LATE BREAKING NEWS

Under an agreement with CBS, College Sports Television announced last week that it will present live national television coverage of four more college sports championship events, including women’s ice hockey, Division I, and men’s lacrosse, Division II and III. CBS, which owns the rights to 67 NCAA championships, has agreed to let the start-up sports network air these championships. The network launched six months ago and is carried by cable operators Adelphia and Insight Communications as well as satellite provider DirecTV. NBC is expected to finalize new contracts with Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy cast this week in advance of new episodes starting Nov. 18 and a heavy holiday marketing blitz that includes releasing its single and soundtrack. Each member of the Fab Five is expecting his per-episode paycheck to be boosted from $3,000 to $8,000. Starting Dec. 1, United Airlines will offer its consumers Mag Rack, Rainbow Media’s on-demand programming focusing on specialized interests. The first on-demand episodes available on United Airlines flights include Mission: Space, Inside Weddings and Traveler’s Guide. The airline expects 2.2 million travelers on its planes during the month of December. Cablevision Systems extended the free-offer period for its VOOM satellite service from the end of January to the end of February.… Coors, Motorola and Southwest Airlines signed up late last week to advertise on the new NFL Network launching Tuesday.… German TV inked a hunting license carriage deal with Time Warner Cable’s corporate office last week.… Net2Phone on Friday filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 10.5 million shares. Proceeds from the offering may be used for general corporate purposes and capital spending, the company said.… Nielsen Media Research inked a multiyear agreement with the 35 affiliates that make up the Fox Television Station Group. As part of the agreement, nine Fox affiliates in the top ten TV markets will sign up for local people meter service.… Next week cable operator Bresnan Communications will yank Wyoming’s adult content, including Playboy and the Hot Network, off digital cable.… Las Vegas-based Wright Entertainment agreed to pay $9 million to buy a majority of Urban Television Network Corp.‘s common shares late last week.… Comcast faced down a backlash in Detroit last week over its decision to drop local public TV station WTVS; the company is in the final states of negotiating a ten-year franchise agreement in that market.cable programming.… Clarification: The chart on page 16 in the Oct. 27 issue refers to the highest-rated local events on Fox Sports Net. The Cubs-Cardinals game on FSN Chicago on Sept. 3 garnered a 14.1 rating, not a 9.5 ratings, and the Diamondbacks-Giants game that ran on FSN Arizona on Aug. 2 received a 14 rating, not a 13.7.… Cable World is moving to a bimonthly schedule. The next issue will be published on Nov. 17.