As if during any given NFL season we can’t find enough Chicago Bears programming, get ready for more–much more.
The city’s newest sports cable station, Comcast SportsNet, is signing on to be the team’s fifth top-shelf, “Hall of Fame” partner. In return it gets the right to use the team’s name and logos for new programs and to cover game press conferences live with coaches and players.
The deal is yet another in pro sports that blurs the line between television journalism and team marketing.
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But those issues are probably not top of the mind with the Bears’ two other television programming outlets, WMAQ-Ch. 5, which last year became the team’s broadcast partner, and Fox Television-owned WFLD-Ch. 32, which carries most of the Bears’ telecasts but cannot use the Bears name and logos in any of its Bears-related programming.
Instead, those stations, which are competing for the same pool of advertising, are no doubt finding things a lot more crowded as the Bears continue to squeeze out every marketing dollar.
The growing field of Bears’ broadcasting linkups is a reflection of the brave new world of sports marketing, courtesy of the NFL, which has given teams much more control to market themselves locally.
Comcast is no stranger to such deals. It has a similar programming venture with the Philadelphia Eagles. Other NFL teams are following suit.
If you’re keeping score in Chicago, Channel 32 carries the games and will present post-game press conferences, if it’s not carrying a second NFL game, as well as its own (non-Bears branded) pregame show. Channel 5 carries the Bears’ “Game Day Live” before the game on Sundays, and then a wrap-up show after its 10 p.m. newscasts on Sundays, as well as the preseason games (two will be pre-empted by the Olympics and shown on WCIU-Ch. 26).
Comcast SportsNet, owned by Comcast, the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks, will carry 90-minute Bears postgame shows hosted by Dan Jiggetts beginning Oct. 3.
The Bears not only get an estimated seven-figure fee for the sponsorship but also a portion of the ad revenue of Comcast’s Bears’ programming.
The deal is a big win for Bears marketing chief Dave Greeley, who has been on the front lines in getting a premium from sponsors clamoring to be with the Bears.
Comcast, which gets up and running in October, joins Miller Brewing Co., J.P. Morgan Chase, Cadillac and Coca-Cola as the Bears’ top sponsors, giving them the right to use the word “official” in marketing, as in the “official cable channel of the Bears.”
The loser? Fox Sports Net, which gets shut out of yet another major sports franchise in the city.
State Farm taps Draft: After more than 60 years together without so much as a hiccup, DDB Chicago is losing a bit of its State Farm Insurance marketing business. Insiders said that Draft’s Chicago office has picked up the direct marketing portion of the company’s account after a review that also included DDB and its sister Omnicom Group agency Rapp Collins. DDB continues to handle the majority of the business, but the loss of even a minor piece can’t be sitting well in the agency’s corporate suite. State Farm couldn’t be reached late Thursday.
Battle of the (ex)-bandmates: Rock stars, like businesses, have contract disputes. Former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer sued the band’s lead singer, Jeff Tweedy, for breach of contract, claiming that Tweedy didn’t hold up his side of the bargain when Coomer split from the Chicago-based band in 2001. Coomer claims that according to an agreement band members signed in 1995, members who leave the group sell their shares of the “corporation” to remaining members for “par value.”
Coomer claims that Tweedy has refused to compensate him despite numerous requests. He’s asking for more than $50,000.
A spokeswoman for Wilco said the band had no comment.
Catchy protest slogan dept.: With all eyes on Wrigley Field last weekend thanks to everything from concrete-catching nets to Nomar Garciaparra to Greg Maddux’s try for win No. 300, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers working the game used the moment to air frustrations over their contract dispute with WGN-Ch. 9 Several technicians on Sunday wore shirts that read: “WGN-Ch. 9–High Def. Low Pay.” “High Def,” of course, refers to Channel 9’s airing of Cubs games in high definition. Executives at the Tribune Co.-owned station wouldn’t comment on the “low pay” part of the line.