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If the MEAC's basketball deal witl
dividends, the league's football tea
MEAC Snar<
A Kecently-Sign<
By GREG BROWN
Review Staff Writer
A Durham, N.C.-based production
company which purchased the broadcast
and cable rights to the MEAC's
1985 basketball games says it has a
potential viewership of 30 million
households after striking a deal with a
cable TV network.
"At this point, the project looks excellent,'
' said Robert Drakefnrd:
general manager of the fledgling All
College Sports Group, formed last
?faelarge*t~b*ack?
sports network in the history of the
country."
And, for the first time, the games
will be aired live ? not six to seven days J
later as were most of the black college
games this year. Operating with a staff
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ui auuui jkj persons, me procucuon
company plans to relay the television
signal to a satellite, which will beam
the live action to non-cable stations
across the country, including many independents.
The Satellite ProgrammPage
4-October, 1984SS5SSS5SS
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i the All College Sports Group reaps
ms, featuring such talent as Howard's
es A Promisi
3d Contract Calls
ing Network will carry the games via
cable TV systems.
The All College Sports Group
bought rights to the next three years of
MEAC games. ME AC Commissioner
Ken Free said the conference will
receive "between $30,000 and $40,000
annually for rights to the regularseason
coverage. "It's not a lucrative
contract," Free said. "It's a trade-off
for more exposure.*' Negotiations for
the tournament rights still were under
way when the Review went to press.
? "Basically, <we - have the TV and
cable rights for the ME AC and we are
currently in the process of stitching a
network together," Drakeford said.
"Our understanding is that, of the top
25 markets, we should get at least half
of them."
That would represent a giant leap for
ME AC coverage and progress for
black college basketball as a whole.
Last season, only 10 black college
basketball games were aired, all of
them tape-delayed broadcasts on the
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Black Entertainment Television cable
network. Even those games weren't the
best pairings, since their selection was
more dependent on available production
facilities than anything else.
Drakeford said the new black sports
network will be three times larger than
the Black Entertainment Television
network.
"We're going to be doing a lot of
viewing a lot of female announce
ESPN, the Entertainment and
Sports Programming Network, carried
more than 150 college basketball games
last season, but not one of them between
two predominantly black
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jviiwu. me ujrt nciworn, INHL and
CBS also have refrained from broadcasting
black college games.
Such a lack of exposure affects not
only TV revenue for the schools, but,
more importantly, their ability to
recruit blue chip athletes who tend to
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he tube (photo courtesy of Howard
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teams appear regularly on regional and
network telecasts.
The lack of television exposure also
can affect a team's ranking.
"We feel there are two or possibly
three (MEAC) teams which should be
ranked in the Top 25, and we will cover
those teams," Drakeford said, adding
women's basketball. We're interrs
for the women *s vames
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that one or two of the teams would
have ranked in the nation's Top 10
with better TV exposure.
The sports group's coverage will
begin in December, when MEAC
A..... < - ?
icams race nonconference foes like
Georgetown, Maryland and Georgia
Tech. Conference coverage will kick
off Saturday, Jan. 12, when N.C. A&T
faces Howard in Greensboro, where it
will resume two days later when A&T