NBC Cuts Its Rose Bowl Ties; ABC Gets Rights

NBC, which began broadcasting the Rose Bowl on radio in 1927 and has been televising it since 1952, has dropped the game, and ABC has picked it up.

NBC, with two years left on its current contract, willingly gave up the game to ABC, thus ending the longest broadcast association in sports history.

ABC reached a nine-year agreement Thursday with the Tournament of Roses Assn., the Pacific 10 and the Big Ten conferences. It runs through the 1997 game.

The 75th Rose Bowl will be played Monday, Jan. 2, 1989, and the starting time will remain 2 p.m.

ABC, which will also televise Pasadena’s Rose Parade, will have three New Year’s Day bowl games--the Florida Citrus, the Rose and the Sugar--all of which will be on Jan. 2 next year.

The Citrus Bowl, according to executive director Chuck Rohe, will be moved up an hour and a half and begin at 10:30 a.m. PST. The Sugar Bowl will be moved to a 5 p.m. PST start, following the Rose Bowl.

Art Watson, president of NBC Sports, reached at Wimbledon, England, Thursday night, said: “The bottom line was we were suffering significant losses on the Rose Bowl. How much? Several millions, and I’m talking about more than $2 or $3 million per year.”

NBC reportedly was paying a rights fee of $11 million a year. ABC reportedly will pay slightly more, about $11.4 million.

Details of the ABC contract will be announced at a press conference next Wednesday.

According to SportsInc., the Rose Bowl, because of its high rights fee, is not a good buy for sponsors. The magazine reported that it cost sponsors of this year’s telecast $13.68 per 1,000 viewers.

In comparison, the cost-per-thousand for the Orange Bowl was $10.85, and for the Citrus Bowl, which had a rights fee of only $800,000, was $5.51.

Watson said: “We had let the tournament people know we wanted a lesser fee when our contract ran out. They in turn asked permission to shop around. We knew ABC was interested.

“It makes sense for ABC. They now have Pac-10 and Big Ten football during the regular season. And the Rose Bowl is still the Rose Bowl.”

NBC, which doesn’t televise any regular-season college football, still has the Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl. Asked if it will try to acquire another major bowl game to fill the void left by losing the Rose, Watson said: “Stay tuned. It’s too early to say anything at this time.”

The Citrus Bowl’s Rohe told Larry Guest of the Orlando Sentinel that NBC may move the Hall of Fame game at Tampa, Fla., to New Year’s Day morning, and then carry the Fiesta Bowl opposite the Rose Bowl. Since CBS carries the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day, such an alignment would mean seven bowl games on one day.

Bill Flinn, the assistant executive director of the Tournament of Roses Assn., said that a meeting was held Wednesday night in Pasadena involving Dennis Swanson, president of ABC Sports; Bob Iger, vice president in charge of programming planning for ABC Sports; John H. Biggar, president of the Tournament of Roses; and officials from the Pac-10 and Big Ten.

Flinn said: “We still have to take care of a few details and sign the contracts, but we decided to announce it at this time so the news would come directly from us.”