BornonJune8: /* References */
Since the 1960s, all regular season and playoff games broadcast in the United States have been aired by national television networks. When the rival [[American Football League]] (AFL) began in 1960, it signed a 5-year television contract with [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]. This became the first ever cooperative television plan for [[Professional football (gridiron)|professional football]], through which the proceeds of the contract were divided equally among member clubs. ABC and the AFL also introduced moving, on-field cameras (as opposed to the fixed midfield cameras of CBS and the NFL), and were the first to have players "miked" during broadcast games. As the AFL also had players' names stitched on their jerseys, it was easier for both TV viewers and people at the games to tell who was who.
As of the 1961 season, CBS held the rights to all but one of the NFL's teams; the [[Cleveland Browns]] had a separate contract with [[Sports Network Incorporated]] (SNI) to carry their games over a regional network. However, the Browns and SNI were forced to break their deal when the NFL and CBS devised their own revenue sharing plan after CBS agreed to telecast all regular season games for an annual fee of $4.65 million. A special antitrust exemption, the [[Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961]], was passed in Congress to accommodate the collective contract, which restricted what days the league could televise their games. CBS' fee later increased to $14.1 million per year in 1964, and $18.8 million per year in 1966.
With NBC paying the AFL $36 million in 1965 to televise its games, and the intensified battle over college prospects, both leagues negotiated a merger agreement on June 8, 1966. Although they would not officially merge into one combined league until 1970, one of the conditions of the agreement was that the winners of each league's championship game would meet in a contest to determine the "world champion of football."
The first ever [[Super Bowl I|AFL-NFL World Championship Game]] was played on January 15, 1967 between the NFL champion Packers and the AFL champion Chiefs. As CBS held the rights to nationally televise NFL games and NBC had the rights to broadcast AFL matches, it was decided that both would cover that first game. The next three AFL-NFL World Championship Games, the initial [[Super Bowl]]s, were then divided by the two networks: CBS broadcast Super Bowls [[Super Bowl II|II]] and [[Super Bowl IV|IV]] while NBC covered [[Super Bowl III|III]].
==Year-by-year breakdown==
===[[1960 NFL season|1960]]===
NBC held individual team contracts with the [[Pittsburgh Steelers]] and [[Baltimore Colts]] in [[1959 NFL season|1959]], [[1960 NFL season|1960]] and [[1961 NFL season|1961]]. While the games were [[blackout (broadcasting)|blacked out]] in [[Pittsburgh]] and [[Baltimore]], they were broadcast on other NBC stations. In some cases, the game broadcast was seen on CBS in the visiting team's home region. NBC covered eleven games in 1960 and 13 games in 1961 in a "Game of the Week" format. NBC would take one week off due to its [[Major League Baseball on NBC|coverage]] of the [[List of World Series broadcasters|World Series]]. During this era, NBC broadcast pre-recorded and edited hour-long broadcasts of NFL games in the off-season under the title ''Best of Pro Football''.
On June 9, 1960, the league signed a five-year television contract with ABC, which brought in revenues of approximately [[United States dollar|$]]2,125,000 per year for the entire league. The deal called for ABC to broadcast approximately 37 regular season games, the [[List of AFL Championship Game broadcasters|AFL Championship Game]] and the [[List of AFL All-Star Game broadcasters|AFL All-Star Game]]. These games were typically broadcast regionally on 15 consecutive Sundays and on [[NFL on Thanksgiving Day#1960–1969|Thanksgiving Day]]. This became the first ever cooperative television plan for [[Professional football (gridiron)|professional football]], in which the proceeds of the contract were divided equally among member clubs; the [[National Football League]] would follow suit in 1961, a move that required Congress to pass the [[Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961]] to accommodate such collective broadcasting contracts.
