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Media
Notes By Randy Williams and George Stahl NEW YORK (AQB)--Christmas came early this year for David Hill. In an one-on-one conversation with ArmchairQB.com this summer, the president and chief executive of Fox Sports quickly and efficiently answered the question on which sport he would want to add to the network's lineup. "NASCAR ... Because I love it." When asked about Fox's chances to get the auto racing giant, Hill said cryptically, "Where there’s life, there’s hope." Hope is no longer needed. That's because life just better for Fox, NBC and Turner, who agreed to a six-year, $2.4 billion deal for NASCAR's television rights. Under the deal, which starts in 2001, Fox and FX will carry the first half of the schedule, while NBC and Turner will handle the second half. NASCAR's Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, will alternate between Fox and NBC, with Fox getting it in the odd number of years. That means NBC will broadcast the Daytona 500 during the Winter Olympics in 2002 and 2006. For Fox, NBC, NASCAR and its fans, the deal appears to be a win-win-win-win situation:
The agreement leaves the two networks who did the most to build the sport's popularity - CBS and ESPN - at the window looking in. CBS was the first to televise a 500-mile race live, flag-to-flag, with its broadcast of the Daytona 500 in 1979. Since then, CBS has often led the way in NASCAR coverage, such as with the creation of the in-car camera in 1981 and the first network-televised prime-time race in July. This year, CBS televised 13 events, including four Winston Cup, three Busch Series and three Craftsman Truck races, for a total of more than 35 broadcast hours. While CBS certainly didn't want to lose NASCAR, in particular the Daytona 500, the network, with its heavy emphasis on college basketball and golf in the first half and the NFL in the second, just didn't have the space available to offer NASCAR as Fox and NBC did. The bigger loser, though, appears to be ABC and ESPN. ESPN and NASCAR used each other to build popularity through the '80s and 90s. ESPN, and later ESPN2, had plenty of time to fill and NASCAR had plenty of events to offer. Along the way, ESPN has produced special programming for the sport, such as the "NASCAR 2000" announced last month. In total, ESPN and ESPN2 combine to televise more than 1,200 hours of motorsports annually, including 13 Winston Cup, 13 Busch Series and 21 Craftsman Truck Series events. And with the strong possibility of also losing baseball - depending on the outcome of ESPN's suit against baseball - it is surprising that Disney-owned ESPN didn't make a stronger play for NASCAR with its sister network, ABC. Especially considering that with the exception of golf, ABC has no dominant sports programming on Sundays, which is when most of the Winston Cup races are run. So what gives? Well, either ABC and ESPN misplayed their hand during the NASCAR negotiations or they are planning to attack another television package. The biggest one remaining is the NCAA men's basketball tournament. CBS has the tournament locked up through 2002, but the NCAA recently opened the negotiations in an attempt to get a longer contract. The network certainly will fight harder to keep the tournament than it did for NASCAR, as proven by this quote by CBS Sports President Sean McManus to AQB, "There's no more important property to us than the NCAA." ABC, though, will have Disney's money behind it, and the Mickey Mouse company isn't afraid to shell out big bucks for a television property that it thinks it needs - as proven by its five-year, $600 million contract for rights to the NHL. The contract, which provides much-needed programming for ESPN2, easily surpassed other bidders and, in some people's view, market value. So let the bidding begin - and you thought Duke-North Carolina was the best rivalry in college basketball.
How many people do you think you could have made money off of in 1990 by betting them that by the end of the decade, NASCAR would sign a contract guaranteeing it more money in television rights than Major League Baseball? Well, that's the case. NASCAR's six-year, $2.4 billion contract with Fox, NBC and Turner averages out to $400 million a year, beating Major League Baseball's average of $340 million a year (five years, $1.7 billion) and the NHL's average of $120 million (five years, $600 million). The NFL's average of $2.25 billion a year (eight years, $18 billion) still reigns supreme, with the NBA's $660 million (four years, $2.64 billion) in second place. Of those sports, only baseball is close to a new contract. Major League Baseball is entering the final year of its deal with Fox, NBC and ESPN. And think: In 1985, NASCAR received just $3 million for the TV rights to 28 races. By 1999, that number was estimated at $100 million for 34 events. How many of us can quadruple our pay in one year?
It's a busy week for ESPN's SportsCentury project with a program featuring the No. 11 greatest North American athlete of the Twentieth Century, boxer Joe Louis, and "SportsCentury of the Decade, 1990s." The
show on Louis, the second
greatest boxer of the 1900s as voted by a panel of 48 sports journalists
and observers, is set for 11 p.m. ET Friday. The ranking for Muhammad
Ali, the only fighter left on the list, has not been announced.
Robin Roberts and Steve Levy, with guest commentator Billy Crystal, host the SportsCentury of the Decade, 1990s, which begins at 7 p.m. Some of the subjects the show will examine are sports as big business, the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding affair, Mike Tyson's downfall, the 25th anniversary of Title IX, Magic Johnson's HIV disclosure, money vs. championship rings, sportsmanship in the 1990s and the 1998 home run chase. For more on ESPN's SportsCentury project, click here. For more details and a complete list of televised sporting events for this weekend, check out ArmchairQB.com's Today's Lineup. |
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