• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

PBA Bowling and Fox Sports have a broadcast deal for 2019

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

https://www.pba.com/articles/PBA-an...rm-Deal3b-PBA-Returns-to-Broadcast-TV-in-2019


LOS ANGELES and CHICAGO – The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) and FOX Sports today announced a multi-year, multi-platform agreement making FOX Sports the new television partner for the Go Bowling! PBA Tour starting in 2019. The package will bring a substantial schedule of live PBA events to television, including prime time events and a new bracket-style, multi-week PBA Playoffs tournament that concludes with a unique PBA championship finale. The announcement was made by PBA CEO and Commissioner Tom Clark and William Wanger, FOX Sports Executive VP of Programming, Live Operations and Research.

“The PBA has been searching for the best possible broadcast partner to serve our fans, players and the bowling industry, and we have determined that partner is FOX Sports,” Clark said. “We are particularly excited that the PBA Tour returns to broadcast television, where it started 56 years ago, with shows on FOX next year.”

In 2019, FOX Sports will televise four PBA Tour shows on FOX and 25 on FS1 in a series of two-hour telecasts. All programs will also be streamed on FOX Sports GO. Details pertaining to the FOX Sports-PBA package regarding PBA Tour locations, dates and times, and the television announcing team will be released at a later date.

“FOX Sports is thrilled to add the highly rated PBA Tour to our extensive lineup, joining other sport partners including the NFL, the FIFA World Cup, MLB, NASCAR, MLS, UFC, NHRA, Supercross, USGA, college football and basketball, and others,” said Wanger. “We believe that adding a FOX Sports look and feel to bowling will help bring the sport to a whole new level.”
Click to expand...


Yes Fox Affiliates and Fox Sports Go app are included in the broadcast deal with the PBA in 2019.
 
Sounds like they took this package away from ESPN, who has been running Sunday afternoon bowling against the NFL for years.
 
TheBigA said:
Sounds like they took this package away from ESPN, who has been running Sunday afternoon bowling against the NFL for years.
Click to expand...

ESPN has cut down on a lot of their broadcasts the last few years, at least against the NFL. In 2017 they had 19 broadcasts, only 5 were against NFL games. CBS Sports Network had a bowling package too, mostly in the summer.
 
This deal with Fox isn't much bigger. It says four on Fox and 25 on FS1, so it's mostly on FS1, which is smaller than ESPN.
 
I didn't realize bowling was still "highly rated," as the release says. How has ESPN been doing in recent years? And are the demographics any better than they were when bowling started to disappear from OTA TV due to a declining, aging viewer base?
 
CTListener said:
I didn't realize bowling was still "highly rated," as the release says. How has ESPN been doing in recent years? And are the demographics any better than they were when bowling started to disappear from OTA TV due to a declining, aging viewer base?
Click to expand...

ESPN is now showing Cornhole competitions.
 
The PBA has been on ABC and/or ESPN since the 1960s “Pro Bowlers Tour” was featured on ABC from 1962 to 1997. There also was a “one-off” telecast of the PBA Tournament of Champions on ABC in 2011 The PBA also was a cable pioneer, as it provided some of the early programming that aired on ESPN
 
They gotta have Rob Stone back calling the action...He brought excitement to the PBA Tour telecasts. I couldn't tell you who called PBA action on ABC/ESPN before he showed up there.
 
"Action"? "Excitement"? Two terms I would not associate with bowling - second only to golf as the worlds most boring game.

And, as someone earlier in this thread said.....what demo are they shooting for? I sure don't see Gen Xers or the Millstones being excited to watch.

Related.....I wonder what the viewing numbers for NAPCAR are these days on Faux? The vast number of empty stadium seats every weekend boggle the mind.
 
landtuna said:
Related.....I wonder what the viewing numbers for NAPCAR are these days on Faux? The vast number of empty stadium seats every weekend boggle the mind.
Click to expand...

Down about 10%-15% from last year.
Example: 4.6 million viewers last weekend at Fontana, California, down from 5.2 million viewers a year earlier.
 
Glad PBA found a partner and that at least some of the broadcasts will be OTA! It's been 20 years since that was the case, with the last ones appearing on CBS in 1998 after ABC dropped the PBA after many years in 1997. ESPN did a good job with the broadcasts, but they seem to be looking to cut anything they can. I'd much rather watch PBA than some of the 'events' appearing on some of the ESPN networks and NBC Sports.
 
I remember back in the 50's when bowling would be broadcast very late on Saturday evenings. The same bowlers would appear week after week. The only competition on TV back then were the "Elvira" type horror movies so I guess bowling isn't quite as bad as I thought. :rolleyes:
 
landtuna said:
I remember back in the 50's when bowling would be broadcast very late on Saturday evenings. The same bowlers would appear week after week. The only competition on TV back then were the "Elvira" type horror movies so I guess bowling isn't quite as bad as I thought. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

In the '60s there was a syndicated series that stations would often run on Sundays, late mornings or early afternoons after the religious programming. It was filmed in Akron, Ohio, and yes, the same guys would be on every week: Dick Weber, Ray Bluth, etc. etc.
 
NoDakObserver said:
ESPN is in 86.7 million homes. FS1 is in 83.8 million homes. That is not a very big gap in number.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that ESPN is a required channel in certain cable system. I don't know about FS1. But if this is true, how many subscribers actually watch ESPN? Lots of complaints out there by people who have to pay for ESPN but don't want or watch it.
 
landtuna said:
My understanding is that ESPN is a required channel in certain cable system. I don't know about FS1. But if this is true, how many subscribers actually watch ESPN? Lots of complaints out there by people who have to pay for ESPN but don't want or watch it.
Click to expand...

There's no "must carry" rule for cable networks, so ESPN cannot be a "required channel." As for who watches, sports fans watch. That's not a majority of any cable system's customers, but it's a large enough chunk of them that no cable system would want to be without it. I spent three years as a sportswriter. The conventional wisdom in the newspaper business was that only 30-35 percent of all readers read the sports section, but there were few papers indeed that would ever consider eliminating it, and zero that would ever consider lowering their subscription prices because 5 pages of the paper each day were of no interest to 65 percent of their readers.

Every cable viewer pays for channels they don't watch. Fox News Channel costs cable systems money, as do MSNBC, CNN, TNT, Lifetime, AMC, SyFy, The Weather Channel, BBC America, etc., etc., etc. In fact, if you combine the cost per subscriber of all the channels you never watch, you come up with a number that dwarfs ESPN's number. People have the odd notion that their cable bill is what it is strictly because of ESPN. It's not.
 
Last edited:
CTListener said:
There's no "must carry" rule for cable networks, so ESPN cannot be a "required channel." Years ago, when I subscribed to cable, ESPN was a mandatory part of certain tiers. That is what I meant by "mandatory".

Every cable viewer pays for channels they don't watch. People have the odd notion that their cable bill is what it is strictly because of ESPN. It's not.Most monthly charges tend to be much smaller than ESPN and if it is part of an otherwise desired tier people gripe about paying for an expensive channel they don't watch. It isn't like some auction channel that costs just a few cents per month.
Click to expand...
...
 
Megatron said:
ESPN getting rid of lower sports where NBCSN & FS1 go after.
Click to expand...

What's weird though is that I have ESPN, ESPN2, NBCSN, FS1 and FS2 but not CBS Sports Network.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom