CBS, Fox, Pax run with Paralympic Games

Sydney installment to be most-televised yet

By JOHN DEMPSEY

NEW YORK -- The Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities have scored TV deals with CBS Sports, Fox Sports Net and Pax TV, making the 2000 event from Sydney in mid- to late-October the most extensively covered since the Games began in 1960.

A company called We Media Sports has engineered the deals for the Paralympics, which take place from Oct. 18-29 in the same arenas as the regular 2000 Summer Olympics, which NBC will cover for 17 days beginning Sept. 15.

Fox Sports Net will do a late-morning half-hour recap program highlighting each day's Paralympics competition on Oct. 18-20 and Oct. 23-27.

Pax TV will present a half-hour nightly feature at midnight for 12 straight nights, from Oct. 18-29.

CBS Sports has scheduled a two-hour retrospective of the 2000 Paralympics for Dec. 31, in a time period adjacent to its coverage of the NFL's AFC wild-card game.

We Media also plans to send out live Webcast coverage every day of the Paralympics.

The overall executive producer of the coverage is the veteran Rick Gentile, who has won 10 Emmys and produced three Winter Olympic Games for CBS.