NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol told a meeting of NBC
affils that he will search for a "truly valuable sports
franchise" to fill the Sunday NFL void, according to AD AGE.
Ebersol added that if neither NBC Sports nor NBC News could
fill the time period the "network might give the time back"
to affils. He also said that putting NBA games on in
November/December was not an option because they would get
"pulverized" by college football and that "NBA on NBC" major
sponsors would not want to compete with college football,
where they also have a "major presence" (AD AGE, 1/19).
OTHER AFFIL NEWS: Fox told its affils on Saturday that
it was looking for a payment "in excess" of the annual $35M
that affils paid during the previous NFL deal. Fox CEO
Chase Carey said that monetary payment would be part of an
arrangement as having "stations give up local inventory will
not suffice" (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 1/19). CBS is "prepared"
to ask its affils for "a slice of their local ad sales" as
the network prefers to share ad revenue "over taking back
local inventory from stations" (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 1/20).
