Major League Baseball television contracts

Trouble at NBC: 1996-2000

Despite of the failure of The Baseball Network, NBC decided to stay on with Major League Baseball but on a far more restricted basis. Under the five year deal (from 1996-2000) for a total of approximately $400 million, NBC didn't televise any regular season games. Instead, NBC only handled the All-Star Game, three Division Series games, and the American League Championship Series in even numbered years and the World Series, three Division Series games, and National League Championship Series in odd numbered years. Also around this particular period, NBC adapted composer Randy Edelman's theme from the short-lived Fox series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. as the main theme music for their baseball telecasts.

Related Topics:
NBC - 1996 - 2000 - All-Star Game - Division Series - American League Championship Series - World Series - National League Championship Series - Randy Edelman - Fox - The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

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In 1997, just before the start of NBC's coverage of the World Series, West Coast entertainment division president and former NBC Sports executive producer Don Ohlmeyer came under fire after publicly announcing that he hoped that the World Series would end in a four game sweep. Ohlmeyer believed that baseball now lacked broad audience appeal (especially in the aftermath of the 1994 baseball strike). As opposed to teams from the big three television markets (New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago) in the country, the 1997 World Series featured match-up of the upstart Florida Marlins and the Cleveland Indians, who made their second World Series appearance in two years. In addition, Ohlmeyer feared that the World Series would disrupt NBC's efforts to attract enough viewers for its new fall roster in order to stay on top of the ratings heap. Ohlmeyer said "If the A&E channel called, I'd take the call."

Related Topics:
World Series - West Coast - Don Ohlmeyer - 1994 baseball strike - Florida Marlins - Cleveland Indians - Ratings - A&E

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In 1998, Bob Uecker abruptly left NBC Sports before a chance to call the All-Star Game from Coors Field in Colorado. Uecker underwent a back operation in which four discs were replaced. For the remainder of contract (1998-2000), only Bob Costas and Joe Morgan called the games. Also in 1998, NBC's coverage of the ALCS was the highest rated for any League Championship Series since before the 1994 strike. NBC averaged a 9.4 rating for the six games, which was a 6% increase than the network's coverage of the 1997 NLCS in the same time slot. The rating was 13% more than Fox's ALCS coverage in 1997 and 12% more than NBC's coverage in 1996.

Related Topics:
1998 - Bob Uecker - NBC Sports - Coors Field - Colorado - Bob Costas - Joe Morgan - 1994 strike

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In 1999, NBC's field reporter Jim Gray, who had previously covered Major League Baseball for CBS, came under fire for a confrontational interview with banned all-time hit king Pete Rose. Just prior to the start of Game 2 of the World Series, Gray pushed Rose, who was on hand in Atlanta's Turner Field to accept the fan voted honor of being named to MasterCard's All Century Team, into admitting to betting on baseball games while as manager of the Cincinnati Reds ten years earlier. After NBC was flooded with tons of viewer complaints, Gray was forced to clarify (much less apologize) his actions to the viewers at home prior to Game 3. Regardless of Gray's sincerity, Game 3 hero Chad Curtis of the New York Yankees boycotted Gray's request for an interview live on camera; Curtis had hit a game winning home run to send the World Series 3-0 in the Yankees' favor.

Related Topics:
1999 - Jim Gray - Pete Rose - World Series - Atlanta - Turner Field - MasterCard - Cincinnati Reds - Chad Curtis - New York Yankees

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In 2000, NBC was caught in the dilemma of having to televise a first round playoff game between the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics over the first presidential debate between George W. Bush and Al Gore. NBC decided to give its local stations the option of carrying the debate or the baseball game. If the NBC affiliate decided to carry the debate, then local Pax affiliate could carry the game. NBC also placed a crawl at the bottom of the screen to inform viewers that they could see the debate on its sister channel MSNBC. On the other end, Fox said that it would carry baseball on the two nights when its schedule conflicts with the presidential or vice presidential debates. NBC spokeswoman Barbara Levin said "We have a contract with Major League Baseball. The commission was informed well in advance of their selecting the debate dates. If we didn't have the baseball conflict we would be televising it." Incidentally, in 1992 CBS refused to break away from a baseball game that had gone into extra innings to the first Clinton-Bush-Perot debate. Like NBC and Fox in 2000, CBS cited its contract with Major League

Related Topics:
2000 - Oakland Athletics - Presidential debate - George W. Bush - Al Gore - Pax - MSNBC - 1992 - CBS - Clinton - Bush - Perot

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Baseball.

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During NBC's coverage of the 2000 Division Series, regular play-by-play man Bob Costas decided to take a breather after anchoring NBC's prime time coverage of the Summer Olympic Games from Sydney. In Costas' place came Atlanta Braves announcer Skip Caray, who teamed with Joe Morgan before Costas' return for the ALCS.

Related Topics:
Prime time - Summer Olympic Games - Sydney - Atlanta Braves - Skip Caray - ALCS

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References

• Costas' new NBC deal means no more baseball
• Results 1 - 100 of 4,910 from Jan 1, 2000 to Dec 31, 2000 for NBC Baseball (0.61 seconds)

Baseball Leaves NBC Again

In September 2000, Major League Baseball signed a six year, $2.5 billion contract with Fox to show Saturday baseball, the All-Star Game, selected Division Series games and exclusive coverage of the League Championship Series and World Series. 90% of the contract?s value to Fox, who is paying Major League Baseball $417 million per year, comes from the postseason, which not only attracts large audiences, but also provides an irreplaceable opportunity for the network to showcase its fall schedule to people who don?t otherwise watch much TV.

