For the second time in less than a year, CBS has opened its pocketbook to the tune of $1 billion for a sports event.
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The network Tuesday retained its rights to the NCAA men`s basketball tournament by agreeing to pay $1 billion in a seven-year contract. Last December, CBS outbid the two other networks for four years of baseball rights for $1.06 billion.
”It is a lot of money, especially when you have to write it out,” joked CBS President Neal Pilson.
Besides the Final Four, CBS also will have the rights to several other NCAA championships.
But the plum was the men`s basketball tourney. All the games. All the rounds. Goodbye ESPN, which was nurtured with the aid of those first-round games every March.
”We`ll miss it,” said an ESPN spokesman. ”The NCAA tournament is a great event.”
Basketball junkies will notice the biggest change: Instead of all 32 first-round games being available on a national (albeit cable) basis, CBS will regionalize those contests in afternoon and night-time double-headers.
”We felt that tournament was a single event, with a beginning, a middle and an end,” said Pilson, explaining why he wasn`t interested in split coverage with either ESPN or another network.
”NBC Sports congratulates the NCAA and (director) Dick Schultz on its new television agreement,” said NBC Sports boss Dick Ebersol. ”NBC wishes CBS well with the NCAA tournament.”
Not even the threat by the NCAA to limit beer commercials could deter CBS.
”The NCAA returned to the level of beer commercials of the early `80s,” Pilson said. Instead of 90 seconds of ads an hour under the current contract, there will be 60 seconds under the new one.
”We don`t anticipate an adverse financial situation,” said Pilson, who added he expected to make money on the deal.
And that`s because ratings have soared since 1981, when CBS took the NCAA tournament away from NBC in a heated battle. The current CBS contract paid the NCAA $166 million for three years. But the network paid the price of holding on to the tourney this time.
What effect will it have on the schools?
”It should be a windfall for education, not a windfall for athletics,”
said CBS analyst Billy Packer. ”If not, it sends out a very bad message.”