ABC Affiliates Decry Migration of Sports to ESPN

[TMC]

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_...e7c8fd44cc74cc

Feb 7, 2010

-By John Consoli

ABC’s affiliates are not only in a battle with the network over retransmission fees, but they are also boiling mad that corporate sibling ESPN is being handed live sports events they were initially supposed to carry.

The most recent move came in January when ESPN announced it planned to take eight Nascar races this fall off ABC for the coming season to run on ESPN. Even before that, though, ABC coughed up the Rose Bowl beginning in 2011 and golf’s British Open in 2010 to ESPN, which is majority-owned by Walt Disney, the full owner of ABC.

Station executives argued that losing live sports events will not only cost them significant ad revenue and take away a negotiating chip with media buyers, but will also hamper their ability to promote other programming to male audiences. The latter is particularly true among ABC’s Southern affiliates, where Nascar viewing is passionate.

ESPN has the ability to cherry-pick sports from (or occasionally move sports to) ABC, because in 2006 ESPN in effect took control of ABC Sports. All sports programming on ABC is now produced by “ESPN on ABC,” as the onscreen logo reads.

“The migration of more and more live sporting events from ABC to ESPN is troubling,” said Bill Hoffman, vp and general manager of Cox Television’s Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV. Hoffman, who is also secretary-treasurer of the ABC affiliate board, said losing sports will cost affiliates “significant” ad revenue and hard-to-reach (and therefore valuable) male viewers. “Not only have we lost these sporting events, but now we also have to compete against those telecasts on ESPN. Nascar is a huge lifestyle in the South. It’s indigenous to the region. And now most of the live races on broadcast are gone.”

Hoffman was the only affiliate executive who would speak on the record, although several echoed his position on condition of anonymity. “It’s a delicate subject, but we [the ABC affiliate board] are in passionate alignment on this,” he said.

A few station execs privately suspect that because ESPN is a big money maker for Disney, the parent company is letting it pull more live sports from ABC in order to justify hefty subscriber fees. ESPN charges cable operators $4.10 per household, according to SNL Kagan, and is said to be seeking a hike.

Len DeLuca, ESPN senior vp, programming and acquisitions, disputed that rationale, saying the Nascar move is purely about ratings. “What we did was take eight Nascar races on ABC on Sunday afternoons that were not getting maximum audiences nationwide [last season] because they were competing with the NFL,” DeLuca said. He believes ESPN will be able to devote more promotional time to those races to their target audience this fall. The 11 Nascar races on ABC last year averaged a 3.5 household rating, lower than Fox’s Nascar average (5.1) and ESPN’s (3.6 for six races), and just slightly higher than TNT’s (3.3).

DuLuca said he is sympathetic to ABC affiliates but noted they will still air more than 300 hours of “good sports programming” this year, including college football, the NBA, World Cup soccer, the Indy 500, the Little League World Series and three prime-time Nascar races. He added that ESPN has “several shows and concepts in development targeting men” to offer ABC affiliates for airing on weekend afternoons.

As upset as the affiliates are, they have little recourse, and they shouldn’t expect much support from media buyers. “The ratings on ESPN may be lower, but the pricing will be lower also,” said Christine Merrifield, senior vp, group client director at MediaVest. “For sports telecasts, a lot of benefit comes from promotion. And ESPN is a promotional machine. ESPN is an engine that targets men across all of its platforms. ABC reaches a lot more women.”

[oldguywithsticks]

EvilSPN ticks me off more than any other network combined. I loathe them with a burning passion!

[TMC]

Originally Posted by oldguywithsticks

EvilSPN ticks me off more than any other network combined. I loathe them with a burning passion!

Well this might tick you off more:
http://www.multichannel.com/article/..._Increases.php

Iger added that he believes that ESPN, which attracts the highest affiliate fees of any ad-supported network, still has upside potential.

Iger said that although ESPN is not engaged in any major negotiations now - reports indicate that its next deal expires in August with Time Warner Cable - he believes that operators recognize the value that the network delivers.

"We think our position going into a new round of negotiations is actually quite solid because of the value we are generating," Iger said." Distributors do quite well with ESPN, not just because of the overall value we deliver, but the ads they sell on local basis are worth a considerable amount. ESPN generates more advertising revenue than any other channel in the cable universe."

[TMC]

Sports Media Watch: SMW Q&A with George Bodenheimer

SMW: There was an article that came out a couple of weeks ago, where some ABC affiliates were concerned about the amount of sports migrating from ABC to ESPN. I wanted to know, is there any idea, or any plan in the works to maybe move some of those events back to ABC? Or is there going to be continued migration to ESPN?