Related Topics:
September 2000 - Major League Baseball - Fox - All-Star Game - Division Series - League Championship Series - World Series

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The contract protects Major League Baseball in the event of a labor dispute: if some of the games are cancelled by a strike or lockout, MLB still gets all its money, but must compensate Fox with additional telecasts. On the other hand, a repeat of the 1994 situation could cost Fox well over $1 billion.

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ESPN and ESPN2 have contracts (which was signed in 2000 and will run through 2005) to show selected weeknight and Sunday night games, along with selected Division Series playoff games. The current contracts with ESPN are worth $141.8 million per year and $851 million overall. After Disney bought Fox Family (who from 2000-2001 aired Thursday night games) in 2002 to become ABC Family the Division Series games aired on ABC Family (with ESPN's announcers, graphics, and music) for one year.

Related Topics:
ESPN - ESPN2 - 2000 - 2005 - Disney - Fox Family - 2002 - ABC Family

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Under the previous five year deal with NBC (1996-2000), Fox paid $115 million while NBC only paid $80 million per year. Fox paid about $575 million overall while NBC paid about $400 million overall. The difference between the Fox and the NBC contracts implicitly values Fox's Saturday Game of the Week at less than $90 million for five years. Before NBC officially decided to part ways with Major League Baseball (for the second time in about 12 years) on September 26, 2000, Fox's payment would've been $345 million while NBC would've paid $240 million. Before 1990, NBC had carried Major League Baseball since 1947.

Related Topics:
NBC - September 26 - 2000 - 1990 - 1947

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:"We have notified Major League Baseball that we have passed on their offer and we wish them well going forward." - NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer

Related Topics:
NBC Sports - Ken Schanzer

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In 2001, Bob Costas claimed that despite still loving the game, he now felt a certain alienation from the institution. By the time that NBC lost Major League Baseball for the second time in 12 years, the sport endured a strike, realignment, the wild card, and NBC's complete loss of the regular season Game of the Week. Costas would add that since NBC only did a few games each year and he lacked the forum that he would eventually have (HBO's On the Record with Bob Costas, Inside the NFL, and Costas Now) to express his views, he to some extent, started editorializing in games. When asked about whether or not the fact that NBC no longer hand the baseball rights was disappointing, Costas said "I'm a little disappointed to lose baseball, but that's the way the business is. And it's not nearly as disappointing as it was when we lost it at the end of the '80s. Because then it was like baseball was the birthright for NBC. ... (Baseball is) not going to affect any decision that I have in the future." Costas added to his thoughts on NBC's current baseball blackout by saying "It's nowhere near as devastating as a decade ago. Different circumstances, different time."

Related Topics:
2001 - Bob Costas - Strike - Wild card - HBO - Inside the NFL

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Fox's Exclusivity

Under the new deal, Fox would now pay out an average of $417 million a year, which was about a 45 percent increase from the previous deal (worth $290 million a year) that Fox, NBC and ESPN contributed together. CBS and ABC reportedly weren't interested in buying the rights at the prices Major League Baseball was offering.

Related Topics:
CBS - ABC

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When asked about the new deal with Fox, Commissioner Bud Selig said "We at Major League Baseball could not be happier with the result. They have been a good partner and an innovative producer of our games."

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Neal Pilson, who was the President of CBS Sports when the network had the exclusive television rights for Major League Baseball said of Fox's $2.5 billion deal "It is a lot of baseball. It will force Fox to delay the start of its entertainment season every fall in order to cover the playoffs and the World Series, but I am sure they have taken that into account. Fox probably believes it has driven a good deal financially. It has kept its cost escalation at a very modest number. I'm sure Fox believes if it is the only national carrier, it can sell its commercial (slots) without having to face underpricing from a competitor."

Related Topics:
Neal Pilson - CBS Sports

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Some observers believed that gaining the relative ratings boost from the League Championship Series and World Series meant more to Fox than the other broadcast networks. That was because Fox had the biggest prime time ratings decline of the four major networks during the 1999-2000 season. Its average prime time audience of 8.97 million was down 17 percent from the year before, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Related Topics:
Prime time - 1999 - 2000 - Nielsen

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In the first year of the exclusive contract, Fox did a split-telecast (not seen of since the days of the ill-fated Baseball Network) for the League Championship Series. This meant that one game would be aired on the Fox Brodcasting Company while the other would be aired on Fox Sports Net. The rationale behind the split-telcast was that because of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the whole postseason schedule was pushed back a week. Because of this, two Sunday LCS games came in conflict with a NFL on FOX doubleheader. The fans were naturally very frustrated with with the situation as Commissioner Bud Selig vowed it was a one-time deal necessitated by circumstance. Fox thought otherwise though and there has been at least one night of split League Championship Series coverage every year since.

Related Topics:
Fox Sports Net - September 11, 2001 attacks - NFL on FOX - Bud Selig

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