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The NBA on ABC, CBS, & NBC (BRAND NEW FACEBOOK PAGE)
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TMC
Mar 20, 2012, 2:48:53 AM3/20/12
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http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-NBA-on-ABC-CBS-NBC/352792624763341
Description
On this day ten years ago, the NBA signed a television deal that would
come to fundamentally change the face of sports television.
On January 22, 2002, the NBA officially announced a six-year
television deal with Disney’s ESPN and ABC and Time Warner’s TNT
through the 2007-08 season. The deal ended the league’s run with
General Electric’s NBC and set in motion the trend of big time
professional sports moving primarily to cable television.
The deal, which had been rumored for weeks, reduced the NBA’s exposure
on broadcast from over 60 annual regular season and playoff telecasts
on NBC to fewer than 30 on ABC. Marquee events such as the NBA All-
Star Game and the bulk of the Conference Finals would move to cable.
Not only were the days of frequent double and tripleheaders on
broadcast over, but even the days of games in consecutive weeks.
During the first few seasons, ABC’s schedule was so erratic that there
occasionally several weeks between telecasts. In 2003, the network
aired a game on January 4 and did not resume coverage until February
16.
In those first few years, the deal appeared to be a disaster. Ratings,
which had been declining since David Stern and the owners locked out
the players in 1998, fell off a cliff. The first season on ABC
included the lowest rated regular season ever on broadcast (2.6), and
worse, the lowest rated NBA Finals ever (6.5). Regular season ratings
dropped again the next season (2.4) and kept declining until hitting a
record low 2.0 in 2006-07. During the first seven years of the NBA’s
partnership with ESPN/ABC, the NBA Finals averaged a single-digit
rating six times, bottoming out at a 6.2 in 2007. By comparison, NBC
never dipped below a 10.0 average in twelve-years covering the league.
As time went on, however, the NBA and Stern were vindicated. Though
the NBA was alone in the wilderness when jumping to cable in 2002,
several other sports made the move in subsequent years. Starting in
the 2006-07 season, Monday Night Football moved from longtime home ABC
to corporate sibling ESPN. Also in 2007, the entire Major League
Baseball Division Series and one League Championship Series moved to
TBS. In 2011, ESPN began airing the entire Bowl Championship Series.
Four years from now, TBS will begin televising the NCAA Men’s
Basketball Tournament Final Four in every other year.
In 2002, the NBA appeared to be moving backwards, accepting its status
as a niche league waning in popularity. In 2012, the NBA looks like a
visionary, reading the writing on the wall for broadcast television
and firmly establishing itself on cable before any of its competitors.
Of course, every event that has moved from broadcast to cable has
suffered mightily. In 2007 and 2011, the NLCS on TBS averaged less
than 3% of U.S. TV homes, astoundingly low numbers for that event. The
six Monday Night Football seasons on ESPN have been the lowest rated
in the history of the program. Average ratings for the Bowl
Championship Series on ESPN were the lowest ever in 2012, marred by
the lowest rated Rose Bowl in history, the lowest rated Sugar Bowl in
eighteen years, and the lowest rated Orange Bowl in nineteen years.
Still, the trend toward cable continues unabated.
The deal has also proven successful for cable networks TNT and ESPN.
During the 2010-11 NBA season, TNT aired the most-viewed NBA regular
season and playoff games ever on cable and had the most-viewed NBA
regular season and postseason in cable history. The ten most-viewed
NBA games ever on cable have all taken place since the 2002 deal — and
nine of the ten were games that would have aired on NBC during the
1998-02 deal.
Ratings have bounced back in recent years on broadcast. ABC averaged a
3.0 rating for NBA games during the 2010-11 season, higher than NBC’s
average in the 2001-02 season (2.7), and the past two NBA Finals on
ABC have each averaged at least 10% of U.S. TV homes. The NBA regular
season on ABC has outrated Major League Baseball on FOX in each of the
past four years, and the NBA Finals has drawn a higher rating and more
viewers than the World Series in three of the past four years.
NBC briefly suffered after losing the NBA. From June 13, 2002 to
January 14, 2006, the network did not air a single game from any of
the four major sports — a nearly four-year run of futility where the
network’s biggest weekly events were smattering of NASCAR races during
the weakest portion of the sport’s schedule and the Arena Football
League. “Walking away from the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball [in
2000] is the sign of a first-place network confident of its direction
and in its non-sports programming,” a negotiator for ad agency
Campbell-Mithun said shortly after the deal was done (Mediaweek,
2/4/02). In the years since, NBC has plummeted into last place among
the big four networks in primetime.
