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Sports hottest network item
ADVERTISERS STANDING IN LINE FOR MORE AS ANNUAL HOURS TOP 1,000
How many viewers will tune in to watch a duck-calling contest in Stuttgart, Ark?
The contest could turn up on TV screens in prime time as part of a network sports program. The networks think enough people will tune in to make it worthwhile, and they have no concern about the advertisers, waiting in the wings to gobble it up.
What this example points up is what one network official calls the "hottest" item on network TV today — sports programing.
For all the competition in news programs, westerns, detective shows, situation comedies and documentaries, there is no fiercer competition than the "utter demand" for sports.
Hunt Is On ■ Carl Lindemann, newly appointed vice president of NBC Sports, told Broadcasting last week that what this network competition has come to is
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a search for "obscure events in remote areas" (Week's Headliners, page 10).
A few years ago it was live baseball, football, basketball, boxing, horseraces, tennis and hockey. Sprinkled in were filmed golf and bowling matches, and assorted skiing, skating and mumblety peg contests.
Today all boundaries have been crossed. Baseball, football, and boxing are still on live along with major golf events. Except in Canada and Northern U. S. states, hockey has gone by the boards — for the time being — and the filmed or taped events now include the Soap Box Derby, Little League World Series and bridge tournaments.
The trend toward more sports programing during the past six years may turn into an even greater boom in the next few years. The networks, two of them carrying their heaviest sports loads in history, are hanging "sold out" signs
on many of their choice sports offerings, and one official commented that some sponsors are even trying to buy out other sponsors for preferred spots.
All Are Interested ■ For the current season CBS leads in quantity of sports programs with 338 hours already on the books. NBC, the one-time leader, has 288 hours set and ABC is set for a new high of 275 hours. This means that of the 1 1,630 hours programed by the networks this year, 1,051 hours or 9.03% will be devoted to sports.
And the figure could increase before the season ends.
The signs of growth are everywhere. Chet Simmons, vice president and general manager of ABC's sports arm, Sports Programs Inc., said the public is "insatiable" in its demand for sports. The biggest problem, he noted, was finding time to carry it all.
William McPhail, vice president of
BROADCASTING, September 30, 1963