considering the fact that NBC has been frozen out of pretty much every major sport (with the exception of some NASCAR and Arena FB) it makes me wonder why NBC or MLS have not approached each other about some sort of TV deal. If NBC was willing to get behind something like the XFL, why not stage a coup and pick up MLS? Given how much time NBC wastes on showing random sports on weekends, they could at least put together something like an MLS doubleheader in the afternoons. Also, I'm sure NBC could pull some mid-major sponsors into the deal. Thoughts?
Don't think the two sides haven't discussed the potential for some sort of deal multiple times. Doesn't mean they're about to pay MLS for the privilege of showing games.
NBC does not have a good track record when it comes to soccer. They wouldn't even show a whole game during the 96 games in Altanta. They only showed excerpts from the women who won the gold medal and showed absolutely nothing for the men. I think during the 2000 Syndey games we were able to catch some of the mens games on CNBC?
I don't think NBC gets coverage of Summer sports so that they can always have that open slate for the olympics. The Arena FB schedule ends around the same time as the NBA so NBC keeps its summer open. The NBA and NFL schedules rarely if ever conflicted with that time slot. MLS would. NBC might use that open slot to negotiate for the Olympics. Its a shame because the Olympic coverage is a joke.
NBC showed all the Men's Olympic soccer games via tape delay and had commercials inserted into the game. The commentators were Alexi Lalas and Andres Cantor whose mouth was never more that 1 centimeter away from the mic.
What a great idea. NBC can show games tape delayed..... And Bob Costas can be the broadcaster.....and during the whole game, he can tell us useless facts about the 1938 St. Loius Cardinals.....
NBC's coverage of the Olympics in horrendous especially with the tape delay theory that they always use. I wonder if they actually showed any of the 2000 Olympics live. So they want to keep stuff for prime time. But don't go around pretending that it's live when the action was done 12 hours ago. Everyone knew what the outcome would be because we already know with the internet etc. And I even don't get that they did the same thing in 1996. I remember them building up all day and all night to the big finale of the girls team gymnastics when whats-her-name fell down but got up. My wife was captivated and after a while I told her I knew the result an hour before. No no no she says, it's live. I said watch this, she'll fall down, sure enough she did.
      Just prior to World Cup '94, it took all of then-U.S. Soccer Federation president Alan Rothenberg's "charisma" to convince the ABC/ESPN/espn2 troika (then owned by Capital Cities) to air the World Cup games commercial-free (except during halftime, of course), which at the time was unprecedented for an American TV network - if memory serves me right, the prior U.S. World Cup broadcasts on NBC and the Turner Network definitely had during-game commercials (as NBC has continued to do with its Olympic soccer broadcasts to this day).       Even now, I doubt that NBC or any other American TV network would be willing to air soccer games commercial-free and I don't think that the U.S. Soccer Federation currently has someone as charismatic as Rothenberg (maybe Philip Anchutz?) to convince them otherwise, so MLS' best bet for now would be to stick with the ABC/ESPN/espn2 troika, Fox Sports World, and each team's regional broadcast station(s). -G
NBC had a piece of the XFL and has a piece of arena football. That's why they are on TV. If NBC really wanted a sports league that they didn't own, they's still have the NFL and NBA. NBC could have had MLS for nothing last year and they didn't want it. Nothing has changed, so we have to live with ABC/ESPN. That's not perfect, but being broadcast on the best known network in US sports TV isn't that bad. Besides, MLS is paying to get on TV. What makes you think NBC would pay MLS for the rights?
Until the MLS becomes a rating giant, they will not get many offers. I think ABC/ESPN would've dropped them if it weren't for the World Cup rights. Sports in general have gone down in ratings, which is one reason why NBC let the NBA go without a fight. NBC is the worst network out there when it comes to sports. They were the last to put the score on the TV for the entire game, if they even do it now. I know it was not on for bbal last year. Their Olympic coverage is a joke, which is already mentioned. It's so bad, I don't even watch any events, with the exception of hockey. They showed commericals during soccer every ten mins, and I just couldn't take it anymore. with the situation the league is in right now, their TV package really isn't bad. It could be much worse.
NBC already made the announcement of their Olympic scheduling and CNBC will be the "soccer station" as they put it and will air the games live of the mens and I'm not sure about the women's (on the east coast...west coasters have a time delay). Don't ask for the link because I don't remember. It could have been in the newspaper lol.
This is not fully correct. CNBC will air womens games (likely USA only) and the men will be on Telemundo (not the whole tourny, just games that will get raitings for the Spanish network)
1990 was the first World Cup that I ever saw in the States. It was on TNT and it seemed like every goal in that tournament happened during commercials. When it came back from commercials, I half expected to see players celebrating.
I remember watching games from the '86 Cup that I think were commercial free, but I can't remember which channel. They made a big deal out of how Budweiser had sponsored the "ad-free" broadcasts, and had come up with an "innovative" way to put Bud banners all around the perimeter of the screen, boxing in the soccer on the center of your tv. It was atrocious.
