The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 59

THE SUN SPORTS 13D FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1987' Networks still have inside track on NFL TV coverage I mtz i YOUR FUST YEARS' TV SPOUTS 1 ii ma limHANCE. FREE. BILL CARTER I I i t. nr.ll I -1 Just One Of Our Exclusive Extra Services. Introducing The Chesapeake Commitment: exclusive services that set a Chesapeake Cadillac apart.

From your first year of FREE factory recommended maintenance. FREE inspections and cleanings, to our FREE limousine service, it's all included in the price. Proof once again, we make luxury affordable. (Free Maintenance For 1 Year or 15,000 Miles, whichever comes first) cy, however, may be the elimination of the network from the Super Bowl rotation. But there's one Interesting wild card to the NFL talks, one that could have implications for an NFL franchise In Baltimore.

Rozelle may use the prospect of expansion as the financial buffer to take away some of the sting from a less-than-bountiful network rights haul this time around something that might add up to no Increase over what the NFL got the past five years. Here's how this would work: Rozelle makes a shorter-term deal with the networks, specifically three years. But he promises that the league will add two more teams In three years, and that those franchises will pay a significant fee to Join the NFL party. Then he offers a new, 30-team league for higher bids to the networks in three years, hoping the TV economy is better then and that cable is more pervasive then, the better to offer serious competition. If the addition of the new franchises can make up for some disappointing TV rights fees.

Rozelle will have covered his bases without shaking up the status quo. Of course, that could mean that the prospect of a new Baltimore franchise might depend on how deep are the pockets of the prospective team owner. Then again. It would not hurt Baltimore to have the new TV deal In 1990 tied to expansion, since TV market size could turn out to be an even more critical factor. Baltimore Is a bigger TV market than numerous teams already In the NFL.

NBC has announced Its schedule for Saturday afternoon baseball for the coming season, and the Orioles will show up at least three times. That Is. they are on the schedule In some quiet Manhattan rendezvous, the negotiations for the Na tlonal Football League contract have begun, though they are not expected to get too Intense for at least a week. Commissioner Pete Rozelle. who has set a March 1 target date for completion of the TV deals, has been spending much of the early time receiving presentations from the various cable TV bidders, Including WTDS and ESPN.

Much of the cable attention already Is focusing on the plan by HBO to buy into the prime-time specials that ADC has owned in addition to Its 'Monday Night Football" package. However, Rozelle Is reported to be giving the cable folks a rather chilly reception. The reason Is coverage, still cable's fatal flaw. Only with the networks can Rozelle and the NFL reach the American mass audience, and more Important, the audience In each of the league's 28 home TV markets. HBO Is hopeless as far as resolving Rozelle's concerns in that area.

Beyond the huge areas of the nation thaCstlll don't get cable (such as most of Baltimore city, but more Important, most of New York City) are the huge numbers of cable homes that don't take HBO. In effect, a deal with HBO would mean that millions of people would have to sign up Instantly with the pay cable channel in order to see those extra NFL games obviously one key reason HBO wants to be Involved. But that scenario apparently is starting to have the ring of blackmail to Itozelle, a factor that does not square with his overriding purpose, which is to maintain the NFL's Image as an All-Amerlcan institution. A deal with HBO probably would mean a lot of NFL games would ha ve to be seen In bars or In homes of friends with cable. HBO Is trying to make an advantage of that element, 5) inc new vce-rns? i saying it would resurrect the party atmosphere of the early days of "Monday Night Football." There's little feeling that HBO Is going to be able to sell that position.

The other cable channels only could be viable through a combined package with syndication to over-the-alr channels where cable doesn't reach. WTBS has lots of experience with that format, most of it bad. (Remember the Goodwill Games?) All of this means Rozelle has many fewer cards to play than It was thought he might have. He could offer those extra games to CBS or NBC, but that's still squeezing the same partners he has to get the most Juice from In negotiations for the Sunday packages. The Fox network still is being talked about, but Fox really wants the Monday night franchise, which Rozelle Is apparently loath to hand to a new, network.

The current betting Is that he will try to make his deal with ABC first, knowing the network basically still wants the Monday night package and that this course is probably best for the league. And there's even some expectation now that Rozelle will go easy on ABC. recognizing its dire straits. One price of that lenien PETE ROZELLE Cable TV may not fill his bill only three times, but NBC does have four weeks' worth of open dates later In the season that it can fill with games of most Interest those weeks. But three times Isn't all that bad anyway.

Cleveland Is supposed to be one of the hot young teams, and it's on only twice. Seattle isn't on at all. It's always tough for the Orioles to get a home game on NBC, because they play so few day games on Saturday during the season. But there Is one this year, June 13, against Toronto. The road games are May 16 against California and July 18 at Kansas City.

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