Though ESPN and ABC have never been able to come even close to the
quality of telecast NBC offered during its twelve-year tenure, it
appears clear with ten years’ distance that the NBA’s gamble has paid
off. A television deal that was once indicative of dysfunction and
decline now looks wise and pragmatic.
General Information
NBA NETWORK TELEVISION CONTRACTS
Seasons
Station
Contracts Amount
1953-54
DUMONT
$39,000/13 games
1954-55 to 1961-62
NBC
N/A
1962-63 to 1972-73
ABC
N/A
1973-74 to 1975-76
CBS
$27 million/3 years
1976-77 to 1977-78
CBS
$21 million/2 years
1978-79 to 1981-82
CBS
$74 million/4 years
1982-83 to 1985-86
CBS
$91.9 million/4 years
1986-87 to 1989-90
CBS
$173 million/4 years
1990-91 to 1993-94
NBC
$601 million/4 years
1994-95 to 1997-98
NBC
$892 million/4 years
1998-99 to 2001-02
NBC
$1.616 billion/4 years
2002-03 to 2007-08
ABC/ESPN
$2.4 billion/6 years
NBA GAMES ON NETWORK TELEVISION
Season
*Games
Network
2007-08
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2006-07
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2005-06
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2004-05
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2003-04
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2002-03
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2001-02
34 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
NBC
2000-01
69
NBC
1999-2000
71
NBC
1998-99
58
NBC
1997-98
54
NBC
1996-97
54
NBC
1995-96
54
NBC
1994-95
54
NBC
1993-94
55
NBC
1992-93
55
NBC
1991-92
52
NBC
1990-91
46
NBC
1989-90
45
CBS
1988-89
36
CBS
1987-88
42
CBS
1986-87
38
CBS
1985-86
33
CBS
1984-85
32
CBS
1983-84
32
CBS
1982-83
26
CBS
1981-82
40
CBS
1980-81
40
CBS
1979-80
36
CBS
1978-79
38
CBS
1977-78
40
CBS
1976-77
40
CBS
1975-76
40
CBS
1974-75
37
CBS
1973-74
40
CBS
* Number includes regular season, All-Star Game, NBA Playoffs and NBA
Finals
Read more: http://www.insidehoops.com/nba-tv-contracts.shtml#ixzz1pdBAgpk6
Description
On this day ten years ago, the NBA signed a television deal that would
come to fundamentally change the face of sports television.
On January 22, 2002, the NBA officially announced a six-year
television deal with Disney’s ESPN and ABC and Time Warner’s TNT
through the 2007-08 season. The deal ended the league’s run with
General Electric’s NBC and set in motion the trend of big time
professional sports moving primarily to cable television.
The deal, which had been rumored for weeks, reduced the NBA’s exposure
on broadcast from over 60 annual regular season and playoff telecasts
on NBC to fewer than 30 on ABC. Marquee events such as the NBA All-
Star Game and the bulk of the Conference Finals would move to cable.
Not only were the days of frequent double and tripleheaders on
broadcast over, but even the days of games in consecutive weeks.
During the first few seasons, ABC’s schedule was so erratic that there
occasionally several weeks between telecasts. In 2003, the network
aired a game on January 4 and did not resume coverage until February
16.
In those first few years, the deal appeared to be a disaster. Ratings,
which had been declining since David Stern and the owners locked out
the players in 1998, fell off a cliff. The first season on ABC
included the lowest rated regular season ever on broadcast (2.6), and
worse, the lowest rated NBA Finals ever (6.5). Regular season ratings
dropped again the next season (2.4) and kept declining until hitting a
record low 2.0 in 2006-07. During the first seven years of the NBA’s
partnership with ESPN/ABC, the NBA Finals averaged a single-digit
rating six times, bottoming out at a 6.2 in 2007. By comparison, NBC
never dipped below a 10.0 average in twelve-years covering the league.
As time went on, however, the NBA and Stern were vindicated. Though
the NBA was alone in the wilderness when jumping to cable in 2002,
several other sports made the move in subsequent years. Starting in
the 2006-07 season, Monday Night Football moved from longtime home ABC
to corporate sibling ESPN. Also in 2007, the entire Major League
Baseball Division Series and one League Championship Series moved to
TBS. In 2011, ESPN began airing the entire Bowl Championship Series.
Four years from now, TBS will begin televising the NCAA Men’s
Basketball Tournament Final Four in every other year.
