America 1982-Chapter 340 - 28: Things Are Getting Interesting_2
Sean nodded in agreement, "That’s right, the widow of Carroll Rosbloom, the dead owner of the NFC’s Los Angeles Rams, Georgia Rosbloom."
"I’m quite certain that the cash in my pocket isn’t enough to play the game of major sports broadcasting rights—a game for media giants like us, Sean, you should be clear on that too," Tommy said with a furrowed brow after hearing Sean’s remark, then candidly spoke to Sean.
Sports events have always been a battleground for the three major television networks, vying for the juiciest morsels to monopolize and lock their competitors out. As a result, they’ve employed every trick in the book when it comes to broadcasting methods, leading to a variety of unique presentations.
If a novice waltzed in with tens of millions in cash and tried to compete, they would find out, bizarrely, that even after supposedly securing the broadcasting rights to certain well-known teams’ games, they would be unable to broadcast even a single game for the entire season, thus losing all that money for nothing.
Why? Because there are attendance clauses in the contracts between the teams and TV networks; if the live game attendance doesn’t hit a certain percentage, the team has the right to demand that the game not be broadcast, for the club’s benefit, to encourage more fans to buy tickets and attend the game.
In reality, it’s unlikely that attendance is poor for an entire season—more likely, a network has colluded with a club to falsify numbers. But for a nouveau riche outsider, it’s impossible to get any proof, and they’re left with the club’s response of not meeting the attendance numbers all season. Moreover, the team can find various loopholes in the contract, and in the end, the club breaks ties with the clueless outsider unscathed and turns to other networks for comfort. And the three major networks watch as the novice TV station takes a heavy loss and exits the scene dejectedly.
There are many other perverse clauses similar to the attendance clauses, all traps set by the major networks in cahoots with sports organizations. The big three have been stepping on mines and learning from their mistakes for decades to reach the stage of strategic familiarity they have now.
Let’s put it this way: other smaller networks and stations don’t even have the courage to join in because the three major networks have accumulated experience through money and trial and error. For any other broadcaster attempting to enter the business, the cost will be triple; you have to trip over every trap laid by the major networks to understand all the rules, and the price to pay involves astronomical sums of money.
"I know we don’t have it, but Murdoch does. According to the intel NBC acquired, FOX loaded a bullet of $125 million for this year’s fight over sports broadcasting rights, and they’re ready to go all out. This has scared the big three, who have no idea where Murdoch got the funding. Just a while ago, Murdoch spent $3 billion to acquire Triangle Media Group in the United States; before that, New York Magazine had lost $200 million, Country Magazine $90 million, Chicago Sun-Times was sold off cheaply due to severe losses, New York Post was held for twelve years before being sold cheaply after losing $150 million. That’s not even including his string of terrible investments in England. Overall, everyone believes this Jewish man is definitely not a business genius, but the curious thing is, how can someone keep funding Murdoch’s continuous losses, providing him with an endless stream of money—is it a printing press? The $125 million is equivalent to inflating the current price by one-third, forcing the big three to bid against him," Sean remarked after taking a sip of the water that Tommy had poured for him.
Tommy shrugged, "If NBC wants me to go seduce that widow, so she changes her mind and refuses to work with FOX, I think the likelihood of me agreeing is pretty low. I have a girlfriend, after all. The factors that might convince me would depend on the widow’s age, whether she’s pretty, and how much inheritance she received. If all these factors satisfied me, I might indeed consider putting in the effort."
"FOX’s flagship station in California, KTTV, is currently negotiating with the Los Angeles Rams for the broadcast rights of next season’s away games. Previously, the Rams’ home game broadcasting rights were with CBS, and away game rights with NBC. But the contract for home games is a long-term one, expiring in five years, so CBS has no need to worry about losing home ground. However, NBC’s away game rights are calculated by season, meaning FOX is now eyeing KNBC’s juicy share. The problem is, Marco has always been a good friend of the former team owner Carroll. If Carroll were still alive, he wouldn’t worry about FOX stealing it away, but now... Carroll unexpectedly drowned while vacationing in Florida without leaving a will, so the team fell into the hands of his five children from a previous marriage and his widow Georgia Rosbloom. Currently, Georgia and Carroll’s children are severely at odds over the Rams, worth $56 million, and the other multi-billion-dollar assets Carroll left without a will. FOX has won over Carroll’s five children by assuring them of necessary support to help them secure ownership of the club, while the best scenario for BNC is to have widow Georgia work with them. The issue is, Georgia is giving Marco the cold shoulder; she blames him for arranging dates for her husband, even the mistress who was with Carroll when he died was someone Marco introduced."
