National broadcast and cable networks, all of which are currently in the last year of multiyear pacts with baseball, will pay a total of $58 million for the rights to games in 1983. up 8.6% from last year's figure of $53.4 million. NBC-TV is in its fourth year and ABC-TV the fifth of contracts under which they will pay an estimated $200 mil lion for TV rights through the end of the upcoming season. This year, NBC is understood to be paying about $28.5 million and ABC $26 million. Negotiations for 1984 and Broadcasting Feb 28 1983 beyond are ongoing. CBS-TV has talked with the league about getting a piece of fu ture baseball action. Reports circulated last week that the league was asking for $1 bil lion for its network television contracts over the next five years (1984-1988) and that NBC had already agreed to pay $500 million to renew its contract and was also prepared to shell out the entire $1 billion if ABC were to decline its renewal option, provided that CBS decides not to bid on it. CBS Radio is said to paying about the SPECIAL REPORT Same amount that it did last year for a similar game package in 1983, which includes the S0th anniversary All-Star Game. July 31 playoffs. Oct. 4-9 (which may be expanded to best-of-seven series, if the players' association approves a recent proposal by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn), and the World Senes. currently scheduled to start Oct. 11. CBS Radio will face some serious competi tion from at least two other networks for the next major league radio contract-ABC Ra dio and Mutual Broadcasting System. Shelby Whitfield, executive producer and direc tor of sports programing. ABC Radio Networks, told BROADCASTING last week that he has had "preliminary talks" with baseball's negotiating committee concerning a future long-term contract. John Chanin, Vice president, sports, Mutual, was so confident last week of his network's proposal to the leagues that he said. "We will probably have the winning bid. The USA Cable Network is entering its second year of a two-year rights contract. and is believed to be paying about $1.5 mil hon. It will cablecast between 40 and 45 regular season games, primarily on Thursday nights during prime time. On most game nights, the network provides doubleheader coverage, an East Coast game followed by a West Coast game ESPN will bid against USA in upcoming talks for a new national cable contract with the leagues. So far, half of the 26 major league clubs have negotiated a pay TV deal that will be in operation this year. Most of the others are still examining their options, if not for 1983, certainly for 1984. And while some view the pay TV medium simply as a marketing tool to promote basehall the profit potential is considered enormous. The Yankees, for example, are reportedly being paid close to $5 million per year over 15 years by Sportschannel. a New York area pay sports service. The Texas Rangers have recently concluded a five-year deal with Warner Amex's Home Sports Entertainment valued at between $10 million and $15 million. A national pay sports service, as envisioned by Chicago White Sox President Eddie Einhorn and cable consultant Bob Schmidt in the form of Super Sports Network, may be a bit ahead of its time. A check with the teams about planned participation indicated that SSN will probably not get off to a grand start in 1983, if at all. unless it pursues sports other than baseball. Of the 23 eligible teams (those seen on the three superstations. Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs and New York Mets, were not invited to participate, and said they had declined anyway), 14 said they would probably not participate this year. Reasons cited included existing contracts that barred participation and concerns with the technical operation of SSN. At press time, only the three teams in the venture, the White Sox. Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers, and the San Diego Pa dres were committed to participation in SSN this year The Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and the Seattle Mariners are still studying the proposal, as are the California Angels. interested in the proposal, with an eye to- Michael Schreter, vice president, treasur- confronts West Coast teams. And because that problem has to be dealt with first, he land Indians in charge of broadcasting and The Dodgers' Dave Vanderwalker said Although Group W Satellite Communications is not yet prepared to discuss details. that company appears on the verge of getting into the pay sports business in a big way. It's understood that the four transponders GWSC has reserved on Hughes' Galaxy satellite will be used to tie together a series of regional sports networks which would include a number of professional baseball games. A look at network programing plans, advertising rates and major sponsors for the coming season follows: ABC has the rights to the World Series this year, as well as Monday Night Baseball and three Sunday afternoon games. The rate Broadcasting adcasting Feb 28 1983 card has not been set yet for the World Series, but the price of a 30-second spot will probably be $210,000, according to Larre Barrett, director of sports sale for the ABC Television Network. That compares with the $185,000 per 30-second charged by NBC last year. Second