Bodenheimer: Well, I think you're going to see we're constantly refining what we're airing and where we're airing it. We still have an extremely strong line-up -- Indy 500, NBA Finals, Little League World Series, college football Saturday night -- we still have an extremely strong line-up on ABC, and I expect that to continue. As far as exactly how it flows in the future, we'll have to see. I think you'll see -- we could see it balancing. But we're going to stay strong on ABC.

SMW: This year in particular, there seems to be a lot more movement towards ESPN. I know you guys are planning to air the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA entirely on ESPN instead of ABC, also no more Rose Bowl on ABC. So do you see the concern that some affiliates might have?

Bodenheimer: We work closely with the ABC affiliates, we understand their issues. They understand the economics of the business are changing, and sports on free, over-the-air television is a challenged model. That's why you're seeing some of the shifts. It's no more complicated than that. But I don't think you're going to continue to see a wholesale evolution of everything shifting from ABC to ESPN. As I said, we're going to stay strong on ABC with the properties that remain.

ABC doesn't have an "extremely strong" sports line-up! They have no NFL (having given Monday Night Football up to ESPN in 2006), no Major League Baseball (the having broadcast that since 1995), no NHL (not since 2003-04), no major college football bowls (having lost the BCS to Fox several years back), minimal college basketball, minimal horse racing (they lost the Triple Crown to NBC in 2001 and now, only have the last race of the Triple Crown), no PGA Tour (having lost that in 2006), and minimal NBA coverage (and some of the lowest ratings for the NBA Finals ever). ABC pretty much treats their sports programming like weekend filler at the moment. The folks at ESPN just flat out can't admit that they want to charge as high as a subscription fee rate as possible by having all of this big time events there instead of on ABC.

[oldguywithsticks]

Did he actually say that the Little League World Series was part of a strong lineup? I LOL'd. This article is just another reason why EvilSPN is the most despisable major network out there. ABC isn't much better either. The only one of the 'big 3' that seems to be any good is CBS.

Doesn't ABC have the rights to the BCS National Championship Game? Or did EvilSPN snatch that up for themselves too?

[TMC]

George Bodenheimer just seems like somewhat of a two-faced, uber self-congratulatory person if you ask me. Here's what he said when he first took over ABC Sports back in 2003:

When ESPN's George Bodenheimer was handed the reins at ABC Sports in 2003, he praised the sports division's "elegant" 40-year history.

"It's one of the greatest assets in television sports history," he said. "We're going to obviously seek to maintain and enhance that."

Seven years later, not only has ABC Sports ceased to exist, but the replacement (ESPN on ABC) continues to shed sporting events. NASCAR is just the latest sports property to virtually vanish from ABC.

Bodenheimer was also once quoted saying "Anybody looking for the demise of ABC Sports is barking up the wrong tree!" Of course, one year later, ABC Sports officially became branded as "ESPN on ABC".

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

George Bodenheimer just seems like somewhat of a two-faced, uber self-congratulatory person if you ask me. Here's what he said when he first took over ABC Sports back in 2003:


Bodenheimer was also once quoted saying "Anybody looking for the demise of ABC Sports is barking up the wrong tree!" Of course, one year later, ABC Sports officially became branded as "ESPN on ABC".

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/Fir...imer_from_ABC/

George Bodenheimer is the President of ESPN and ABC Sports, (replacing Howard
Katz as the latter in 2003). He is the overseer of all sports programming for
ESPN.

You can thank Bodenheimer for ESPN Original Entertainment, which is responsible
for Playmakers, A Season on the Brink, 3, Beg, Borrow and Deal, and I'd Do
Anything. You can also thank him for that ESPN Mobile phone you never knew
existed. (You know, the one they put Kirby Puckett's face on the night he died?)

Notable quotes: "Anybody looking for the demise of ABC Sports is barking up the
wrong tree." - Bodenheimer in 2005, approximately a year before ABC Sports
became ESPN on ABC.

Under Bodenheimer's watch, ESPN has acquired the NBA, Monday Night Football and
NASCAR, while jettisoning the National Hockey League and losing postseason
baseball. During that same time period, ABC lost the NHL, NFL, Bowl Championship
Series, golf, Keith Jackson and Al Michaels. Oh, and the "thrill of victory" and
"agony of defeat", too.

http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com...-from-abc.html