Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 22, 1993 TAG: 9312220091
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If you're like most viewers in Southwest Virginia, you flip to the Redskins' channel - WDBJ Channel 7, right? Wrong.
On the network you've turned to for Hogs hysteria since 1956, instead of finding Mark Rypien leading the Washington offense, you may get a feature presentation of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
Fans of the NFL's National Conference will be tuning into Fox next season to get their football fix - and they could be in for a change.
"We hope to improve the overall package. Fox will take a new and interesting look at the NFL," said Drew Pfeiffer, head of programming, promotions and station operations for Grand Communications, the company that owns Roanoke's Fox station (WFXR, Channel 27) and affiliates in Iowa and Alabama.
"I think the viewers will be pleased and excited about the product," Pfeiffer said. "The focus, the concern and the interest is what guarantees the viewer an improved product."
Fox outbid CBS on Friday with $1.58 billion package to carry the NFC for four years. On Monday, the NFL awarded NBC the rights to retain its less-lucrative AFC package for about $220 million a year, which includes the rights to the Super Bowl in 1996 and 1998. The move left CBS out of the professional football business for the next four years.
"It bothers me," said Jim Shaver, vice president for news and programming at WDBJ. "We're set here to cover the weekends with quality programming. . . . We want to have a good mix, and that includes sports.
"It's really kind of sad," he said. "This individual television station is not going to be hurt from a financial standpoint, but there's a little prestige lost by the network."
Shaver explained that the affiliate was not compensated directly for carrying the NFL and that it only received six minutes of commercial time to sell during its Sunday afternoon broadcast. So even though fewer people may be watching the channel without football in 1994, the station could be better off financially.
"The thing is that people have come to depend on this station as the Redskins station," Shaver said. "[Losing] that image is not going to help.
"I hate it for the viewers, because if there's something there has always been around here, it's loyalty to the the Redskins. I wish we still had it. That's the bottom line," Shaver said.
Now, it's up to Fox to form its own image. The NFL deal is the first professional sports contract for the upstart network, which was started in 1987.
Pfeiffer said that since the NFC - which includes such major markets as Dallas, San Francisco, New York and Chicago - is the only major sports programming for the network, Fox will focus a tremendous amount of time and energy on it.
"It's a great opportunity for Fox," he said. "It will be so important for them that you're going to see them go out of their way to make it hugely successful."
Fox officials already have some ideas for improving the broadcasts, Pfeiffer said.
"My understanding is that Fox is going to focus on broadening the demographics and to make it more appealing to women and a younger audience," he said. " . . . I think this will be different, but different is not bad. There is potential for it to be good and exciting."
As far as announcers go, the picture could look very much the same. With CBS out of the football business, John Madden, the network's top analyst, will become a free agent and likely will be courted by Fox. His salary might be just one of many costs Fox will incur in addition to it's $395 million-a-year rights fee.
The costs ultimately will be paid by the viewer, said Mike Bell, WDBJ's programming director.
"I wonder if the consumer understands," Bell said. "These outrageous bids cost the viewer money because Fox is going to try and get a return on its investment. They'll have to charge higher ad rates, which drives the price of products up. Guess who bears those costs? The consumer."
Ultimately, it's also the viewers who will determine the worth of Fox's football effort and that will happen only if they can watch. Concern has been raised among viewers in rural areas of Southwest Virginia who don't subscribe to a cable system and have trouble picking up the Fox signal.
Pfeiffer said WFXR had recently invested in a new transmitter and was in the process of installing an antenna to expand the signal's capability.
"It will dramatically improve the range and quality of the signal," Pfeiffer said. "Viewers should see a big improvement at the end of January."
by CNB