Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993 TAG: 9305090083
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CBS and cable's ESPN have gulped red ink during baseball's current contract. In an agreement announced Saturday, pending approval by the game's owners and the players' union, baseball will sign a six-year contract with NBC and ABC.
No financial terms were revealed because ownership must sign off on the joint venture negotiated by baseball's TV committee.
Baseball is seeking to create a new round of playoffs before the league championship series. There no longer will be a Saturday "Game of the Week" during the regular season, or the pretense of one.
A national cable contract is still in the negotiation stages, but Einhorn promised it would include fewer than the six games a week ESPN has been airing since 1990.
Here's what network baseball figures to look like from 1994-99:
The first network telecast each season will be the All-Star Game. Then, ABC will air a weekly game for six weeks, followed by NBC for the last six weeks of the season.
All those games will be in prime time, on a Friday or Saturday at 8 p.m. - allowing baseball to present its product to a lost generation of children on nights when they don't have to get up for school the next morning.
The games will be regionalized, meaning that in Roanoke-Lynchburg, the emphasis is likely to be on Baltimore telecasts. All 14 games on those nights will be available to the networks, and some will be called by local-club announcers on the network.
The regionalization of regular-season games should enhance ratings. Last Saturday's CBS game was viewed in only 2.7 million homes, believed to be an all-time low for the so-called "Game of the Week."
No local club or cable networks will televise against the networks, who will own rights to every game on that date.
No postseason games will be shown on cable.
For the postseason, the TV committee has outlined two best-of-five playoff series in each league, with winners advancing to the league championship series, which will remain best-of-seven.
The games in the preliminary playoff round will be regionalized as well in one time slot, with the televising network doing cut-ins to other games - similar to CBS' coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament.
The loss to viewers will be national telecasts of every league championship series game. In the league championship series, games 1-5 will be regionalized in prime time. Games 6-7, if necessary, will have staggered starts. The first game will begin at 7 p.m., the second joined in progress, likely after a first pitch around 8:30 p.m.
Viewers will see the entire game of teams of local interest in the playoffs.
All World Series games will be played at night. However, the Saturday and Sunday dates - Games 1, 2, 6 and 7, will have a first pitch no later than 7:20 p.m. The hope is to show more of the game to the younger audience.
by CNB