===[[1961 NFL season|1961]]===
On April 5, 1961, NBC was awarded a two-year contract (1961–62) for the radio and television rights to the NFL Championship Game, paying US$615,000 annually for the rights ($300,000 of which was to go directly into the [[NFL Player Benefit Plan]]). On May 23, 1963, NBC was awarded exclusive network broadcast rights for the 1963 NFL Championship Game for $926,000.
In [[1961 NFL season|1961]], then-CBS affiliate [[WISN-TV]] (channel 12, now an [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] affiliate) in [[Milwaukee]] opted not to carry that year's annual telecast of ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'', running a [[1961 Green Bay Packers season|Green Bay Packers]] football game instead. In contrast to the infamous ''[[Heidi Game|Heidi]]'' telecast in [[1968 American Football League season|1968]], the popularity of ''The Wizard of Oz'' [[The Wizard of Oz on television|as an annual television event]] at that time was such that the station ran the movie locally at a later date. On September 17, 1961, [[CBS Sports]] broadcast the first remote 15-minute pre-game show, the first of its kind on network sports television; ''[[The NFL Today|Pro Football Kickoff]]'' originated from NFL stadiums around the country with a comprehensive look at all the day's games.
===[[1962 NFL season|1962]]===
In [[1962 NFL season|1962]], the NFL followed the [[American Football League]]'s (AFL) suit with its own revenue sharing plan after CBS agreed to telecast all regular season games for an annual fee of US$4.65 million. CBS also acquired the rights to the championship games for [[1964 NFL Championship Game|1964]] and [[1965 NFL Championship Game|1965]] for $1.8 million per game, on April 17, 1964.
===[[1963 NFL season|1963]]===
CBS executive vice president [[James T. Aubrey, Jr.]], who on May 9, 1963, warned the network's affiliates the high cost of rights for professional sports could price them off television, nevertheless in January 1964 agreed to pay $28.2 million to air [[National Football League]] games for two years, spanning 17 games each season. In an interview with ''[[The New York Times]]'', Aubrey said regarding the package, "We know how much these games mean to the viewing audience, our affiliated stations, and the nation's advertisers". Along with obtaining the aforementioned rights to the NFL Championship Game, in April 1964, he agreed to extend the deal for another year for a total of $31.8 million.<ref></ref><ref></ref>
On November 24, 1963, just two days after the [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassination]] of President [[John F. Kennedy]], the NFL played its normal schedule of games. Commissioner [[Pete Rozelle]] said about playing the games: "It has been traditional in sports for athletes to perform in times of great personal tragedy. Football was Mr. Kennedy's game. He thrived on competition."<ref></ref> No NFL games were telecast, since on the afternoon of the 22nd, just after the president had been pronounced dead, CBS President [[Frank Stanton (executive)|Frank Stanton]] ordered that all regular programming be pre-empted until after Kennedy was buried at his funeral procession. Normal programming, including the NFL, was replaced by non-stop news coverage, broadcast without commercials. Less than one hour prior to kickoff of the games in the Eastern Time Zone, [[Lee Harvey Oswald]], who had been charged with Kennedy's assassination, was himself shot to death by [[Jack Ruby]] in the basement of the [[Dallas]] city jail as he was being transferred to the [[Dallas County, Texas|Dallas County]] jail.
NBC televised the NFL Championship Game until [[1963 NFL season|1963]]. The contract for the title game was separate than the regular season contracts held by [[CBS]], which started televising NFL games in [[1956 NFL season|1956]]. Prior to [[1962 NFL season|1962]], each team had its own individual television contract. (This was in contrast to the [[American Football League]] as well as established practice in [[college football]], both of which forced all of their members to participate in a collective television contract. As the legality of such a collective contract was still in question at the time, and would eventually be [[NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma|declared illegal in 1984]], the NFL did not pursue such a contract until Congress explicitly allowed for the NFL to do so, with conditions, in the [[Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961]].)
