None of the statements that ESPN made about their loss of satellite time rings true. For one thing, there are an amazing amount of slots of satellite feeds, and ESPN has two slots they use *just* for downlinks, besides the time they "rent" elsewhere. And these things are *not* stacked up in queue to get time--there has to be upwards of 200 transponders in the ESPN downlink footprint that ESPN could easily grab time off of. Also, anything in the BoWash corridor goes down standard phone lines instead or in addition to the satellite downlink. A lot of the stadiums also have closed-circuit fiber-optic capabilities, and ESPN uses that, too. I've seen them use phone and fiber from Detroit and St Louis, as well as from areas on the east coast. They haven't come up with a reason yet that makes any technical sense. Laurie