Broadcast Network Sports Saturday

[radiolives]

NBC had NHL, ABC had NCAA Basketball then Golf, CBS had two NCAA Basketball games.

Going along with this some local stations does show the network sports. Two of the NBC stations WECT Wlimington, NC and WIS Columbia, SC both didn't have NHL on NBC. WECT had paid programing as they were going to air local Jefferson Pilot NCAA basketball and WIS had a double header of Jefferson Pilot NCAA Basketball. So I guess thats why I have three NBC stations. But WCBD out of Charleston, SC did show NHL on NBC.

Now the two CBS and ABC stations showed the network sports which I think is right to do. Just one of the CBS stations didn't show both NCAA games on CBS as they showed the local Jefferson Pilot game.

I think its stupid for local stations of the big three not to air the network sports during the weekend. If anything the local FOX, UPN, or WB should be airing this stuff. feel free to comment.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Radioken:

If you live on the North Carolina side of the North Carolina/South Carolina border, you live in ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) Country. And in ACC Country, college basketball not only rules, it's a religion!

And although you may think that network-affiliated stations should carry network sports telecasts, sometimes they may say no.

In fact, North Carolina now has an NHL team---the Carolina Hurricanes, based in Raleigh and who at this writing (January 21st) are leading their division and have one of the best records in the league.

Certainly, the Hurricanes want to build a major fan base throughout the Carolinas. Although WECT-7 in Wilmington didn't show today's NBC NHL telecast, Wilmington radio station WMFD-630 is part of the Hurricanes' radio network.

As NBC's schedule stands now, the only way the Carolina Hurricanes will be seen on the network is if they make the playoffs. Given their current success, they may well become a serious Stanley Cup contendor and as a result, some of their early-round weekend playoff games will be seen regionally on NBC affiliates in the Carolinas and maybe the entire Southeast. If the 'Canes advance far enough, they eventually would get full-network exposure.

On the other hand, I believe the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot joint venture that airs ACC and Southeast Conference (SEC) basketball pays stations (including WECT and WIS) for the airtime.

In North Carolina, ACC basketball is the state's number-one spectator sport (despite the Carolina Panthers, who have been in one Super Bowl and at this writing are one game away from going to a second; despite NASCAR having had generations of fans in the Tarheel State; and the already-mentioned Hurricanes). For WECT, it was a no-brainer.

In the case of WIS, they were carrying a doubleheader of SEC basketball. While it's not the "religion" in that state that the ACC is in North Carolina, one of the games did feature the University of South Carolina, and I suspect that in the Palmetto State, South Carolina men's basketball is the big spectator sport this time of year (and South Carolina football would be the big spectator sport in the Fall). South Carolina is also a NASCAR hotbed, home of Darlington Speedway, one of NASCAR's pioneering venues, a place which has hosted races for over 50 years (I believe that's longer than any other track).

I doubt that viewers in Wilmington or Columbia will be seeing The NHL On NBC between now and February 4th. The remaining two regular-season NBC telecasts will come during the final two Saturdays of the regular-season (April 8th and 15th), and with college basketball having ended by that time, WECT and WIS may decide to finally show hockey---especially if NBC alters it's schedule to move the Canes' game on one of those two dates (on April 8th, they play in Atlanta; on April 15th, they play in Tampa Bay) to the afternoon so the network could broadcast it as a regional telecast for affiliates in the Southeast, including the Carolinas. I wouldn't be surprised if that happens, given the team's success.

It could be much worse----back in the 1970's, NHL network telecasts weren't available in large portions of the Southeast.

 

[genXdxerLR]

Try living in the Little Rock market.....

KATV our ABC station, airs the JP SEC games and any network programming is prempted for the games, even during prime time on Wednsday nights. Ask the viewers of Lost in Central Arkansas who not only cannot see Lost in HD, but are forced to manually tape (and hope the time doesn't run over) that show. This includes games not involving the (University of) Arkansas Razorbacks.

I wasn't home yesterday to verify but on paper, KARK (NBC, Nexstar owned) was to carry the NHL game. In glorious SD of course.

 

[genXdxerLR]

> Radioken:
>
>
> On the other hand, I believe the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot
> joint venture that airs ACC and Southeast Conference (SEC)
> basketball pays stations (including WECT and WIS) for the
> airtime.
>

Joseph,

Do you have a source for this, that may explain KATV's reluctance to NOT carry JP SEC games on Wednsday nights and weekends.