===[[1964 NFL season|1964]]===
In [[1964 NFL season|1964]], CBS experimented with a "half-and-half" format for their announcers. The first half of each telecast would be called by the home teams' commentators while the second half would be done by the visitors' commentators (this practice would later be revived decades later by the [[NFL Network]] when replaying [[National Football League exhibition season|preseason games]] that were broadcast by local stations as opposed to a national network). Also in 1964, CBS ditched the concept of using pooled video and split audio feeds. In [[1962 NFL season|1962]] and [[1963 NFL season|1963]], CBS would provide separate audio for a telecast (for instance, if the [[Green Bay Packers]] hosted the [[Chicago Bears]], the telecast would have the same video, Chicago area viewers watching on [[WBBM-TV]] would hear [[Red Grange]] and [[George Connor (American football)|George Connor]] call the action; meanwhile, viewers in [[Milwaukee]] and other parts of [[Wisconsin]] ([[Green Bay, Wisconsin|Green Bay]] itself was blacked out) would hear [[Ray Scott (sportscaster)|Ray Scott]] and [[Tony Canadeo]] describe the game). Ray Scott was not a fan of the separate audio concept and temporarily left CBS for a job calling a regional slate of [[college football]] games for NBC. Ultimately, CBS dumped the four-man crew and resumed the 1962–63 method for the great majority of games in [[1965 NFL season|1965]], [[1966 NFL season|1966]] and [[1967 NFL season|1967]].
During the early 1960s, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle envisioned the possibility of playing at least one game weekly during [[prime time]] for a greater television audience. An early bid by ABC in 1964 to have the league play a weekly game on Friday nights was abandoned, with critics charging that such telecasts would damage the attendance at [[high school football|high school games]]. Undaunted, Rozelle decided to experiment with the concept of playing on Monday night, scheduling the [[1964 Green Bay Packers season|Green Bay Packers]] and [[1964 Detroit Lions season|Detroit Lions]] for a game on September 28, 1964. While the game was not televised, it drew a sellout crowd of 59,203 spectators to [[Tiger Stadium (Detroit)|Tiger Stadium]], the largest crowd to watch a professional football game in [[Detroit]] up to that point.
Two years later, Rozelle would build on this success as the NFL began a four-year experiment of playing on Monday night, scheduling a total of five Monday night games on CBS from 1966 to 1969 (including 2 in 1968).<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref> The first prime-time telecast on CBS was on Saturday night, September 10, 1966, with the [[Baltimore Colts]] opening the season against the [[Green Bay Packers]] at [[Milwaukee County Stadium|Milwaukee]].<ref></ref> The first Monday night national telecast was on October 31, 1966, with the [[1966 St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) season|St. Louis Cardinals]] winning at home over the [[1966 Chicago Bears season|Chicago Bears]], 24-17.<ref>https://ift.tt/2YYtMfj> NBC followed suit in [[List of American Football League seasons#1968 .5B9.5D|1968]] and [[List of American Football League seasons#1969 .5B10.5D|1969]] with games involving [[American Football League|AFL]] teams.
===[[1965 NFL season|1965]]===
On November 25, 1965 ([[Thanksgiving (United States)|Thanksgiving Day]]), CBS featured the first [[Television#color|color broadcast]] of a regular-season NFL game, the traditional Thanksgiving Day game at [[1965 Detroit Lions season|Detroit]]. It was only the second time that the network's first color mobile unit had been used (it had been used a month earlier to cover the attempted launch of an [[Atlas-Agena]], which was to have been the rendezvous target for the [[Gemini 6]] space mission). Only a handful of games during the rest of the season were shown in color, along with the [[NFL playoffs, 1965|NFL Western Conference Playoff]], the [[1965 NFL Championship Game|NFL Championship Game]],<ref></ref> the [[Playoff Bowl]] and the [[1965 Pro Bowl|Pro Bowl]]. In 1966, most of the network's NFL games were broadcast in color, and by [[1968 NFL season|1968]], all of the network's NFL telecasts were in color.
