With the NBA and ABC still figuring out how to maximize their marketing and promotional opportunities in year two of their partnership, and David Stern publicly saying he would like to move some conference finals games to network TV to better promote the NBA Finals, THE DAILY charted the total number of promos for ABC/ESPN sports programing run in primetime on ABC May 23-29, the week of the NBA conference championships, the beginning of the Stanley Cup Finals and the week before the Indy 500. The following chart list the frequency of primetime sports promos on ABC from May 23-29, as well as the time slots in which they appeared.
| Event | Frequency | 8:00-9:00 | 9:00-10:00 | 10:00-11:00 |
| NBA Playoffs/Finals | 13 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Stanley Cup | 13 | 4 | 3 | 6 |
| Indy 500 | 17 | 3 | 7 | 7 |
The time spent promoting each event over the week was: NBA playoffs, 3:55; Indy 500, 2:45; NHL, 1:45. If promos ran during ABC's coverage of Game Three of the Stanley Cup Finals are excluded, the NBA received 6 mentions for 40 seconds of exposure, the Indy 500 ten for 1:15 and the NHL ten for 1 minute.
STRATEGY: ABC Sports VP/Media Relations Mark Mandel spoke with THE DAILY about ABC's sports promo strategy, saying, "We value the ability to promote in primetime and do it as much as we can but recognize also that the network has other priorities and other obligations besides sports. We have to work with them closely to make sure everything is promoted." Mandel added, "The largest audiences are in prime time and a lot of non-sports fans may be watching. You want to be able to reach as many people as possible. Casual fans or non fans who might see a promo and say, 'hey that's interesting, I'm going to watch on Sunday or I'm going to watch on Tuesday'" (THE DAILY).
