In Blind Bidding, NBC Wins Rights to 1994 Super Bowl

NBC, with a sealed bid, on Friday won the rights to the 1994 Super Bowl at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

It will be the first time one network has had exclusive rights to back-to-back Super Bowls. NBC televised this year’s game at the Rose Bowl, won by the Dallas Cowboys, 52-17, over the Buffalo Bills.

The 1993 season is the final year under the current four-year NFL television contract. When the contract was negotiated, the 1994 Super Bowl was not awarded to any of the three major networks.

The networks were asked to submit sealed bids by Thursday, and late Friday afternoon, Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports, and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced that NBC had won the rights.

Ebersol declined to say how much NBC bid, but the speculation is that it was in the $40-million range. Also, it is believed NBC was the only network submitting a bid.

CBS had said it was not interested in participating in a separate Super Bowl bidding process, and ABC never indicated whether it would take part. ABC would have televised the game had the networks held to the rotation used in past years.

This year’s Super Bowl had a 45.1 national rating, a 66 share, and was watched by 133.4 million viewers, the most of any television program in history.

NBC is expected to charge a little more than the $850,000 per 30-second spot it got for commercials for last January’s game. If NBC sold 56 spots at $850,000, the gross would be $47 million. And that doesn’t count revenue from pregame and postgame shows. The 1994 game will be played Sunday, Jan. 30.