ESPN

Woods has long been a viewer magnet for PGA tournaments, but with him sitting this one out, ESPN and NBC can expect lower ratings.

Fox Sports began the auction for Olympic television rights Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland, by offering to buy the next four Games starting with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. ESPN and NBC Sports will make their offers to the International Olympic Committee today, when a winner is expected to be declared.

With live sports gaining ratings and growing ad revenues, ESPN used its upfront presentation Tuesday to reinforce its position, introduce new shows, show off new technology and remind sponsors how it helps drive sales.

In an attempt to sweeten its Olympic bid next month, ESPN is tossing around the idea of supplementing its TV rights offer with a marketing deal from its parent company. A deal being considered would make Disney a member of The Olympic Partner (TOP) program, the International Olympic Committee’s marquee sponsorship group, and grant the entertainment company licensing and intellectual property rights.

Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger on Tuesday said he did not believe the NFL work stoppage would level ESPN’s fourth-quarter ad picture, noting that college football should do much to help take the sting out of a lost pro football campaign.

How much will ABC dance away with this spring? Can CBS ride the Hawaii 5-0 wave? Can the new bosses turn around NBC? Here’s a handy guide to what the big names in TV have going for them, and what baggage they carry.

ESPN launched an app that allows some pay-TV subscribers to watch its flagship network on Apple’s iPad, iPod and iPhone anywhere.

ESPN, which launched a 3D network last summer, doesn’t even have exact numbers on how many people are putting on their glasses and tuning in. But the focus is on working out the kinks of broadcasting sports in 3D, so the network will be ready when the audience starts to grow.

ESPN and HBO lead the network pack with most nominations for this year’s Sports Emmy Awards. There are some 150 nominees in 33 categories.

TV cable cord-cutting? One of the biggest cable networks says it’s a small, almost microscopic amount — and shrinking in number. ESPN says just 0.18% of all U.S. TV households cut their cable service in the fourth quarter of 2010 and first quarter of 2011. That comes to roughly 209,000 TV homes out of an entire 116 million U.S. TV universe, according to Nielsen.

If an NFL work stoppage causes the cancellation of games next season, the biggest threat to television networks could be the loss of audiences that tune in early or stick around after each contest, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report Monday. ESPN will be the “least affected financially, despite its reliance on sports,” it concluded.

The NFL and the players’ union decided Thursday to keep the current collective bargaining agreement in place for an additional 24 hours so that negotiations can continue.

U.S. District Judge David Doty on Tuesday overturned an earlier ruling and said the league’s TV contracts with CBS, NBC, ESPN, Fox and DirecTV — which allowed the NFL owners to still be paid a combined $4 billion in rights fees even if there were no NFL games next season — violated the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association. That’s a big win for the union and a blow to the league. But, winners and losers aside, the judge might have just equaled the playing field and hastened a settlement.

ESPN’s top content executive said the company continues to negotiate with the NFL on an extension of its rights deal, but indicated any agreement will have to include multiplatform streaming rights. Distribution will be on “a wider, deeper basis,” said John Skipper.

Verizon FiOS TV customers now have online access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Buzzer Beater as part of a broader agreement between Disney and  the phone company.

ESPN’s advertising sales revenues are growing at a faster clip than any other cable television network, and all signs point to continued gains leading up to the spring upfront period.

The NFL collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on March 4, and as both sides remain entrenched, a lockout now seems all but inevitable. In a worst-case scenario, the entire 2011-12 campaign would be scuttled, resulting in losses of hundreds of millions of dollars in ad revenue and sending media buyers scrambling for replacements. Indeed, the NFL plays such a critical role in the TV market that even the loss of a handful of games could be catastrophic to the spring upfront.

ESPN’s Tostitos BCS National Championship on Monday, which pit the victorious Auburn Tigers against the Oregon Ducks, posted a record 16.1 overnight metered-market rating, according to Nielsen.

ABC’s double-header averaged a 5.5 Nielsen fast national rating, and ESPN’s three telecasts averaged a 1.8 household rating, the highest averages for either network when airing multiple NBA games on Christmas Day. Compared to last year’s slate of five games, household ratings were up 45 percent on ABC (5.5 vs. 3.8) and 20 percent on ESPN (1.8 vs. 1.5).

A strong scatter market and a deluge of automotive dollars have analysts particularly bullish, and many industry observers are predicting a record haul for ad-supported cable in 2011.

Four years after signing a record $4.48 billion media deal with Fox, ESPN and Turner, NASCAR has lost nearly a quarter of its TV viewership base, a four-year trend of massive viewer defections that has been punctuated by the erosion of the young male demographic.