Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 2, 1994 TAG: 9404020183
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOHN NELSON Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
A six-year agreement by NBC, ABC and Major League Baseball last spring formed The Baseball Network, replacing an exclusive four-year, $1.057 billion deal with CBS, which lost at least $170 million on baseball.
When they ratified the deal last May, baseball owners estimated it would cut their TV income in half. At the same time, they'll get less postseason exposure and won't even appear on national network TV until after the All-Star break.
"People keep using opening day as the point at which to begin measuring our progress," said Ken Schanzer, the former NBC executive who is president and CEO of The Baseball Network.
"But, as of Sunday, we have 107 days before our first telecast - and 6 1/2 months before the time during which 75 percent of the value of our inventory will run. We're very comfortable with where we are."
The biggest portion of The Baseball Network's ad worth comes during postseason, and Schanzer and his people find themselves setting ad rates based, at least in part, on the second-lowest rated World Series ever last fall between Toronto and Philadelphia on CBS.
"I think most advertisers understand that last year was aberrational," Schanzer said. "If you take last year's U.S. ratings and add to them the ratings in Toronto, the numbers would have been fine."
ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson won a coin flip last March with his NBC Sports counterpart, Dick Ebersol, and so ABC gets the World Series this year. In the bargain, ABC also gets the first divisional playoff series.
"It's the law of probability," Swanson said. "Heads I win, tails you lose." And it was heads.
NBC will televise the All-Star game and the league championship series, and they'll trade off in subsequent years.
ABC gets the first six regular-season prime-time nights, beginning Saturday, July 16. That will be followed by two Monday night games and three Saturday night games. NBC will then show six Friday night games, leading up to the playoffs.
The two networks will regionalize their prime-time telecasts with total exclusivity on those nights.
ABC's lead play-by-play announcers will be Al Michaels and Brent Musburger. Although it hasn't been announced yet, Michaels will work with Tim McCarver and Jim Palmer. Musburger's broadcast partners have yet to be determined.
NBC will go with two-man teams of Dick Enberg and Joe Morgan, and Bob Costas and Bob Uecker.
While on-air talent will work for the networks involved, The Baseball Network is responsible for production. Schanzer said TBN is "very far down the road in putting the plan together" for producing as many 14 games a night during the regular season, as well as distributing them to the country.
"As we've said from the beginning, this is an enormously complicated assignment, the complexity of which is not well understood by a lot of people," Schanzer said.
The most controversial part of the ABC-NBC-baseball agreement was a plan to regionally televise the league championship series. In other words, viewers will see either the American League or National League, but not both.
"As time goes by, I think people will get more and more used to that fact that what is, is," Schanzer said. "My hope is that we'll broadcast baseball in such a way that we give people so much information and excitement, both in regular season and postseason, that they'll step back and say, `This is different, but, hey, it's OK."'
There were no rights fees per se in the network deal, although NBC and ABC contributed $10 million each in startup fees. The two networks and baseball will share ad revenues, with baseball getting the larger portion.
ESPN, on the other hand, renewed its cable deal for $255.6 million over six years in a more conventional arrangement. It gets exclusive national rights to the first half of the season, as well as an unprecedented opportunity to show a season opener - St. Louis at Cincinnati - on Sunday night, April 3.
"The new opener, one day before the traditional opening day, adds a little pizzaz," ESPN senior vice president Loren Matthews said. "It's something we suggested in the past, and this time they were willing to do it. It makes our package a little more special."
ESPN will have regular Sunday and Wednesday night telecasts, as well as holiday doubleheaders on April 4, Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day.
Its play-by-play announcers will include Jon Miller, Chris Berman and Sean McDonough, late of CBS. Morgan's NBC contract allows him to continue at ESPN as an analyst, and he'll be joined by Buck Martinez and Jim Kaat, another CBS refugee.
ESPN has eliminated Tuesday and Friday night games, which were its worst ratings losers, coming on heavy local baseball nights. The new contract also gives ESPN more flexibility in scheduling Wednesday night games that it can show into home markets, a huge ratings advantage.
"We lost ratings points every year in our old baseball contract," Matthews said. "Now, I think we're looking at this contract with some renewed enthusiasm."
by CNB