NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol "defended" his
"decision to drop out of the billion-dollar race for NFL
television contracts," saying that "the bidding war had
reached 'insane' levels and predicting that his competitors
will lose billions of dollars over the next eight years,"
according to David Barron of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE.
Ebersol: "We weren't ambushed. We were given a number,
decided that number was reckless folly, and we walked away.
We're not going to miss the association with what we feel is
a foolhardy venture where you are locked in for eight years"
(HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 1/15). Ebersol: "Do we consider
ourselves winners from a business standpoint? Absolutely"
(N.Y. POST, 1/15). NBC will replace the NFL with movies
this season and Ebersol is looking to create programming
with NBC News for '99 (Richard Sandomir, N.Y. TIMES, 1/15).
MONEY TALK: Ebersol said that NBC "was willing to pay
$340 million a year, tops, to keep the AFC package,
sustaining an annual $40 million loss," according to Sallie
Hoffmeister of the L.A. TIMES. Ebersol: "We could handled
that based on the promotional value of the AFC. We have
6,400 employees and we are not going to put their jobs in
jeopardy like CBS did with baseball in 1988," referring to a
$604M write-down CBS took on an MLB contract that resulted
in "major layoffs." A CBS source, on Ebersol: "He doesn't
practice what he preaches. If two weeks of programming from
Sydney, Australia, is worth $700 million a year, then five
months of the NFL should be worth $500 million" (L.A. TIMES,
1/15). NBC President Bob Wright: "I just sent a letter to
[NBC] employees saying that the deal was on the verge of
being financially reckless. This thing could have just
wrecked us" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 1/15). A Fox source: "I hate
to admit it, but NBC's the smartest one" (L.A. TIMES, 1/15).
WELCOME BACK, (DR.) CARTER: NBC "escaped potential
disaster" by renewing "ER," for a record $13M per episode.
The deal totals $838M for three years (USA TODAY, 1/15).
THIS AND THAT: ABC's "MNF" games will begin an hour
earlier, at 8:00pm ET, with kickoff at 8:20pm. ESPN's
Sunday night games will kickoff at 8:20pm ET, instead of
8:00pm. Sunday doubleheader games for Fox and CBS will move
back 10 minutes, to 4:15pm ET kickoffs. This allows for an
extra two-minute TV timeout. NFL Sunday programming on Fox
and CBS will run to 7:30pm ET "most weeks," which means that
CBS' "60 Minutes" will begin at 7:30pm ET (Rudy Martzke, USA
TODAY, 1/15). ESPN will also move three September Sunday
night MLB games, set to appear on ESPN, over to ESPN2.
ESPN2 will also add a half-hour roundup show, "NFL 2Night,"
to its programming. "NFL 2Night" will air five nights a
week through the NFL season (Steve Zipay, NEWSDAY, 1/15).
