In releasing its 1991-92 schedule Thursday, the National Basketball Association also announced all Sunday games during the finals would start in prime time for the three years remaining on its NBC contract.
The network, with the cooperation of the Federal Communications Commission (which waived its Sunday ”family hour” requirement), moved one of its recent finals games to prime time, with resounding success. Game 4 of the Bulls-Lakers series had a 15.2 national Nielsen rating with a 30 share, making it the fourth-highest rating of any show that week.
”They wanted to do it, and we went along with it,” said NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol of the new arrangement. ”It`s going to be non-team dependent,” although Ebersol credited the appearance of the Bulls` Michael Jordan in this year`s finals for ”an extra 10 or 15 percent” of the audience.
Ebersol said some NBA officials originally wanted to move Sunday tipoffs to 9 p.m., Eastern time, but Commissioner David Stern put a stop to it.
According to Ebersol, Stern told his staff, ”If we`re going to take the games away from Sunday afternoon, they`re not going any later than 7 (p.m.). I`m not putting myself in the position baseball is in. I want the games over by 9 or 9:30, because I want a whole generation of kids to see at least two NBA Finals games. I`m not going to have this situation where games start at 8:30 and end at 11, 11:30 Eastern time.”
This past season, when the league and NBC found themselves with the marquee matchup of the Bulls and Jordan versus the Lakers and Magic Johnson, the temptation to move the weekend finals games into prime time was too much. When the results were fruitful, the NBA decided to make prime time the right time.
”The 7 p.m. start time on Sundays gives us the best of all worlds,”
said Stern, ”allowing us to reach the broadest possible audience. We are gratified NBC has once again demonstrated its willingness to accommodate the best interests of the league and its fans with our change in scheduling.”
It`s that kind of give-and-take that Ebersol said has typified the relationship between his network and the league.
”When we (NBC) got the specs for basketball, they called for two things: a pregame show, which they never had before, and a weekly Saturday morning show to expose their sport and to be produced by them,” said Ebersol. ”That Saturday morning show has one of the highest teen ratings of anything in television and is educating a whole new audience to their stars and to their sport.
”And the pregame show averaged a little over a 3 (rating), which gave it twice as high a rating as the WLAF (its competition on ABC).
”Stern was thinking in terms of exposing the players and the sport on a regular basis, forcing their sport to be marketed. Baseball, on the other hand, has no requirement to market their game.”
– The Bulls, needless to say, will be featured a maximum six times on NBC`s schedule next season, including a Christmas night contest at home against the Celtics that could have monster ratings. The defending NBA champs also will be carried 10 times on TNT (in addition to a preseason appearance Oct. 29 in the Hall of Fame game against the Heat), as well as 46 games on SportsChannel
(starting with the regular-season opener Nov. 1) and 30 contests on WGN-Ch. 9 (beginning Nov. 2 at Milwaukee).
– Julie Moran, co-host of ”NBA Inside Stuff” this past season, has joined ABC Sports as a commentator, replacing Beth Ruyak. Moran`s first assignment will be the Pan American Games. ”We wish her well,” said a spokesperson for NBA Entertainment, which produced ”Inside Stuff” for NBC. ”We`re in the process of looking for someone to fill (Moran`s) role.” . . . Speaking of women sportscasters, former ”CBS This Morning” co-host Kathleen Sullivan makes her NBC debut this weekend as a commentator on the network`s coverage of the LPGA Big Apple Classic tournament. Sullivan thus completes the Triple Crown of networking, having started at ABC nearly 10 years ago.
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– The ”Today” show will be live from Cooperstown, N.Y., Friday to help co-anchor Joe Garagiola celebrate his receiving the Ford C. Frick Award during Sunday`s Hall of Fame ceremonies. The award, presented to baseball
broadcasters, honors Garagiola`s baseball broadcasting career that spanned 35 years. . . . ESPN provides same-day coverage of the Baseball Hall of Fame ceremonies-featuring the inductions of Bill Veeck and Ferguson Jenkins-at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, with John Saunders and Peter Gammons as co-hosts. Six days later, Chris Berman and Tom Jackson host the cable network`s coverage of the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremonies at 5 p.m. July 27.
– Former Bear Dan Hampton survived his NBC indoctrination this week at Camp
(Terry) O`Neil and will join former players Beasley Reece and Mike Webster as ”swing” analysts next season.
– Closer to home, some Big 10 schools are concerned about a provision in the conference`s TV contract with ESPN because it could limit the schools like Northwestern from other TV appearances because ”it precludes a local station from doing football.” According to a Big 10 spokesman, the deal affects only regional cable, such as SportsChannel, which televised Northwestern football games live and on tape until this year.
”ESPN paid for some exclusivity,” said the Big 10 official. ”Regional cable was permitted the first two years, but this year, that provision kicks in. It not only affects SportsChannel in Chicago, but PASS (Detroit) and SportsChannel Ohio.”