Dot-coms do mustn't-see TV.(Brief Article)

By power vested in me as a Junior Online Sports Surfer, I pronounce the Internet honeymoon over.

A wondrous courtship, it was. (Click back on your browser.) First the 'Net delivered up-to-the-minute scores, making 900-scorelines obsolete; then, more statistics in one night than a year's worth of TSN; then, "real-time" play-by-play; then, courtesy of Mark Cuban's pluck, live broadcasts. All this produced informed fans and millions of wasted hours at office, desks.

Cyberspace was the land of the free and the home of the brave.

That axiom rings half-hollow. This season NBA.com restricted broadcasts, selling season "subscriptions" for $39.95. Baseball, consolidating web sites under MLB.com, followed with GameDay audio memberships for $9.95. What's next, paying for Napster?

Anyway, they say the Next Wave--watching TV on the computer! (aka streaming video)--is hem NHL.com offers video libraries, NFL.com version 8.0 will have eye candy, and NBA.com, well, it's bent on global domination, like Bill Gates. So ambitious it's a satellite/cable channel, NBA.com's hyperintemctivity includes "highlight reels" from games in progress. A declared goal of David "Broadband" Stern is to put telecasts on your laptop.

NBA.com made big-league history by webcasting a Kings-Mavericks game, advertising 360-degree views and optional Mandarin play-by-play (Wang Zhizhi had joined the Mavs). The world was watching, right?

Wrong. PCs turned into pumpkins, not TVs. The webcast was sadly state-of-the-art, like a Victoria's Secret fashion show. Those who could log on got a 4-inch screen, bad color and grainy images at about one frame per second or hour using a T1 connection. (Oh. Wang didn't play, heightening U.S.-China tensions.)