At least they've still got Letterman.
CBS, the network that once had everything, has seen the high-roller's worst nightmare come full circle, losing major league baseball and the NFL in one year.Making matters even worse, the NFL allowed NBC to retain rights to the AFC on Monday even though CBS made a higher bid.
"It's a terrible disappointment. Sadness. And it comes as something of a surprise," CBS Sports president Neal Pilson said.
The announcement came just two days after the NFL confirmed that CBS had lost the NFC to Rupert Murdoch's maverick Fox television network. Fox offered an astounding $1.58 billion, outbidding CBS by about $400 million.
And the old high-roller had been high-rolled.
CBS then immediately offered $250 million a year for the AFC, outbidding NBC by about $30 million per year.
"We didn't worry about that," NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol said. "On Thursday, we made a gentleman's agreement on the AFC." Ebersol said he was never told what CBS bid nor did the NFL ever ask him to up his bid.
Pilson said the NFL accepted the piece of paper on which he had written the bid, but the NFL "didn't indicate whether they would accept the offer."
Both Ebersol and the NFL said the vote by the broadcast committee was unanimous for NBC.
In addition to the AFC games, NBC also will get two Super Bowls, in 1996 and '98. On Saturday, the NFL made the formal announcement about Fox, which also got the 1997 Super Bowl. ABC retains rights to Monday night games, gets the Pro Bowl back from ESPN and will televise the 1995 Super Bowl.
Neither the NFL nor the networks would confirm dollar figures, however, a source close to the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the total package was worth about 20 percent more than the old four-year deal, which amounted to $3.62 billion. That would put it in the area of $4.3 billion.
In addition to the $1.58 billion bid by Fox, NBC will pay an estimated $880 million for the AFC, up from the $752 million it paid last time around. ABC will pay about $950 million for Monday nights, up from the $925 million it paid the past four years. And the ESPN and TNT deals remain about $450 million apiece. CBS paid $1.06 billion for four years of NFC games.
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said money was only one of the factors that led to the move to Fox.
"It's partly money, but its partly audience, we're interested in younger fans, we're interested in women and expanding our audience and we think that Fox can help us do that," Tagliabue said this morning.
"I think the way they may present the games will attract a new audience. They have a lot of very exciting ideas, they have very creative people, but they come to it with a fresh attitude and an attitude toward change."
Four years ago, it was CBS that wrested major league baseball from NBC and ABC for a pre-emptive pricetag of $1.057 billion over four years. CBS' competitors, especially Ebersol, villified Pilson for driving the cost of rights fees through an impossibly high ceiling.
Only months later, the three networks signed an NFL deal, and CBS got the blame for inflating those figures, as well.
Rights fees had gone berserk, and Pilson admitted he had made a megamistake. Later, CBS chairman Larry Tisch took full blame.
CBS lost as much as $150 million on its baseball contract, and the three networks combined lost an estimated $300 million on the football deal. Both contracts expired this year, and CBS now finds itself without a major professional sports league.
Last spring, a conglomerate of NBC, ABC and the major leagues - known as The Baseball Network - took baseball from CBS, just when it felt it had mastered the art form.
Now, football is gone, too.