In 2002, the NBA appeared to be moving backwards, accepting its status
as a niche league waning in popularity. In 2012, the NBA looks like a
visionary, reading the writing on the wall for broadcast television
and firmly establishing itself on cable before any of its competitors.
Of course, every event that has moved from broadcast to cable has
suffered mightily. In 2007 and 2011, the NLCS on TBS averaged less
than 3% of U.S. TV homes, astoundingly low numbers for that event. The
six Monday Night Football seasons on ESPN have been the lowest rated
in the history of the program. Average ratings for the Bowl
Championship Series on ESPN were the lowest ever in 2012, marred by
the lowest rated Rose Bowl in history, the lowest rated Sugar Bowl in
eighteen years, and the lowest rated Orange Bowl in nineteen years.
Still, the trend toward cable continues unabated.
The deal has also proven successful for cable networks TNT and ESPN.
During the 2010-11 NBA season, TNT aired the most-viewed NBA regular
season and playoff games ever on cable and had the most-viewed NBA
regular season and postseason in cable history. The ten most-viewed
NBA games ever on cable have all taken place since the 2002 deal — and
nine of the ten were games that would have aired on NBC during the
1998-02 deal.
Ratings have bounced back in recent years on broadcast. ABC averaged a
3.0 rating for NBA games during the 2010-11 season, higher than NBC’s
average in the 2001-02 season (2.7), and the past two NBA Finals on
ABC have each averaged at least 10% of U.S. TV homes. The NBA regular
season on ABC has outrated Major League Baseball on FOX in each of the
past four years, and the NBA Finals has drawn a higher rating and more
viewers than the World Series in three of the past four years.
NBC briefly suffered after losing the NBA. From June 13, 2002 to
January 14, 2006, the network did not air a single game from any of
the four major sports — a nearly four-year run of futility where the
network’s biggest weekly events were smattering of NASCAR races during
the weakest portion of the sport’s schedule and the Arena Football
League. “Walking away from the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball [in
2000] is the sign of a first-place network confident of its direction
and in its non-sports programming,” a negotiator for ad agency
Campbell-Mithun said shortly after the deal was done (Mediaweek,
2/4/02). In the years since, NBC has plummeted into last place among
the big four networks in primetime.
Though ESPN and ABC have never been able to come even close to the
quality of telecast NBC offered during its twelve-year tenure, it
appears clear with ten years’ distance that the NBA’s gamble has paid
off. A television deal that was once indicative of dysfunction and
decline now looks wise and pragmatic.
General Information
NBA NETWORK TELEVISION CONTRACTS
Seasons
Station
Contracts Amount
1953-54
DUMONT
$39,000/13 games
1954-55 to 1961-62
NBC
N/A
1962-63 to 1972-73
ABC
N/A
1973-74 to 1975-76
CBS
$27 million/3 years
1976-77 to 1977-78
CBS
$21 million/2 years
1978-79 to 1981-82
CBS
$74 million/4 years
1982-83 to 1985-86
CBS
$91.9 million/4 years
1986-87 to 1989-90
CBS
$173 million/4 years
1990-91 to 1993-94
NBC
$601 million/4 years
1994-95 to 1997-98
NBC
$892 million/4 years
1998-99 to 2001-02
NBC
$1.616 billion/4 years
2002-03 to 2007-08
ABC/ESPN
$2.4 billion/6 years
NBA GAMES ON NETWORK TELEVISION
Season
*Games
Network
2007-08
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2006-07
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2005-06
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2004-05
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2003-04
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2002-03
15 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
ABC
2001-02
34 (plus Playoffs and Finals)
NBC
2000-01
69
NBC
1999-2000
71
NBC
1998-99
58
NBC
1997-98
54
NBC
1996-97
54
NBC
1995-96
54
NBC
1994-95
54
NBC
1993-94
55
NBC
1992-93
55
NBC
1991-92
52
NBC
1990-91
46
NBC
1989-90
45
CBS
1988-89
36
CBS
1987-88
42
CBS
1986-87
38
CBS
1985-86
33
CBS
1984-85
32
CBS
1983-84
32
CBS
1982-83
26
CBS
1981-82
40
CBS
1980-81
40
CBS
1979-80
36
CBS
1978-79
38
CBS
1977-78
40
CBS
1976-77
40
CBS
1975-76
40
CBS
1974-75
37
CBS
1973-74
40
CBS
* Number includes regular season, All-Star Game, NBA Playoffs and NBA
Finals
Read more: http://www.insidehoops.com/nba-tv-contracts.shtml#ixzz1pdBAgpk6
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