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ABC passing football bill?
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February 4, 1998: 7:24 a.m. ET
Broadcast network asking for cash or commercial time to help pay NFL bill
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The ABC broadcasting network is reportedly asking its affiliates to help foot the $550-million yearly bill to retain "Monday Night Football."
Walt Disney Co.'s TV subsidiary has sent a memo to its affiliates requesting that the stations contribute cash or return some commercial time to the network, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. CBS and News Corp.'s Fox networks are expected to follow suit.
ABC is seeking as much as $50 million a year from its 211 affiliate stations, according to a memo from David Barrett, chairman of the ABC affiliate board. In early January ABC agreed to pay the National Football League a total of $4.4 billion over eight years, a 139 percent increase from its previous deal, for rights to the Monday night game.
However, ABC affiliate stations are more likely to resist the network's request compared with affiliates of Fox and CBS, the affiliate chief indicated. Unlike CBS's affiliates, ABC stations aren't getting new programming.
ABC is unlikely to ask for the commercial time during the football games because the slot is expensive and difficult to sell. Instead, ABC is more likely to ask stations to forgo some commercials in its prime-time lineup. ABC already allows its stations less local commercial time during network programming than other networks do.
The Times report had no comment from ABC.
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