Cable channel TNN's name gets 'Spike'd

NEW YORK--Soon Spike won't just be the name of a film director ora volleyball move.

The struggling cable channel TNN--which just two years ago changedfrom the Nashville Network to the National Network--announced that,effective June 16, it will call itself Spike TV and become the firstnetwork aimed specifically at men.

"We just like the idea of having a guy's name," said Albie Hecht,network president. "We thought that was smart and fun andirreverent."

Because it airs World Wrestling Entertainment, "Star Trek: TheNext Generation" and a game of basketball played on trampolinescalled "slam ball," nearly two-thirds of TNN's audience is male.

The switch enables TNN, and parent company Viacom, a chance tooutmaneuver the publishers of Maxim magazine, who are developing acable channel called the Maxim Entertainment Network, or MEN. AP