Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 5, 1994 TAG: 9411080013
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The league is beginning new four-year telecast contracts with NBC and Turner Sports that raise the NBA's national network TV rights fees by $227 million over the previous four years. It also means more variety for viewers.
Turner's TNT began a 45-game regular-season schedule with a doubleheader Friday night. The change is on cable's TBS, which is switching from a schedule of Atlanta Hawks' games to a 25-game Thursday night NBA package, on which former NBA champion and Olympic gold medal coach Chuck Daly will be the game analyst.
The TBS schedule opens Thursday at 8 p.m. with Orlando-New York. TNT will have Tuesday and Friday games, with few doubleheaders. WGN has 25 Chicago Bulls games again, and regionally, cable's Home Team Sports offers a 25-game Washington schedule.
NBC doesn't begin its fifth NBA season until Christmas, and will air mostly Sunday twinbills starting in late January. NBC will show up to 55 games through the NBA Finals. TNT and TBS will combine for at least 40 playoff games.
Daly, who will work with Verne Lundquist, adds to the stable of Turner analysts that includes Hubie Brown and Doug Collins. In previous studio stints, the former Detroit and New Jersey coach has been pointed and opinionated in his commentary.
As the season begins, Daly likes the future of Milwaukee's rookie, Glenn Robinson. ``I think he's going to be a terrific player, a 10-time all-star,'' Daly said. ``He's shown he has the physical skills. He's mentally tough. He can handle the ball and he can face and score.''
But Daly doesn't like the size of the rookie's contract, which was announced on Thursday to be for $68 million over 10 years.
``The sudden exit of top-flight players who won championships has to have an impact,'' Daly said of some of his Dream Teamers from the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. ``Who is going to replace them? The rookies are getting the big contracts. They haven't won anything. I do worry about the competitiveness and future of the game.''
That kind of commentary should make Thursday a good NBA night.
PANTHER TALK: The NFL club owners' failure to agree on divisional realignment this week will have a major impact on the television and radio outlook for the Washington Redskins. It also was bad news for NBC affiliates in Virginia and the Carolinas.
Without realignment, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue on Wednesday placed the expansion Carolina Panthers in the NFC West and the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Central. The Redskins already knew they would be losing the Carolinas portion of their radio market to the Panthers. However, with the Charlotte club now in the NFC, Washington and its longtime fans in the Carolinas also will lose blanket telecast coverage in the Fox Network package.
NBC has the AFC package. That network's affiliates in the Carolinas and Virginia were hoping the Panthers would be placed in the AFC to make some ratings inroads in regional telecasts against the Redskins. There is no dominant regional favorite in the AFC. That's why Roanoke's WSLS and some other stations allow viewers to vote on the game selection.
The Panthers' placement in the NFC also means Virginia viewers won't see the new club except on those occasions when Carolina games don't conflict with Redskins' telecasts. Roanoke, although it is closer geographically to Charlotte than to Washington, will remain in the Redskins' TV market.
If the realignment plan advanced by Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney had been adopted, one team from each of the six NFL divisions would have moved, and Carolina would have played in the AFC Central with Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. Tagliabue still is lobbying for that or another realignment plan that could go into effect for the 1996 season.
ICING: With its loss of the NFL, CBS Sports wisely decided to fill the football void with programming that appeals to a different audience - women. The network's major commitment to increased hours for figure skating begins Wednesday and next Saturday in prime time.
The tabloid-titled ``Ice Wars: The USA vs. the World'' will not include Tonya Harding or anyone with a club. It is a two-night professional competition that includes Nancy Kerrigan, Brian Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi, Oksana Bayul, Katarina Witt and Viktor Petrenko.
The shows, from the Nassau Coliseum and Providence Civic Center, will air Wednesday at 8 p.m. and next Saturday at 9 p.m. (WDBJ, Channel 7). CBS also has figure skating on its schedule on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, plus six weekend shows in between the two holidays.
AROUND THE DIAL: NBC Sports airs the 11th Breeders Cup today, but local viewers will see only the last three of the seven races from Churchill Downs. WSLS (Channel 10) will join the horse racing in progress about 3:30 p.m. after the conclusion of the noon Temple-Rutgers game from the Big East football schedule. ... The ACC's football network will not televise the Maryland-Virginia game next Saturday, after choosing to air UVa-Duke today in a noon kickoff (WSET, Channel 13). So, the Maryland-UVa kickoff stays at 1 p.m., with Duke-N.C. State the ACC regional telecast next weekend at 3:30 p.m. The conference package moves to accommodate the ABC national telecast of Notre Dame-Florida State at noon next Saturday. ... With the NHL still locked out, Home Team Sports will replace a Washington Capitals' telecast with another ECHL game next Saturday, airing Hampton Roads-Greensboro live at 7 p.m. ... ESPN's 24 nominations for 1994 CableACE Awards include eight for on-air talent - anchors Chris Berman and Dan Patrick, play-by-play men Mike Patrick and Gary Thorne, and analysts Dick Vitale, Joe Morgan, Joe Theismann and Tom Jackson. ... Don't look for live telecast coverage of Sunday's New York Marathon. ABC didn't renew its contract, and no other network bit, either. ... Fox's primary NFL telecast Sunday is San Francisco-Washington, which despite the Redskins' woes, will be aired to 42 percent of the country with Pat Summerall and John Madden in the booth at RFK Stadium.
by CNB