When the NFL season starts Sunday, "the real pressure
will be on the executives at CBS," according to Bill Carter
of the N.Y. TIMES, who examines CBS's new NFL TV deal in
today's Business cover story. CBS Sports President Sean
McManus "is not backing away" from the network's prediction
that it will profit from the deal. McManus: "We're right on
target." McManus said the numbers that "give him
confidence" come from "increased advertising sales at both"
the net and its O&Os, "about" $40M in revenues from its
affils, reduced costs of "about" $25M for advertising in
other media to promote CBS shows and "anticipated benefits"
to CBS's primetime lineup. McManus also said that the net
has gotten $45M in "new business" from NASDAQ, Southwest
Airlines and other companies. With CBS scheduled to pay
$350M in the first year of the deal, Sanford C. Bernstein
media analyst Tom Wolzien projects that CBS will "lose" $50M
on football this year. Carter notes that CBS's "later
payments will be especially huge, but CBS is counting on
advertising revenue to increase over time." Citing a more
competitive AFC, McManus said that CBS was "getting better
advertising prices" for its package than NBC did, though he
declined to reveal terms. An exec "close to CBS" said that
the net's "private estimates" are that the ad rate increase
will top 10% (Bill Carter, N.Y. TIMES, 8/31).
NFL AD-DING IT UP: Also in N.Y., Stuart Elliott writes
that the NFL TV partners' ad increases "were held to much
lower levels" -- an "estimated" 8% to 10% -- than the 25% to
30% that they had hoped for. The "most fervent opposition
to paying significantly more" for ads this season "came from
Detroit automakers" (Stuart Elliot, N.Y. TIMES, 8/31).