quarter 30-second spots during Monday Night Baseball will be $70,000 and third-quarter spots are priced at $60 00. Sunday afternoon 30's will cost $22,000. The only major sponsor signed at press time was Miller Beer (through Backer & Spielvogel), which will have the exclusive beer spots for all the Monday night and World Series games this year. Chevrolet and G.M. Parts are negotiating for sponsorships, where they would purchase 60 seconds of advertising per game throughout the season. The network will present 12 consecutive Monday night games this season beginning June 6, while the World Series is slated to start Tuesday Oct. 11, if the playoff structure is not expanded to a best-of-seven series. NBC will carry 29 Game of the Week telecasts over 26 Saturdays (three doubleheaders), the All-Star Game on Wednesday, July 6. and the American and National League Championship Series. scheduled at this point to begin Tuesday, October 4. NBC also has two prime time dates, Aug. 9 and Sept. 6. Saturday afternoon 30's are priced at $33,500 (up from $32.000 last year) and the two prime time games will cost $62.500. NBC is charging $180,000 for the All-Star 30's this year, up from the $150,000 that ABC charged last year Two years ago NBC charged $135,000 for its All-Star spots. Prime ume playoff 30's this year cost $122.500 (up from $110,000), while comparable weekend spots are priced at $70,000 (up from $55,000, and weekday playoff 30's will go for $40,000 (up from $27,500). NBC baseball sponsors this year include Ford, Miller, Honda Motorcycles, Gillette, Kentucky Fried Chicken. IBM, Michelin Tire, Borden's, Sony, Budget rent-a-car. Ramada Inns. Delco, Ryder trucks, Polaroid and Goodyear. The second quarter is 70% sold out and the third quarter is 60% sold Out CBS Radio will offer the All-Star game, league playoffs and World Series, and will again sell advertising for the entire package. It's understood that the price of one spot running through the entire package of games tracks roughly the price of one 30-second World Series TV spot, which is expected to be $210,000 this year. CBS Radio baseball advertisers this year include Anheuser-Busch, Big A auto parts, Airborne. Dap and Ramada Inns. In addition to the games themselves, CBS Radio will again offer a host of baseballrelated features, such as a baseball preview series of 14-minute reports by Cunt Gowdy. March 28-April 1. The USA Cable Network has priced 30second baseball spots for its package of 40 to 45 regular season games at $3.000 Sponsors include Miller, Anheuser-Busch, Dura Story continues on page så White Sox retain all broadcast and cable rights, having partnership arrangement with originators involved WDAF-TV holds TV rights. Stauffer Communications (WIBW) Midwest Radio TV Inc holds broadcast rights. Twins and Home KSTW holds TV rights. KVI holds radio rights Rangers retain broadcast rights with sales managed by Texas Rangers Baseball Network. Home Sports Entertainment holds pay cable rights (Warner Amex) WGN-TV holds TV rights WGN holds radio rights WGN 26 CFCF 38 CKAC 40 WHN 25 WCAU 26 KDKA Group W (KDKA-AM TV) is broadcast nights holder Home Sports 36 Entertainment Network (Warner Amex) holds pay-cable rights KMOX KSDK holds TV rights. KMOX holds radio rights 100-plus Carling O'Keefe holds TV rights CFCF holds English-language WOR-TV has partnership arrangements with Mets. Mets retain oell and Phillips Petroleum. The network currently reaches over 15 million cable subscribers through 3,000 affiliates. A team-by-team breakdown follows: Baltimore Orioles WFBR(AM) is entering its first year of a fouryear agreement with the baseball club amounting to a figure that is three times higher than the previous four-year package, according to Harry Shriver, president and general manager of the station. Sponsors include Chevrolet, Kelly Springfield Tires. Maryland National Bank and Carquest Auto Parts. Shriver expects two-thirds of the broadcast schedule to be sold out by the beginning of the season. As for television, WMAR(TV) is beginning its first year of a new two-year deal. There are no pay-cable rights but McLean, Va.based Super TV has negotiated a new twoyear contract for STV rights for 16 home games to be televised in Baltimore over local STV outlet WNUV(TV), and in Washington on WOOR(TV). Super TV had televised some Oriole games last season. There will be a separate announcing staff for both radio and television. The Oriole organization recently signed former Boston Red Sox announcer Jon Miller to handle onair radio play-by-play coverage with Tom Marr while veteran Oriole announcer Chuck Thompson will do play-by-play for television along with color commentator Brooks Robinson. SPECIAL REPORT Boston Red Sox Pay-cable is on the horizon for the Red Sox. but a definite starting date has not been set. The baseball club, the Boston Bruins and WSBK-TV have formed a partnership called the New England Sports Network to offer on pay-cable both games of the Bruins and the Red Sox. "It definitely won't go this year. perhaps next year," reports Stu Tauber, general sales manager of WSBK-TV. The TV sta tion has entered into a new three-year contract with the Red Sox covering 105 games. Tauber says business is fairly brisk and major positions have been sold to AnheuserBusch, Toyota and