On December 29, 1965, CBS acquired the rights to the NFL regular season games in 1966 and 1967, with an option to extend the contract through [[1968 NFL season|1968]], for $18.8 million per year (in sharp contrast to the $14.1 million per year it paid for the rights in 1964). On February 14, 1966, the rights to the [[1966 NFL Championship Game|1966]] and [[1967 NFL Championship Game]]s (the Ice Bowl) were sold to CBS for $2 million per game. 1967 also marked the last year that CBS had separate commentator crews for each team for about 90% to 95% of their NFL games.
===[[1966 NFL season|1966]]===
On December 13, 1966, the rights to the Super Bowl for four years were sold to CBS and NBC for $9.5 million. The first ever [[Super Bowl I|AFL-NFL World Championship Game]] was played on January 15, 1967. Because [[NFL on CBS|CBS]] held the rights to nationally televise NFL games and NBC had the rights to broadcast AFL games, it was decided by the newly merged league to have both of them cover that first game (the only other NFL game since to have been carried nationally on more than one network until December 29, [[2007 NFL season|2007]] [[2007 New England Patriots-New York Giants game|New England Patriots-New York Giants]] game, which aired on NBC, CBS and the [[NFL Network]]). However, NBC was also forced to broadcast the game over CBS' feed and cameras (CBS received prerogative to use its feed and camera angles since the Coliseum was home to the NFL's Rams), while only CBS' cameras and technical crew were allowed to work the game, although NBC was allowed to use its own commentators. As a result, NBC's crew had little to no control over how the game was filmed. Each network used its own announcers: [[Ray Scott (sportscaster)|Ray Scott]] (doing [[play-by-play]] for the first half), [[Jack Whitaker]] (doing play-by-play for the second half) and [[Frank Gifford]] provided commentary on CBS; while [[Curt Gowdy]] and [[Paul Christman]] were did so for NBC. NBC did have some problems with the dual telecast; the network did not return in time from a [[halftime]] commercial break for the start of the second half. Therefore, the first [[Kickoff (American football)|kickoff]] was stopped by the game's officials and was redone once NBC returned to the broadcast.
===[[1967 NFL season|1967]]===
The first [[Super Bowl I|AFL-NFL World Championship Game]] was played on January 15, 1967. Because CBS held the rights to nationally televise NFL games and NBC had the rights to broadcast AFL games, it was decided by the newly merged league to have both of them cover that first game. Ray Scott, [[Jack Whitaker (sportscaster)|Jack Whitaker]], Frank Gifford and Pat Summerall called the game for CBS. 39.9 million viewers would watch [[Bart Starr]]'s performance in the game that earned him the [[Super Bowl MVP|MVP]] trophy. NBC did have some problems. The network did not return from a commercial break during [[halftime]] in time for the start of the second half; therefore, the first [[Kickoff (American football)|kickoff]] was stopped by the game's officials and was redone once NBC was back on the air. NBC was also forced to broadcast the game over CBS' feed and cameras (CBS received prerogative to use its feed and camera angles since the [[Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum]] was home to the NFL's [[1966 Los Angeles Rams season|Rams]]). In other words, NBC's crew had little to no control over how the game was shot. The next three AFL-NFL World Championship Games, later renamed the Super Bowl, were then divided by the two networks: CBS televised [[Super Bowl II|Super Bowls II]] and [[Super Bowl IV|IV]] while NBC covered [[Super Bowl III]].
