Network TV coverage From Page 9
Because of that, Matthews notes, view
ers aren't very likely to see Division I- A A
football or Division n football and basketball
on a regular basis. At present, the network
airs 210 college basketball games during the
year. Adding on more games wouldn't serve
a useful purpose, he said.
Whigham sees no reason why BET
would suffer because of what ESPN has
decided to do with black college spoils.
"People are letting usknowthat they
can't get enough of it (games of the week),"
he said. "We only do one game a week. Our
such as halftone reports, pre-game and post
game reviews are areas that he is looking into
in an effort to induce more advertisers to
spend their money with BET.
"We'll continue to do what we have in
the past," Whigham said. "Last year, we
demonstrated that we could produce high
quality programs that is of national caliber.
Now all we have to do is bring our numbers
up~ so we can give advertisers more bang for
iheirbuckr."
Money or the lack of it, is a reason why
ESPN could be viewed as more attractive by
"They were concerned about what
would happen at the gate and they should
be," Whigham added. M They felt that they
could make more money by not having us air
the game. They believed that fewer people
would attend the game if it were onuelevi
sion and they would have no way of recover
ing those losses because of what we could -
afford to pay them for an appearance fee."
BET will carry the '89 Bayou Classic,
""but it will be shown on a delayed basis. This
way, the schools feel ihey have more of an
opportunity to fill the Louisiana Superdome
thing we'll see more of. After all, ESPN
doesn't cover black college sports like BET,
so their people aren't as familiar with the
schools.
Having Neal appear on ESPN to do black
college sports is a feather in BET's cap,
Whigham says. "The more visibility our talent
gets, the better we look as a network," he said.
BET will benefit from such an arrange- ?
ment. James Brown, commentator for CBS
Sports, has signed a personal services con
tract with the BET and will be involved in
various projects' in the coming months.
Photo by The Magnificent Eye
ESPN already has a proliferation of major college football games on Its schedule. So It's unlikely that folks will see any Division l-AA or Division ll foot
ball on that network.
viewers want us to do two or three games a
week instead of one. But we're not ready to
do that as of yet"
Live sports programming can be a
financial drain on a young network that is
still growing and BET is no exception; The
advertising revenue hasn't been bad, and the
dollars have increased which is encouraging.
However, Whigham's major push to
help BET Sports become profitable. He plans
to do that by providing advertisers with more
sales opportunities associated with the pro
grams shown. Different segments of games,
black colleges who appear on that network.
BET reportedly pays a flat fee of $6,000 for
schools appearing on the Game of the Week.
(The schools split the total fee). ESPN paid
$10,000 per school for the finalist in the
MEAC Basketball Championship.
This money issue has surfaced before.
Last year's Bayou Classic between Gram
bling and Southern wasn't aired on BET
because the network and the schools couldn't
agree on a fee. The schools wanted more
money than BET was prepared to pay, so
they opted to forego having the game aired.
and the network still gets to broadcast one of
black college football's grandest events.
In summation, it appears that for now,
BET and ESPN won't be engaged in a war
over black college sports. BET will continue
its specialized programming, which provides
viewers with a brand of coverage that would
be difficult for ESPN to duplicate.
One example of this was this year's
SWAC Basketball Tournament finals on
ESPN. Charlie Neal, sports director for BET,
co-anchored the game with an ESPN analyst
These type of joint ventures may be some
Brown, incidentally, got his first network job
with BET.
At this point in time, it's clear that BET
will continue to be the major force in provid
ing black college sports with a national audi
ence. ESPN's efforts is supplementing that,
and Black College Sports Today should fur
ther add to that.
AU that's necessary now is for black col
lege sports followers to fully support those
programs.
Black college sports will be better off.
?Craig T. Greenlee