LAS VEGAS – If you want to watch tonight’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS) championship game between Oregon and Auburn, you better have cable, satellite, an internet connection or a seat at your favorite bar — because for the first time since the creation of the BCS, the game won’t be on free TV. Much of the talk at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here in Las Vegas is the fact that tonight’s BCS championship game is going to be broadcast on ESPN rather than on the free, over-the-airways. The decision to move the BCS Championship to the cable-only ESPN network was made by executives with the Walt Disney Company, owners of both ESPN and ABC, which along with Fox had broadcast every BCS Championship game on free over-the-air TV.
This past New Year’s Day many sports fans without cable or satellite TV were shocked to discover that unlike past years when New Year Day football games were on their local TV stations from early morning until late evening, only one game, the Outback Bowl featuring Penn State vs Florida, was on the local ABC affiliates. The five other bowl games on New Year’s Day; the Capitol One Bowl, Gator Bowl, Rose Bowl, Ticket One Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl were all on ESPN. Thousands of non-cable subscribers expecting to watch the Rose Bowl and other New Year Day bowl games were sent into a state of panic as they contemplated options of visiting the local bar or dropping in on friends or relatives with cable. The games could be watched for free on ESPN’s internet site, but fans who didn’t have a broadband internet connection, or didn’t realize the game was on the internet had to do without.
The decision by ESPN to air most of the BCS Bowl Games, as well as the BCS championship game on cable is part of a disturbing trend of moving big sporting events from free TV to cable. Half of the MLB playoff games were on cable, and a good share of the NBA playoffs are only on cable. Sports fans can attribute the migration of Bowl games and other sports from traditional free TV to cable/satellite to the 1996 Telecommunication Act, which was passed by Congress 15 years ago this month.
The bill signed by President Bill Clinton repealed provisions of the original 1934 Telecommunication Act that limited radio and TV ownership to under 40 stations nationwide and also limited local radio and TV ownership to no more than four stations in any one community. The new bill allows ownership of a unlimited number of stations nationwide as long as those stations did not exceed 35 percent of the national market, or more than a maximum of eight radio stations or three TV stations in any one market.
Before the 1996 Act was passed, television was dominated by the CBS, NBC and ABC networks that owned about 10 stations but produced programming aired on hundreds of independently owned stations affiliated with one of the three major networks. These same networks also produced news and talk programming syndicated to thousands of radio stations owned by individuals and small to medium sized corporations, as well as a few major corporations.
The 1996 Telecommunication Act sponsors persuaded Clinton and other Democrats to support broadcast industry deregulation on the premise that the bill would allow technological advances in the area of cable, satellite and internet to end the near monopoly of the few major corporations that owned most of the nation’s TV and Radio networks. The bill’s supporters also claimed that removing longstanding ownership restrictions of radio and TV stations would provide more opportunities for media ownership and innovation, particularly for women and non-Whites who had been shut out of media ownership.
Let’s look at what’s happened in the last 15 years since Telecommunication Act was passed. The Act sparked a frenzy of radio and TV station purchases by a handful of corporations and investors that resulted in the creation of mega-media corporations like Clear Channel that purchased thousands of radio and TV stations around the country. Many of those stations were purchased from women and non-Whites, actually reducing the number of stations owned by women and non-Whites.
Disney and other major media companies joined the stampede to purchase media properties. Before the 1996 Act was passed, Disney was a company primarily known for its theme parks and family friendly movies, and Disney did not own any radio, TV or cable stations. Disney and the other studios were discouraged from owning television networks by a 1948 Supreme Court antitrust decision prohibiting the major studios like Paramount and Fox from exclusively showing movies at theatres owned by the studios.
The 1996 Act gave the film studios the green light to purchase broadcast, cable and satellite properties. Fox, Universal, Paramount, Warner Brothers and Disney wasted little time buying stations, with Disney purchasing ABC, which soon took over ESPN. Before Disney purchased ESPN, a majority of college football games, including most big rival games such as Cal-Stanford were broadcast during prime time on ABC affiliates. Today most college football games are exclusively on ESPN and other cable networks, people who can’t afford a cable or satellite subscription no longer can see college games that used to air on local TV affiliates.
ESPN’s domination of the college football airways runs contrary to reasons supporters called for the 1994 Communication Act revisions. Rather than creating more competition and opportunities to see college football, ESPN’s domination of NCAA football not only affects people who can’t afford cable, but has changed how colleges play games. Before the dominance of ESPN, college teams would set schedules based on traditional Saturday afternoon games, and the networks would air the games based on the college’s schedule.
Today ESPN determines games schedules; often making last minute decisions on when a game will be played. Schools have moved games from Saturday to Thursday nights, and have scheduled kickoffs as late as 9 PM local time to satisfy ESPN’s schedule. Many fans are angry over ESPN’s influence over scheduling because the unusual start times and last minute schedule changes plays havoc with fans planning to attend games.
A generation ago much of the technology shown at the Consumer Electronics Show was targeted toward a mass audience, but there were few new technology products at this year’s show geared toward consumers not connected to the cable, internet or satellite. Even the radio industry, the last primarily free broadcast medium, is moving toward a paid model with satellite radio, and car radios connected to the internet. Most product manufacturers and content creators at the CES have concluded that the 21st century platform of digital entertainment is going to be a landscape where most relevant content will only be available via a paid distributor, either via satellite, cable or broadband internet connection.
The San Francisco Giants’ World Series run was an example of how sports can become an collective experience that can unify and bring joy to a city or region. Millions of people throughout Northern California, from formerly homeless people living in one room Tenderloin hotels to Bayview residents struggling to pay the rent and PG&E bill, were able to cheer and celebrate the Giants playoff and World Series victories.
Would the Giants fever that infected the Bay Area last October have been as intense if all the playoff and World Series games were only broadcast on ESPN or another cable/satellite only outlet? Federal regulators are on the verge of approving a merger of NBC/Universal, a major broadcaster, movie producer and internet content creator, with Comcast, the nation’s largest cable and internet provider. If this merger is approved, could it be a matter of time before the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Championships, World Cup finals and Olympics are only on cable or satellite TV?
