NAB Board Vows To Fight To Retain Broadcast Sports
Board voted to adopt a resolution advocating "free access to major televised sporting events"
BY John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/25/2008 10:00:00 AM
The National Association of Broadcasters is taking aim at the move of the college football Bowl Championship Series from broadcast TV to cable's ESPN.
The NAB Board voted Tuesday to adopt a resolution advocating "free access to major televised sporting events."
That came in the wake of the decision by Fox last week to drop out of contention to retain the broadcast rights to the BCS games.
for $495 million after incumbent Fox passed. Fox had offered $385 million.
"Broadcasters continue to support the rights of all Americans to have free access to telecasts of major sporting events, particularly those of publicly funded educational institutions," the resolution said.
Sports siphoning was a big issue in Washington a decade or so ago. The FCC considers sports must-have programming for which there is no easy substitution. Meanwhile, legislators have made noise about NFL Network and college football games, and hometown Major League Baseball games their constituents couldn't receive due to rights disagreements and/or rights deals.
But Neal Pilson, currently a consultant and formerly head of CBS sports,
doesn't see legislators rushing to hammer cable over the deal
. "I think Washington has other problems to deal with,” he told B&C last week after the BCS deal was announced.
Besides, he said, "ESPN is in 90 million homes out of a total of about 112 million, and there just doesn't seem to be much reaction now."
The one-time broadcast staple of Monday Night Football, for example, moved to cable several years back with nary a discouraging word from inside the Beltway.
"I don't see the Super Bowl any time soon," Pilson says, or the World Series or NCAA basketball tournament. But he sees other "major" events possibly moving to cable.
Not if NAB can help it. "The NAB Television Board of Directors hereby directs NAB staff to work with policymakers to educate them on the importance of ensuring that no segments of society are disenfranchised from this highly valued programming," the board resolved.
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Paul is right..."Free" - how exactly does one extort $1.00 per cable household for a broadcast signal through retransmission consent and turn around and call it free? I completely agree with the NAB (very rare for ol'Quig) on both fronts - BCS or any other Nationally Franchised sports programming belongs over the airwaves the american taxpayer provided broadcasters - for FREE! If the NAB expects to win this argument then make your case - start by advocating Must Carry and abandon Retrans - only then might congress take your case seriously.
Quigley Spargus - 12/1/2008 2:06:00 PM EST -
The NAB states that it wants "FREE ACCESS" to the sporting events for their viewers. That is very interesting considering that their members are demanding cash payments from cable operators and satellite companies to continue carriage of "FREE TV". Given the fact that the overwhelming majority of viewers watch broadcasters via cable or satellite, this seems cynical. If the NAB is serious then cash for carriage should stop.
Paul Butcher - 11/26/2008 12:34:00 PM EST -
B'cast network TV is ubiquitous. That's why it still delivers the largest aggregate audience, despite cable's fractionalization of half the viewing audience. And viewers want "wireless." Wait until the public realizes that analog shut-off means no more truly portable broadcast TV reception. Free TV is a necessary ingredient of American democracy, and sports is an essential part of the menu. NAB should be wrapping itself up in flag and country instead of getting in bed with wired TV media. Over the air is broadcasting's unique selling point. Maybe the availability of new DTV channels will drive home the point... unless signal interference kills broadcast TV entirely, that is.
Adam Smith - 11/25/2008 8:51:00 PM EST
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