FWIW NBC had cut a deal with FIFA to broadcast the 1980 WC. NBC had begun advertising and selling ad time and doing whatewver it is a network did leading up to the world cup. Then at the last minute FIFA somehow sold the rights to Ted Turner and NBC had lost millions and had to scramble to come up with alternative programming. DEick Ebersol was head of sports programming ath the time and said that NBC will never have anything to do with soccer. IIRC Ebersol died a couple years ago but I feel there is still some resentment. That's one of the reasons NBC's coverage of soccer at the Olympics has blown.
Nah ah. Ebersol's still running the show. As long as he's there, soccer's not an option on NBC proper (as opposed to MSNBC and CNBC for the Olympics - I expect an executive decision to be made if the US goes far in the Olympic tourney). It's a shame, too. If NBC promoted the World Cup the same way they promoted the Olympics, MLS would not be paying to get on the air right now.
I'm not sure if you can put much stock in this story, since NBC owns Telemundo, which hasn't exactly shied away from covering soccer.
I'm still holding out hope for FOX personally. The could create a super Soccer Saturday with EPL in the morning and MLS in the afternoon with a Saturday night game on FSW or FX, perfect for bar watching just like the NFL is (but even better since it will be on Saturday). But we're not doing too terribly at the moment broadcast wise actually.
Right, but soccer on Telemundo means ratings, which means ad sales. If Olympic soccer meant ratings, hell, NBC would come around. Sachin
Oh, damn that sucks! I don't like Spanish broadcasters. They talk too fast lol. But oh well at least it'll be on TV
My views on this are kinda long and complex so I'll do what I can to make them short. 1) In my opinion, I almost always expect to find any sporting event which is truly BIG on ABC or the ESPNs. Sometimes they end up on CBS but for the most part-- the NBA, NHL, World Cup, Monday Night Football, and college hoops and baseball on the cable end-- just about everything big out there is on the Mouse channels somehow. There's something deep and sentimental about being associated with these sports rather than arena football, half of NASCAR, the Olympics, and tennis. If you asked me to quantify it specifically I wouldn't be able to do it. It's just there. This also has to do with my anger over the new USSF contract which has no ABC presence until 2006. 2) If MLS moves to NBC but the World Cup and US games stay with ESPN and ABC, am I the only person who thinks that would be kind of weird? I'd much rather have everything be together in that respect. 3) NBC can hype the hell out of whatever it wants but who watches their stuff any more for the most part? I don't know exactly how many BigSoccer members there are but I suspect that even if every single one of us watched the MLS game of the week we still couldn't make a full ratings point. I'd rather see one or two MLS Cup commercials during college football than six during a gymnastics meet that no one's watching because there is college football on. 4) Putting all of what I've just said together with the current TV package, I really don't think we're all that bad off. We have three games a year on ABC, a game a week on ESPN2 and another on Fox Sports World (which may be just as important as the ABC games considering the audience it gets for EPL, etc.), and if we all hope and pray a bit and ask real nicely for an early Christmas/Hanukah present maybe we might end up with a playoff game on ABC and a few on ESPN2 because of the new format (I can dream, can't I?). So let's be patient, and watch the NHL TV negotiations very, very carefully. If NBC won't take them I don't know why they'll take us. And yeah Ebersol definitely hates soccer.
Yeah, you know, the one in Luxembourg where Maradona put his stamp on the world soccer map as a 19-year-old phenom when he stuck the ball in his mouth and carried it into the goal... oh wait ;-)
Talking points of the cold-water brigade: 1. Programming decisions are virtually never made because people in charge "like" or "dislike" a certain kind of programming. Do you think that the suits at ABC are really proud of Extreme Makovers or T+A Talent Search With Lorenzo Freaking Lamas? 2. In the specific matter of NBC, they have made no secret of the fact that they have deliberately chosen to not bid on big sports leagues. Their actions speak pretty loudly on this point--they're not interested in the big bidding-war leagues, and they're not interested in minor sports unless they have a financial stake. 3. As near as anyone on these boards knows, SUM bought the rights to the next couple of World Cups and then gave them to Disney in exchange for showing MLS games. Thus, MLS isn't going anywhere, even if anyone else wanted them. 4. If a Big Four network decided to put prime-time soccer on the air and hyped it to such a degree that regular season matches were getting three times that of the best MLS Cups ever, never mind the fact that MLS Cups aren't getting those sorts of ratings anymore, we'd still be closer to setting records for the worst prime-time ratings ever. And that's the best-case dream scenario, because... 5. ...the truth is, hype only gets you so far. The best ad campaign in the world will only change a percentage of the minds of those who are already receptive to the product in the first place. If you can get people interested in things just by burning a lot of money to promote them, why do at least half of every year's new network shows crash and burn? Why are there flop movies every single year? People aren't sheep. If they don't care, they can't be made to care.