Espn To Vie With Si On Newsstands

ESPN said it will start a biweekly magazine aimed at taking readers away from Sports Illustrated, one of the most profitable periodicals in the U.S.

ESPN Magazine will try to mimic the channel’s often irreverent style, while capitalizing on its surge in popularity. The magazine is scheduled to debut early next year, with an initial press run of 300,000, a network spokeswoman said. It could publish up to 40 issues annually with special editions.

ESPN, which Disney acquired when it bought Capital Cities/ABC in 1995, is the nation’s No.1 cable channel with more than 71 million households. Its web site, ESPN SportsZone is one of the most visited sites on the Internet, and it started a 24-hour sports news channel last year.

Sports Illustrated has a weekly circulation of 3.2 million.

Two Packers join TNT

Whoa, Nellie! Now there are two Keith Jacksons announcing football on TV.

One does college games for ABC, the other will be doing NFL games for TNT next season, along with former Packers teammate Sean Jones, who will quit football because of a back injury.

On Tuesday, TNT said it had hired the two ex-Packers to work in the studio for its Sunday night games next season.

Jackson, a tight end, announced on March 24 that he was retiring as a player, but Jones, a defensive end, had hoped until recently to re-sign with Green Bay as a free agent, even though he no longer would have been a starter.

Jones, 34, a one-time Pro Bowl selection, made his mark in the league as a pass rusher.

NBC, Irish have extended deal

NBC Sports and Notre Dame have agreed to a second five-year extension of their exclusive broadcast contract, carrying them through 2005.

The new deal is estimated to be worth as much as $45 million. NBC paid Notre Dame $35 million for its first five-year deal, which expired in 1995, and the network is in the second year of its first five-year extension, worth about $40 million for Notre Dame.