“I don’t think we’ll see pay-per-view, at least while I’m the commissioner, unless I stay 30 years like Pete Rozelle, which I don’t think I’ll do.”
— Paul Tagliabue on ABC Monday night.
Sooner or later—maybe even while Paul Tagliabue is commissioner—the NFL will embrace pay-per-view. It will be the league’s multimillion-dollar cash-and-carry crown jewel, either supplementing or supplanting the broadcast networks as a distributor of Sunday games. What would stop the NFL from moving to pay-per-view is the fear of legislative reprisal, with Congress threatening to rip away the precious antitrust exemption that allows the league to pool its television revenues.
Still, cackling politicians aside, the NFL should go to a limited pay-per-view system next year. I’ll explain momentarily.
After this season the NFL’s contract with the three networks and ESPN expires. Right now CBS telecasts NFC games, NBC telecasts the AFC, ABC does “Monday Night Football” and ESPN has a Sunday night game for eight weeks of the 16-week season. There might be a network scramble for Sunday afternoon games and Monday night rights could switch hands, but the basic structure of the current contract should remain. It also is likely that the cable presence will grow to every Sunday night.
Most fans will be more than satisfied; They can watch a couple of games every Sunday afternoon and then another one on Monday night, and if they’re among the nearly 60 percent of American homes that get cable, they’ll get another prime-time game each week.
But a common complaint among many NFL fans remains that they don’t get to see the games they want. This Sunday, for instance, WRC-TV-4—the local NBC affiliate—will show the Bengals-Raiders game at 4 p.m. If you’re a diehard Pittsburgh fan living in Riverdale who would prefer to see the Steelers-Broncos game at that hour, you’re out of luck.
Enter pay-per-view.
The term “pay-per-view” usually scares folks who think of it (correctly) as having to pay for something that you once might’ve seen for free. But pay-per-view also can provide alternatives previously unavailable—at a price, of course.
Nearly 15 million U.S. homes out of 92 million TV households have pay-per-view capabilities (with the number growing rapidly). Those people could have a choice; if they don’t like the NFL game on NBC or CBS, they could pay a fee—say, $15—to punch up another NBC or CBS game being shown elsewhere in the country. Naturally there would be limitations.
When Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, the chairman of the league’s television committee, was asked about this possibility this week, he said: “What has carried us is the mandate that networks must carry away games back home [into each home market]. If we ever lose that, we’re dead.”
But this pay-per-view model can be carried out within the framework of the league’s carefully designed network system. In that system CBS and NBC rotate doubleheaders, meaning that on a CBS doubleheader weekend, NBC can bring only one game into each market. And in that system, each home market is protected—when the Redskins play at RFK Stadium, the televising network cannot bring another game into Washington and the rival network cannot go head-to-head in the same time slot as the Redskins.
The NFL can keep those restrictions and still allow viewers to make choices, with one further stricture—that they can only substitute games within each network. This would protect NBC from losing viewers to CBS and visa versa.
This pay-per-view plan satisfies all the key constituencies.
It satisfies the networks, which would be guaranteed less turnoffs from people who don’t watch the game being televised in their region.
It satisfies the advertisers, who would have their national spots seen regardless of which game is watched because viewers can only switch within each network.
It satisfies the league, which would reap higher rights fees and greater popularity.
And it satisfies those viewers who have cable, pay-per-view and the money to spend.
“From the league’s standpoint, it would be a healthy, savvy thing to do,” said HBO executive Seth Abraham, whose premium-cable network made a strong bid for an NFL package three years ago and will do so again this time. “Art Modell is consistently looking at new vistas and horizons down the road [with the TV package], and this would be something to consider.”
Having said all this, let’s emphasize that it’s almost certainly not going to happen in 1990.
“The worst thing the NFL could do right now is say, ‘Look we’re going to do this little thing with pay-per-view,’” an NFL insider said. “Look at the heat they’ve gotten [from Congress] on the ESPN deal. Realistically the climate is nowhere near right for the NFL to get into pay-per-view.”
But if money talks, as it always does in television, NFL pay-per-view is screaming to be seen.
Around The Dial
More Baseball: CBS, responding to pressure from fans and legislators, announced yesterday it will televise 26 baseball games next season instead of 12. Under the four-year, $1.06 billion contract agreed to between Major League Baseball and CBS last December, the network was to televise 12 regular season games, plus the postseason. ESPN, which next season begins a four-year, $400 million contract to show 175 games a season, approved the change. The “Game of the Week” on Saturdays had been a network tradition since 1957, and from many quarters had come criticism of the new CBS/ESPN deal that baseball was turning away from those fans who do not get cable.
News You Can’t Use: WJLA-TV-7’s Frank Herzog sang “Happy Birthday” to the Redskins’ Reggie Branch in the locker room after the Tampa Bay game, then showed it during his Oct. 26 sportscast.
Series Flop: The four games of the A’s-Giants World Series on ABC produced the four lowest ratings ever for prime-time World Series telecasts. The games drew ratings of 16.2, 17.4, 17.5 and 14.7. (The numbers represent percent of TV homes tuning in.) The previous prime-time low was 19.2 for Game 1 of the 1987 Cardinals-Royals series.
Modell on NFL TV: Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell reiterated this week he’d like the start of NFL Monday night games to be pushed up, to at least 8:30 p.m. EST. Modell also said, “I will say that basic cable will continue to grow in our plans, but clearly the dominating force will continue to be the network carriers.”
Channel Hopping: NBA cable coverage moves from TBS to TNT this season, starting with tonight’s Knicks-Pistons contest at 8 p.m…. ESPN’s third season of NFL coverage starts Sunday night at 8 with the Redskins-Cowboys. Because of an NFL-ESPN agreement, the game also must be carried on over-the-air stations in the teams’ markets, so it also will be seen here on WUSA-TV-9.
— Norman Chad