When the Oilers announced the outline iof their deal with
Nashville yesterday, NBC Sports faced the loss of another major
NFL TV market. Houston is currently No. 11, while Nashville is
No. 33. This would be the third move (after the Raiders and
Browns) of an AFC team into a smaller media market. In terms of
ad sales, NBC has gone "from three markets that had 8 million
homes" to three markets with 4 million. NBC Sports President
Dick Ebersol told USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke, "We're troubled.
Losing top 15 markets is not the way you'd like to go." Ebersol
noted the Raiders' move has "affected NBC to a greater degree
than anticipated in L.A., as well as Fox with the Rams moving to
St. Louis." Ebersol said he is not ready to ask for a change in
the 65-35 rights fee gap with Fox, adding that "there are many
ways to work it out" (USA TODAY, 11/17). With the Browns and
Oilers move, it has been a "tough couple of weeks at NBC" (Steve
Zipay, NEWSDAY, 11/17).
NFL NOTES: Fox's John Madden, on the NFL's off-field news:
"If you are going to sue each other and do all this stuff, you
should do it in the off-season" (Prentis Rogers, ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION, 11/17). In New York, Bob Raissman writes there is
no way to "prove fans are turning off the game because they are
sick" of sports business news, but "with the exception of Fox,
NFL TV ratings are down this season" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 11/17).
NEWSDAY's Steve Zipay notes the "stinging criticism" of the
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER which "attacked" ABC for what the paper
claims was "abysmal" coverage of the Browns' move during "Monday
Night Football." A PLAIN DEALER editorial stated, "ABC's failure
to cover the story was more than a matter of incompetence. It
suggests the network's journalistic integrity has been
compromised by dependence on its Monday night cash cow." ABC
Sports spokesperson Mark Mandel responded, "We feel we gave an
unbiased account of the story. They apparently don't feel that
way. We hope they don't abuse the network that brought them many
of the Browns games" (NEWSDAY, 11/17).
