CNET: MSN and FoxSports strike portal deal

Microsoft has been gunning hard for the sports market on MSN, offering to pay higher fees for Major League Baseball, and now dumping its three-year ESPN relationship to integrate more closely with FoxSports. Disney, owner of ESPN, described the parting as mutual and amicable.

ESPN recently launched its own video service online, and - horrors - didn't use the Microsoft media format, which doesn't provide sound on some non-Microsoft platforms. "We did see some differences in strategy," an MSN official told CNET. "The delivery of video is a good example."