Once again, follow the money.....

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Jefferson-Pilot/Raycom Buying Time (Was: Re: Broadcast Network Sports Saturday)

On it's website, Raycom (who is Jefferson-Pilot's partner in producing ACC and SEC college sports telecasts) has a company history, and if you scroll about one-fifth down the page, you'll read that Raycom purchased airtime from stations to show the games and thus, controlled nearly all commercial in that game.

I would think that policy still exists and now includes the joint Raycom/JP partnership for ACC and SEC college sports telecasts.

 

[tvobserver]

> Radioken:
>
> If you live on the North Carolina side of the North
> Carolina/South Carolina border, you live in ACC (Atlantic
> Coast Conference) Country. And in ACC Country, college
> basketball not only rules, it's a religion!
>
> And although you may think that network-affiliated stations
> should carry network sports telecasts, sometimes they may
> say no.
>
> On the other hand, I believe the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot
> joint venture that airs ACC and Southeast Conference (SEC)
> basketball pays stations (including WECT and WIS) for the
> airtime.
>
> In North Carolina, ACC basketball is the state's number-one
> spectator sport (despite the Carolina Panthers, who have
> been in one Super Bowl and at this writing are one game away
> from going to a second; despite NASCAR having had
> generations of fans in the Tarheel State; and the
> already-mentioned Hurricanes). For WECT, it was a
> no-brainer.
>
> In the case of WIS, they were carrying a doubleheader of SEC
> basketball. While it's not the "religion" in that state that
> the ACC is in North Carolina, one of the games did feature
> the University of South Carolina, and I suspect that in the
> Palmetto State, South Carolina men's basketball is the big
> spectator sport this time of year (and South Carolina
> football would be the big spectator sport in the Fall).
> South Carolina is also a NASCAR hotbed, home of Darlington
> Speedway, one of NASCAR's pioneering venues, a place which
> has hosted races for over 50 years (I believe that's longer
> than any other track).


South Carolina is unique, also, with split loyalties between Univ of SC (SEC) and Clemson (ACC). Also, the ACC is USC's historical conference, where they played until the early 1970's. So, Jefferson-Pilot, in places like Columbia and Charleston, will clear time on one network affiliate for the ACC game, and on another for the SEC game, in both football and basketball. As long as the individual station's network affiliation agreement allows it, it is good for the station, as they can get better ratings for a game involving or affecting their local team.

Also, while I cannot verify this, Jefferson-Pilot may require stations that want the SEC or ACC football package to carry the basketball package, and vice versa. In the SEC, this is huge.

 

[tvobserver]

> Try living in the Little Rock market.....
>
> KATV our ABC station, airs the JP SEC games and any network
> programming is prempted for the games, even during prime
> time on Wednsday nights. Ask the viewers of Lost in Central
> Arkansas who not only cannot see Lost in HD, but are forced
> to manually tape (and hope the time doesn't run over) that
> show. This includes games not involving the (University of)
> Arkansas Razorbacks.
>
> I wasn't home yesterday to verify but on paper, KARK (NBC,
> Nexstar owned) was to carry the NHL game. In glorious SD of
> course.
>

Does the ABC station in Little Rock still pre-empt the ABC 2:30 PM college football games? I know they did this a few years ago, since the JP SEC games start at 11:30 and sometimes run until 3:00 PM or even later.

 

[JayR]

Hey Joe,...

> On it's website, Raycom (who is Jefferson-Pilot's partner in
> producing ACC and SEC college sports telecasts) has a
> company history, and if you scroll about one-fifth down the
> page, you'll read that Raycom purchased airtime from
> stations to show the games and thus, controlled nearly all
> commercial in that game.
>
> I would think that policy still exists and now includes the
> joint Raycom/JP partnership for ACC and SEC college sports
> telecasts.

Raycom Sports has a partnership with Jefferson-Pilot Sports to produce (for syndication) ACC games ONLY.

 

[genXdxerLR]

> Does the ABC station in Little Rock still pre-empt the ABC
> 2:30 PM college football games? I know they did this a few
> years ago, since the JP SEC games start at 11:30 and
> sometimes run until 3:00 PM or even later.
>

tvobserver,

The total pre-emption of ABC college football on KATV (Little Rock) occured for only one year: 1996. Prior to 1991, the station would premempt games that conflicted with the Raycom SWC games (KATV did not carry Raycom games in 1991), but aired ABC college games JIP. With the move to the SEC and a new syndicator (JP), KATV could no carry ABC games---it was an all or nothing deal. KASN (UPN), carried the games from 1992-1995.

