
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 31, 1995                   TAG: 9510310126
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

NBC'S BACK IN TV PICTURE

NBC officials, after saying the network would not be involved in televising baseball until at least 2000, were closing in Monday on a contract to show the sport for another five years.

Under the deals being discussed, NBC would televise the World Series twice during the next five years and Fox would broadcast three World Series (1996, 1998, 2000). The two networks would broadcast part of the the playoffs each year, NBC would televise three All-Star games and Fox would televise two. Fox also would televise a game of the week each Saturday.

ESPN and Turner's TNT network also would be part of the package, with each cable network televising games during the first round of the playoffs. It would mark the first time baseball showed postseason games on cable.

The television executives said the deal would be worth more than $1 billion over the five years, with Fox paying $100 million or more a year and NBC paying roughly the same amount.

NBC Sports spokesman Ed Markey and Fox Sports spokesman Vince Wladicka declined to comment.

Bud Selig, baseball's acting commissioner, also declined to comment when reached at his home in Milwaukee. The status of the deals was confirmed by a pair of television executives and one baseball official, all speaking on the condition they not be identified.

All cautioned that NBC's involvement was not yet final.

Fox's participation in the deal has been widely reported for several weeks. NBC's involvement is a surprise.

ABC and NBC had been partners with the baseball owners in The Baseball Network, a joint venture in which the three parties split advertising revenue.

In June, ABC and NBC pulled out of the deal when the owners wouldn't extend it beyond this season. NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol and ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson assailed the owners.

``I can't imagine being involved in baseball the rest of this century,'' Ebersol said at the time. ``This isn't a ploy. Neither of us will be involved next year.''

The television executives said they hoped a deal could be announced later this week, but one high-ranking owner and two baseball executives cautioned an announcement still might be several weeks away.

Baseball's ruling executive council is to meet Thursday in Milwaukee, and the television contracts are among the items on the agenda.

Despite the 232-day strike, which in 1994 wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years, ratings for this year's Series were up about 15 percent over those in 1993. Final ratings are to be released today.

by CNB