasting meant that all its TV contracts had to be renegotiated, and Cox decided it wasn't interested in keeping the race.

L.A. Marathon president Bill Burke contacted executive producer and director Phil Olsman, who had coordinated TV coverage of the first seven races for KCOP but then went to work for Fred Roggin Productions in Burbank to do the ``Roggin's Heroes'' show that was syndicated in the early '90s. Since then, Olsman had been working on dozens of TV pilots.

Olsman helped Burke construct a new TV package and they bought the time on KCAL. The station, in turn, has promoted the race and supplied many of its technical people and equipment.

``We just started all over from scratch,'' Olsman said. ``When you walk into a TV station that's never done it before, it's a big undertaking. My idea is crawl before you walk. We can't set this up to fail. It's a different approach from past years, but we now want to let it expand gently.''

The first noteworthy change is a three-hour telecast instead of five, starting at 8:30 a.m. That also shifts the focus a bit to covering it as a sporting event of elite racers rather than a community fun run.

``They'll only be about 100 runners who finish in that time frame,'' Olsman said, noting the women's winner will come in about 15 minutes before they go off the air. ``KCOP had an extensive postrace, but the truth is, that made it an expensive event to cover. We had to keep the costs under control. It's a narrow approach that's more cost-effective.''

The 24-camera production will still have four helicopters - three to transmit TV signals from remote locations back to the production truck.

KCAL's Alan Massengale will act as the marathon studio host with longtime marathon broadcaster Toni Reaves. Many KCAL people are involved in front and behind the cameras in what's called the nation's largest local broadcast of an event like this. But KCAL's commitment only can be for a year because it, too, recently underwent ownership changes, with Viacom purchasing the station from Young Broadcasting.

KCAL senior vice president and station manager Pat McClenahan said he has every reason to believe an event such as the L.A. Marathon would continue to be something the new owners want to keep for the station.

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--CBS announced this week that Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason are joining ``The NFL Today'' studio show. Which means we won't have Granny Glanville and Mike Ditka to turn away from every Sunday morning? Darn. Worst of luck to both of them finding a new career.

WHAT CHOKES

--What about Bill? CBS' broadcast pairings for the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament has Matt Goukas replacing Bill Walton as Dick Enberg's analyst, and the new team will call Saturday's UCLA-Oregon contest. Because of Walton's commitment to NBC as a lead NBA analyst on weekends, the Peacock wouldn't cut him loose. ``Put it this way, if I were in charge, things would be different,'' Walton said. ``My goal is to do every game for every network.''

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SOUND BYTES (see text)