CBS' Sean McManus Discusses Flex Schedule, Goodell At SMT

CBS' McManus (l) Discusses Flex Schedule, NFL Commissioner During One-on-One

CBS' Sean McManus sat for a One-on-One interview yesterday at the Fantasy Sports Association Sports Media & Technology Conference at the Westin N.Y. It’s been almost two years since McManus added the title of president of CBS News to his existing position as president of the network’s sports division. McManus discussed a number of topics, ranging from Katie Couric to Roger Goodell.

The Issue: Would you ever have guessed that ratings for the Patriots-Colts and Patriots-Cowboys games would be so high?
McManus: I was talking to Chris “Mad Dog” Russo at a charity dinner before the Patriots-Colts game, and he said to me, “Mike Francesca says you’re going to get a 25 rating.” I said “We’re not going to get a 25 rating. If we get a competitive game in the fourth quarter, we’ll do somewhere between a 19.5 and a 21;" and it was a 20.5. That was obviously enormous.

When the schedule came out, we targeted those two games, and we had the opportunity, as do all the leagues broadcast partners, to sit down with the NFL, and try to protect certain games.  The NFL does a really good job of dealing with four broadcast partners, figuring out which games are going to go to prime time for ESPN and NBC, which go Sunday afternoon and which go to the NFL Network. Those are two games we targeted from day one. In the past we’ve lost the Patriots-Colts game, and that’s a game we really think we should have on Sunday afternoon.

The Issue: NFL’s flexible primetime broadcast schedule.
McManus: The intent of flex schedule was to make sure that in the second half of the season, the primetime network package didn’t get stuck with a bad game. It was never intended to cherry pick the best game on Sunday and move it to primetime. It was never intended to let NBC -- despite what they, I think, wanted people to believe -- it was never intended to let NBC pick a game and move it to primetime. 

McManus Calls NFL Network An Insurance Policy For League

I think the Patriots versus Cornell would probably be a game they would put in primetime right now.

The issue: Has the Sunday night primetime game delivered the way you thought it would?
McManus: We were interested in the Sunday night package. Our money was nowhere near what NBC paid. We had done a complete analysis, and our idea was to have CBS do Sunday afternoon and Sunday night. Our estimate for the primetime game, I think was somewhere between a 10.5 and 11 rating, which I think that package is going to get.

The Issue: Are league-owned networks a threat to cable networks?
McManus: The NFL Network is, to an extent, an insurance policy just in case the kind of money that they think their cable package is worth isn’t able to be acquired. The NFL is very cognizant that TNT and ESPN, to a large extent, built themselves on the backs of NFL programming. You can make the case that TNT became a fully-distributed viable network because they had that eight-game NFL package. And there would still be an ESPN today without the NFL, but they certainly wouldn’t be getting the three-and-half to four dollars per month per subscriber, and wouldn’t be the powerhouse it is today. The NFL looked at that history and said, "If anybody’s going to build a cable channel on the backs of the NFL programming again, its going to be us."

The Issue: Will the government get involved in the NFL Network-Time Warner dispute?
McManus: The success of the NFL Network will be determined by the marketplace, not by Congress.

The Issue: Working with former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue compared to working with current Commissioner Goodell
McManus: They both really focus on long term, not just one or two years, but 10 years ahead.  Both Roger and Paul put the fan above all else, whether its player behavior, dealing with rules or stadiums, they really both think about what is the best product for their fans. Roger is probably a little more at ease socially than Paul was. Paul didn’t enjoy being in the spotlight all that much.

McManus Feels ESPN Unlikely To Face Viable Competitor

The Issue: Regarding the bundling of traditional and digital rights, what rights are you going after now?
McManus: We are not aggressive in the Internet space as Turner has been with the NBA and with NASCAR. They’ve invested a lot more in that area than we have. We are primarily interested in over-the-air broadcast rights.

The Issue: ESPN
McManus: On a weekly basis, we’re not in a direct competition with them for the marquee games. Nobody is better at packaging NFL inventory than ESPN, but our direct competitors for sales are NBC and Fox.

The Issue: Do you think there ever will be a viable competitor for ESPN?
McManus: I do not. If the Sultan of Brunei said, 'I'm going to take $50 billion, and over the next ten years I’m gonna try to compete with ESPN,' he’d have a shot.

Issue: Katie Couric
McManus: There has not been a single person in television who has received more -- and the vast majority of it has been unfair -- bad, mean-spirited criticism than Katie Couric has. The personal attacks that have occurred have been unbelievable. The only person that I’ve ever seen that has generated as much attention in the press is Howard Cosell.

My biggest disappointment when I got my job at CBS News was that I couldn’t go out and buy the exclusive rights to an election.

The Issue: Lessons learned in your news role.
McManus: As uncreative and as unchallenging as it seems, the thing to do is give the best, just straight half-hour newscast you possibly can.

The issue: What properties do you not have that you’d like to have?
McManus, with a straight face: CBS has every great sports property there is. (Long pause). We feel we have our fair share. We didn’t bid on NASCAR this time around, we didn’t bid on the NBA, we didn’t bid on MLB.

The Issue: Super Bowl pick 
McManus: Patriots-Packers or Patriots-Cowboys