ESPN Agrees to Assist CBS With Coverage

CBS reached an agreement Wednesday to shift preempted NCAA tournament games today and Friday to ESPN or ESPN2 in the event of 24-hour coverage of the war with Iraq. War coverage by CBS News probably would take precedence over NCAA tournament coverage by CBS Sports.

“Should it be necessary, we can accommodate all windows [today] and Friday and some over the weekend,” ESPN spokesman Jose Krulewitz said.

ESPN would have room for daytime tournament games today until 5 p.m., when the network is committed to a hockey game between the Mighty Ducks and St. Louis Blues. If games have to be moved after that, they would be moved to ESPN2.

The same situation would hold true Friday, when ESPN is committed to an NBA doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m.

On Saturday and Sunday, when ESPN and ESPN2 begin televising the women’s NCAA tournament at 8 a.m. both days, games from the men’s tournament could be moved to TNN and possibly TV Land.

CBS spokeswoman LeslieAnn Wade said viewers will be informed if contingency plans are needed. “They will not be on their own,” she said.

Sandy Genelius, a spokesperson for CBS News, said late Wednesday night after war had broken out that there will be special reports when news warrants them. “There is no way to say at this moment when continuous coverage will begin,” she said.

TNN and TV Land are owned by Viacom, which also owns CBS. TNN is already scheduled to be involved in NCAA tournament coverage with late-night, half-hour highlight shows March 27-March 30 and again April 5 and April 7.

Although ESPN and ESPN2 are owned by a competitor, Walt Disney Co., they were logical alternatives for CBS the first two days of the tournament because they can regionalize coverage, similar to CBS’ approach during the early rounds.

“The reason we are going to ESPN is that ESPN is the only cable channel that can split the country into four distinct regions,” CBS Sports President Sean McManus said.

Also, ESPN and ESPN2 are familiar to sports fans and easy to find.

The downside for some viewers, and advertisers, is that ESPN and ESPN2 reach fewer homes than CBS, which is in 106.7 million homes. ESPN is in 86.7 million homes and ESPN2 in 84.5 million.

ESPN and ESPN2 would run all the ads CBS has sold, and all advertising revenue would go to CBS. It is believed that there would be no cash payment to ESPN for carrying the games. The benefit for ESPN is it could use the games to promote other programming.

“Getting part of the tournament I think would be of great benefit to ESPN, which already carries an enormous amount of college basketball,” McManus said.

CBS, in the first year of an 11-year, $6-billion deal with the NCAA, is paying $360 million in rights to televise this year’s tournament. According to media analysts, the tournament has the potential to generate $700 million in ad sales. If games have to move to cable, causing lower than anticipated ratings, sponsors will be compensated with free commercial spots, which are called “make-goods.”

CBS President Leslie Moonves said, “We don’t anticipate that wall-to-wall coverage will go on for a very long period of time, so we feel there would be a potential for a loss for only a day or two.”

FCC regulations require networks to look out for the public’s best interest, so CBS is virtually obligated to provide war coverage over college basketball coverage.

Basketball fans have two pay options. One is DirecTV’s $50 package, which offers out-of-market games not available on CBS or an alternate network. The other is a new Internet package, available through platinum.yahoo.com for a cost of $16.95 a month. Live video-streamed coverage of tournament games is only one facet of the package.

On other sports fronts, NBC announced earlier that Bay Hill golf coverage would be moved to CNBC on Saturday and Sunday, if necessary. NASCAR coverage on Fox would be moved to Fox Sports Net, and ABC would move hockey and/or basketball coverage to its Disney partners, ESPN or ESPN2.