Gulf Oil. Cleveland Indians The Indians television rights holder, WUAB(TV), enters the 1983 baseball season with a new three-year contract providing for the annual coverage of 50 away contests. Radio rights holder WWWE(AM) has a contract extending through 1985 and this year will carry all 162 regular season games (as do most radio originators) and 11 pre-season games. Ted Stepien, owner of the National Basketball Association Cleveland Cavaliers and operator of a regional cable-sports channel in the Cleveland area, was also awarded a new three-year contract this year by the Indians. He will market Season Ticket, a package of 50 games (six exhibition and 44 home games) to area cable systerns. Season Ticket's marketable universe consists of 18 cable systems with 487.000 subscribers, within a 75-mile radius of Cleveland. The city itself is not yet franchised. Carl Foster, an executive with Stepien's Nationwide Cable subsidiary, hopes to have 10 systems committed to carrying the service by opening day. The first exhibition game will be carried March 22 from Tucson, Ariz., via Westar V. Anheuser-Busch is the beer sponsor for both WUAB and wwwE. WUAB will spot out the automotive category to various clients. and wwwE has secured Chevrolet as its automotive sponsor. General Tire and Farmers Insurance have also signed on as radio spon sors this year. Comedian Jonathan Winters, an Ohio native, is to be featured in a series of spots on WUAB promoting Indians baseball. Wwwt has the rights to Indians team mascot Tom-EHawk and team fight song, "Indian Coun try," which the station uses to promote its baseball broadcasts. Detroit Tigers WJRIAM) is beginning a new five-year contract with the Tiger organization while WDIV(TV) is in the last year of a three-year television broadcast pact. Duane Kell, gen eral sales manager of WDIV, expects the 1983 broadcast schedule to be about 80% sold out by the time the first spring training game is aired March 17. Advertisers include Miller and Chevrolet. According to Kell, there will probably be an on-air promotion campaign with Chevrolet but details have not yet been worked out. ON TV, which held STV rights in previous years over the local STV outlet, wXON(TV), is currently negotiating for a new contract. There are no pay cable rights. Milwaukee Brewers The team that made it to the World Series last year also formed a joint venture with the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team for a regional pay TV sports network and decided to retain its radio rights, held for the previous two years by WISN(AM) Milwaukee. Whether the Brewers will join the White Sox, Rang. ers, A's, Astros and Dodgers in retaining all or part of its broadcast TV rights is likely to be decided in the coming months. A threeyear contract with WVTV(TV) Milwaukee expires this year. Negotiations on a new contract have not formally begun. The regional sports network. Wisconsin All Sports Network, could distribute the games of other regional baseball teams as well as professional hockey and college football. It is not likely to be on the air this year, according to Bill Haig, vice president. TV and radio for the Brewers, although it has signed some cable systems to carry its programing. WVTV and a network of seven stations will carry at least 60 games again this season, according to station general manager. Mike Schuch, and time on the network is sold out at an average of $1,200 per 30second spot. Major sponsors are Miller Beer. Toyota and True Value Hardware. WTMJ(AM) Milwaukee will originate the radio coverage on a network of 72 stations in 51 markets. In addition to allowing its originating station to sell time in the coverage, the Milwaukee Brewers Radio Network will help WTMJ with the cost of transmitting the game to network affiliates and with other expenses, such as log keeping and billing. WISN gave up its option for two more years of Brewers coverage after it failed to profit from its first two years. The station had paid the team in excess of $1 million for radio rights in 1982. according to WISN general manager John Hinkle. New York Yankees The Yankees have posted the highest broadcast rights for 1983 with a combined market figure of $11.5 million-up 77% over last year Originating TV station is WPIX(TV). which is entering its fourth year of a fiveyear contract. Sponsors basically include the same line-up as last year: Anheuser-Busch. Citibank, Dodge, Toyota, United Airlines. Exxon, Pepsi, Canon, McDonald's and Con Edison, the electric power company of New York City Thirty-second spots are averaging 20% higher this year, according to a WPIX spokesman. On the radio side. WABCIAMI will begin the third of a seven-year pact as the original ing station of Yankee games. However, the team retains broadcast rights and sells the spots. The radio network consists of ap proximately 60 stations, Ninety games this season will be televised over pay cable TV via Sportschannel, which is now in its second year of a 15-year deal. SPECIAL REPUR The same major sponsors for the Mets have bought time for the Yankees (see page 66). Toronto Blue Jays Radio coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays is sold out, according to Len Bramson, president of Telemedia Broadcast Services. which plans to broadcast 162 games, eight of them preseason, on a network of about 38 stations in 1982. The originating station will again be CICLIAM) Toronto, which was purchased last year along with Hewpex Sports network, former radio rights holder of the Blue Jays, by Telemedia of Ontario Inc. General Motors, Petrocan, McDonald's. