NFL UPDATE : Television Contract : Networks and League to Seek a New Accord

Sometime after the Pro Bowl Feb. 1, the heads of the three major networks’ sports divisions will meet separately in New York with Commissioner Pete Rozelle and owner Art Modell of the Cleveland Browns, the head of the National Football League’s television committee.

They will be starting negotiations on a new NFL television package.

If successful--and that looms as a big if --Rozelle will inform the league’s owners of the terms during the NFL meetings in Hawaii March 16-20. He will also give the information to the NFL Players Assn. and the nation’s press.

“Ideally, that’s how it’s supposed to work,” said Val Pinchbeck, the NFL’s director of broadcasting. “But this is far from an ideal world.”

The specifics of this contract should help decide several major issues:

--Will the big paydays for athletes, coaches and others in pro sports continue?

Not without the huge rights fees television has paid in recent history.

What remains is to see how much the networks agree to pay to continue televising NFL football, America’s most popular sport.

The networks say that, because of a changing marketplace, they can’t continue to escalate the rights fees in the manner to which the NFL has grown accustomed.

--Will “Monday Night Football,” which has been a television staple since 1970, go to that vast television wasteland in the sky?

ABC says it’s a possibility.

Dennis Swanson, the relatively new president of ABC sports, says his network will no longer continue to carry the series and lose money at the same time. He says ABC lost “significant millions” on it last year.

--Will the networks lose their stranglehold on the NFL?

ESPN, HBO, WTBS, the USA network and Fox Broadcasting have all made overtures at getting part of the NFL package.

If ABC can’t make a deal to retain “Monday Night Football,” the series could end up on cable television or syndicated on independent stations.

What’s more likely, however, is for Sunday and Thursday night football to go elsewhere. Swanson, asked recently if ABC was as interested in hanging onto these games as the Monday night package, had a one-word answer: “No.”

--Will the network setup for NFL football change?

There is talk that NBC desperately wants the more attractive NFC package, since that conference has teams in all the major markets. But CBS also wants to hang on to it.

The NFL’s ace in the hole is the Super Bowl. Of the 14 highest-rated television programs of all time, 8 were Super Bowl telecasts. Of the top 25 programs, 13 were Super Bowls.

Last year’s Super Bowl between Chicago and New England, despite being lopsided, drew a 48.3 rating, a 70 share and was watched in 40 million homes.

In television terms, a 25 rating is considered a blockbuster.

This year’s game is expected to do even better than last year’s. And CBS is getting $600,000 for 30-second commercial spots.

The advertising market might have softened, but interest in pro football in this country remains intense. That’s why the NFL is expected to get most of what it wants from the three networks.