ABC will add four or five regular-season NBA games to its schedule next season, bringing its total to as many as 19. That's still well short of the 33 that NBC had in 2002, but it appears that the cable-heavy NBA television contract leaves room for ABC to grow its NBA presence at its own discretion. The league has been cooperative and encouraged ABC to make the additions, said two network officials, and they said ABC's primary goal is to air more games on broadcast television.
The additions will come in the form of Sunday doubleheaders and some Saturday broadcasts. At least four will definitely be added, network sources said, and a fifth is being considered that would go head-to-head with an NCAA basketball tournament broadcast on CBS.
The added games will take a small bite out of regional sports networks' NBA offerings and of the local television revenue for the clubs involved. But the maximum number of times an individual team can be shown on ABC (five) will not change. So the additional games will feature clubs that weren't set to be shown the maximum number of times.
ABC, close to completing its schedule, is looking at adding games from New Jersey and Houston. Last season the Eastern Conference champion Nets were on only twice, and the Rockets and Yao Ming were not on ABC at all.
ABC's inclination to add games to broadcast television, and the NBA's encouragement of those efforts, could have an indirect impact on other sports properties with ABC relationships, most notably the NHL (its current pact with ESPN and ABC expires in a year). The main reason ABC aired so few NBA games last season is that it simply didn't have room on its schedule for more, with so many other sports commitments. But if ABC can replace other sports programming with higher-rated NBA games and not pay any additional rights fees, it could become that much harder for the NHL and other rights holders to squeeze their way onto the ABC schedule in future years.
PGA TOUR RATINGS DOWN: PGA Tour coverage has averaged a 3.1 household rating this year through 48 broadcasts, down 9 percent from a 3.4 at the same point last year. NBC has accounted for most of the slide. Last year it averaged a 4.7 at this point; this year it's at a 3.3. CBS, which has provided nearly half the coverage, has held its own, slipping only to a 3.2 from a 3.3, while ABC has actually shown a 40 percent improvement, going from a 2.0 to a 2.8 for 10 broadcasts.
An NBC spokesperson attributed the drop to going head-to-head with war coverage from Iraq, rain and less-than- competitive showings by Tiger Woods, especially for the U.S. Open, which is included in NBC's totals.
"OTL NIGHTLY" FARING WELL: ESPN's "Outside the Lines Nightly" has averaged a 0.52 rating during its first nine weeks on the air. That's slightly less than the 0.58 ESPN had been averaging with "Baseball Tonight" in the same time slot, but it's been a wash in terms of overall ratings. That's because "Baseball Tonight" moved to ESPN2 at midnight, bumping up ratings for ESPN2 in that time slot from a 0.22 to 0.28.
Ratings for "Outside the Lines Nightly" have been on an upswing. Its highest weekly ratings ever were its seventh week on the air at a 0.67, and it hit a 0.60 during the most recent measured week.
A network representative said the show's most notable achievement has been its ability to be the first to provide in-depth coverage of breaking stories. On the night of Sammy Sosa's corked-bat incident, "OTL Nightly" scrapped the show it had planned and devoted an entire show to the Sosa affair. Other highlights have included getting Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim to offer the first reaction from a Big East coach to the ACC's attempt to lure Syracuse and two other schools to its conference. That came May 13, just a day after the show made its debut.
Getting first interviews has become the show's calling card. On Father's Day, the Sunday edition had the first interview with Flynn Kile, widow of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile. On July 9, "OTL Nightly" ran an extended version of Andrea Kramer's interview with Barry Sanders, his first since leaving the NFL four years ago. Two days later, "OTL Nightly" got the first interview with Karl Malone since he decided to join the Los Angeles Lakers.
"OTL Nightly's" highest-rated show to date came June 23 when it hit a 0.73 with segments on Jay Williams' motorcycle accident and high school players who have gone directly to the NBA.
Andy Bernstein can be reached at abernstein@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