The trainwreck occured in 1996. KASN begain carrying the 11:00am Big 12 games that were syndicated. Since KWBF was two years away from going on the air (originally as PAX O&O KYPX), there was no place for the ABC games in Central Arkansas. Again, an all or nothing deal. Things came to a head during the Saturday of the first Big 12 championship, and (then) WAC championship games: KATV did not show those, and then allowed Comcast cable in Little Rock metro a waiver to import KAIT (Jonesboro, AR) in order to broadcast the SEC Championship game (then carried by ABC). I watched the Big 12 game from WABG in Greenwood, over a very snowy, noisy signal (living in rural SE Ark, at the time).

1997 brought a return of ABC football on KATV, but the early games were once again "farmed out" to KASN (the big 12 games were dropped), and KATV got to at last carry games (at least the 2:30pm central) for first time since 1991. But according to KATV, the station had to time shift the games digitally and sometimes, there would be a 15-30 difference in the actual game time and KATV broadcast. This occurs to this day.

This past season, KASN carried the 11:00am ABC games, and also picks up several sporting events (some golf tournements, and a couple of IRL races) that are prempted due to KATV carrying that dinosaur called a Coach's Show (Houston Nutt). I hope there is some programming changes at KATV before NASCAR goes to ABC in 2007.

 

[ixnay]

> Also, the ACC is USC's
> historical conference, where they played until the early
> 1970's.

There MUST be an inside story as to why the Gamecocks parted ways with the ACC. Let's hear it!

ixnay

 

[tvobserver]

> > Also, the ACC is USC's
> > historical conference, where they played until the early
> > 1970's.
>
> There MUST be an inside story as to why the Gamecocks parted
> ways with the ACC. Let's hear it!
>
> ixnay
>

There is probably someone from the Carolinas that can speak better to this...

I had always heard it had to do with conference politics regarding the USC basketball team in the 1970's, as the ACC was, at that time, the only conference with a post-season tournament, and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament awarded to the winner. At that time, only a conference champion could make the NCAAs, as there were no at-large bids. SC had a team that went undefeated in the ACC during the regular season, but lost in the ACC tournament and had to stay home for the post-season.

After I did some searching online a few minutes ago, there were also football-related politics, as the ACC, at that time, was the only conference to have a minimum SAT score for athletes on scholarship. This was during the days of unlimited football scholarships. SC had a problem with this, so they took their entire athletic program independent. Basketball and other sports later wound up in the Metro conference, but football remained independent until they joined the SEC in 1992.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Thanks!

Thanks for clearing this up.

Living in Boston, we now get (with Boston College having joined the ACC, which I personally think was a mistake) Raycom/JP's broadcasts of ACC sports (football and most men's basketball on WSBK-38), and I assumed that Raycom and JP were also partners in syndicated telecasts of SEC games.

Slightly off-topic: I think the reason the ACC wooed Boston College was television. Boston is the fifth-largest TV market in the country and is now the largest market to have an ACC member school.

But while ACC basketball is THE sport in the home TV markets of many ACC schools, that's not the case in Boston. We have five professional teams (including soccer as well as the traditional "big four" team sports of baseball, football, hockey and basketball), all of whom have a much bigger following than any college team.

 

[karaokelegend]

Re: Thanks!

WBTV, channel 3, and WWWB, channel 55 share the Raycom/JP ACC basketball games in Charlotte. It used to be all WBTV except for when CBS had the Winter Olympics but in recent years WWWB has picked up a good number of ACC games. WBTV has all the ACC tournament games. I guess viewers were getting tired of CBS prime-time preemptions. WBTV airs all the football games and if CBS has an early SEC game it is usually shown on WJZY, channel 46. The Conference USA basketball championship has been bumped to WJZY every year because of WBTV's ACC committment. (For some reason CBS televises it and it starts at 11:30 am). With WBTV being owned by Jefferson-Pilot, don't expect ACC basketball to switch off it any time soon. (The Lincoln Financial buyout won't affect anything I don't think). They have been carrying this package of games ever since it started back in 1983.