As studios are set to begin contract negotiations with talent in January, all sides are girding for battle.
Bennett said the corporation was looking to reduce costs "across the board" with "fewer flights and more trains and so on", adding that it would look to "drive quite a hard bargain" in its negotiations with talent.
Al Jaffe, vice president of talent negotiation and production recruitment, developed the quiz in 1988.
All entry-level applicants for jobs as production assistants, reporters and unpaid interns must first pass a sports trivia test that has become well-known in the sports journalism industry, said Fred Brown, director of talent negotiation and production recruitment.
These include decision making, assessing talent, negotiation and people management.
By late 2009 the US and EU will be restarting negotiations with fresh talent and limited institutional memory.
"Three words: cut your hair," one of the judges, Al Jaffe, who is ESPN's vice president for talent negotiations, said in an admonishing tone.
Mrs. Rifkin, 29, is a director of talent negotiations in New York for Platinum Rye Entertainment, a company that helps advertisers hire celebrities.
Negotiation is not a talent you are born with.
In addition, Wilt is a certified mediator and consults organizational leaders in mediation, interest-based negotiation and human resources talent management and has served as the past deputy director of corporate training for the University of Texas Project on Conflict Resolution.