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Labatt Breweries and Panasonic are major sponsors on the network, which includes 36 French outlets and two in English. TV Labatt will again produce and market coverage of the Blue Jays, to be distributed over the CTV network California Angels Angels rose dramatically this year, followThe estimated annual broadcast rights for the ing the pending sale of KTLA(TV) Los Ange les by Angels owner Gene Autry and The Signal Cos, to an investment group. Ob servers noted that Autry's 50% interest in the originating station had kept the rights package down, but the sale, coupled with home attendance records, has brought the team to the brink of implementing a new five-year agreement, reached in principle last year by the Angels and KTLA, predicated on the FCC's final approval of the station's sale. In the meantime, a station spokesman said KTLA plans "about the same amount of promotional effort this year for its 35 regular scason and two exhibition games. KMPC(AM), which will remain in Autry's hands, plans to cover all 81 of the Angels games. In addition, at least four Spanishlanguage stations in southern California and Tijuana will air all Angels home games. Chevrolet. Anheuser-Busch, Chevron USA and Avco Finance have contracted to sponsor the Spanish-language broadcasts. Fifteen Angel home games will be televised by ON TV, the subscription service aired over KASC TV Corona (Los Angeles). ON TV's contract extends through 1984. It has carried selected home games of the Angels for the past six seasons. Chicago White Sox More than two-thirds of the White Sox games this year will be seen exclusively on pay television via ON TV's two-channel STV service and suburban cable systems. Sportsvision, the pay channel owned jointly by the White Sox and three other Chicagobased professional sports teams, the Stings (soccer). Black Hawks (hockey) and Bulls (basketball), is marketing a 112-game subscription package of White Sox games for 1983 Sportsvision leases time on UHF channel 60, one of two channels composing ON TV'S STV service in Chicago. Subscrib ers are charged $15 for the two-channel package and $21.95 for Sportsvision a la Broadcasting oadcasting Feb 28 1983 60 carte. Cable subscribers are charged an aver age of $12 for the sports channel. The service now claims about 25.000 STV subscribers and 5.000 cable subscribers (cable marketing has just begun). Laureen Fadil. director of broadcast operations for the White Sox, said the break-even figure that the team is working with is 60.000 pay subscribers. She said that figure should be reached in the latter part of 1983, largely due to cable subscriber growth. A breach of contract suit filed against Sportsvision by Chuck Dolan's Sportschannel more than a year ago is still pending Sportschannel claims that it was given the exclusive cable rights to White Sox games for the 1981 and 1982 seasons by former White Sox owner Bill Veeck. The current club ownership took control of the team be tween those two seasons and launched its own sports channel, disavowing Dolan's claim to the rights for any White Sox games in 1982. Television originator WFLD-TV will carry 40 games this year (37 regular and three exhibition), down from 45 in 1982. fed to the station by Sportsvision. Television spon sors include True Value Hardware. area Dodge dealers and Anheuser-Busch The station is in the second year of a four-year contract Radio originator WMAQ is entering the second year of a five-year contract it has with the White Sox to carry the full season. Sponsors include Honda. Anheuser-Busch. General Finance. Central Tire. Texaco and True Value Hardware. Kansas City Royals WIBW(AM) Topeka, Kan, will again origi nate coverage of the Kansas City Royals on one of the largest radio networks-110 stations-in major league baseball Time on the network is sold out at $60.000 per 60-second spot, according to Bob Fromme, general manager of Stauffer Communications Royals Radio Network. Pabst Beer. Datsun. Getty Refining and marketing. Yago Sangria and Guy's Potato Chips will return to sponsor 162 regular season games and 16 spring training games, while Budweiser Beer and True Value Hardware will sponsor 30 minutes of pre- and post-game programing WDAF-TV Kansas City will broadcast 45 regular season games, an exhibition game and any post-season games with major sponsor ship from Miller Beer and Chevrolet. The Royals are "relatively close" to a decision on pay TV rights, according to Bryan Burns. director of broadcasting for the team, who said Super Sports Network as well as several regional multiple system operators have made offers. Burns anticipates that no more than "50 or 60" Royals games would be carried on cable each season at the outset, to prevent a negative impact on the gate Telecable Corp. Tele-Communications Inc. Landmark Communications and American Television & Communications Corp own ca ble systems in the vicinity of Kansas City Minnesota Twins Pay TV rights to the Minnesota Twins are the |