Week 4 of the [[1967 AFL season]] coincided with the race for the [[American League]] pennant. NBC decided to focus on their [[MLB on NBC|baseball coverage]] instead of covering the early games; thus resulting in [[Curt Gowdy]] calling the [[1967 Minnesota Twins season|Twins]]-[[1967 Boston Red Sox season|Red Sox]] game; [[Jim Simpson (sportscaster)|Jim Simpson]] calling the [[1967 California Angels season|Angels]]-[[1967 Detroit Tigers season|Tigers]] game); while the AFL schedule resulted in the two early games ([[1967 Denver Broncos season|Broncos]]-[[1967 Houston Oilers season|Oilers]] and [[1967 Miami Dolphins season|Dolphins]]-[[1967 New York Jets season|Jets]] games not being televised with another [[1967 San Diego Chargers season|Chargers]]-[[1967 Buffalo Bills season|Bills]] game being a locally televised game airing only in [[San Diego, California|San Diego]] on then-NBC affiliate KOGO (now ABC affiliate [[KGTV]]).
===[[1968 NFL season|1968]]===
When CBS decided to abandon its practice of using dedicated announcing crews for particular teams in [[1968 NFL season|1968]], the network instituted a semi-merit system in its place, with certain crews (such as Ray Scott and [[Paul Christman]] or [[Jack Buck]] and Pat Summerall) being assigned to each week's most prominent games regardless of the participating teams.
One of the most remembered games on NBC was a [[American Football League seasons#1968|1968]] game known as the ''[[Heidi Game]]''. As its nationally televised game between the [[1968 Oakland Raiders season|Oakland Raiders]] and [[1968 New York Jets season|New York Jets]] running late, the network discontinued coverage while the game was still playing to air the movie ''[[Heidi]]'' just moments after the Jets' [[Jim Turner (placekicker)|Jim Turner]] kicked what appeared to be the game-winning field goal with 1:05 remaining. While millions of irate fans, missing the finale, jammed NBC's phone lines, the Raiders scored two touchdowns in eight seconds during the final minute to win 43–32.
The reaction to ''The Heidi Game'' resulted in the AFL, and most other sports leagues, demanding thereafter that television networks broadcast all games to their conclusion. NFL contracts with the networks now require games to be shown in a team's market area to conclusion, regardless of the score.
To avoid a repeat incident, a 1975 NBC broadcast of ''[[Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory]]'' was delayed until the completion of a [[1975 Washington Redskins season|Washington Redskins]]–[[1975 Oakland Raiders season|Raiders]] game. The network installed a new phone in the control room wired to a separate exchange, becoming known as the ''Heidi Phone'', to prevent this situation from occurring in the future.
On December 22, 1968, CBS interrupted coverage of a [[NFL playoffs, 1968|Western Conference championship game]] between the [[1968 Minnesota Vikings season|Minnesota Vikings]] and [[1968 Baltimore Colts season|Baltimore Colts]] in order to show a broadcast from inside the [[Apollo 8]] spacecraft, headed towards the moon (the first manned space mission to orbit the moon, and a major step towards the lunar landing the following July). The interruption began approximately three minutes before halftime of the game, and lasted 17 minutes. CBS showed highlights of the missed action (in which neither team scored) when the network returned to football coverage; nonetheless, the network received approximately 3,000 complaints after the game.
===[[1969 NFL season|1969]]===
The next three AFL-NFL World Championship Games, later renamed the ''[[Super Bowl]]'', were then divided by the two networks (with each network broadcasting the game exclusviely): CBS broadcast Super Bowls [[Super Bowl II|II]] and [[Super Bowl IV|IV]] while NBC covered [[Super Bowl III|III]]. When NBC Sports broadcast Super Bowl III, sports broadcasts were produced under the oversight of the [[NBC News]] division (this remained the case until well into the 1970s, long after both CBS and [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] had spun-off their sports operations into departments separate from their news divisions). Curt Gowdy handled the play-by-play duties and was joined by [[color commentator]]s [[Al DeRogatis]] and [[Kyle Rote]] in the broadcast booth. Also helping with NBC's coverage were [[Jim Simpson (sportscaster)|Jim Simpson]] (reporting from the sidelines) and [[Pat Summerall]] (helping conduct player interviews for the pregame show, along with Rote). In an interview later done with [[NFL Films]], Gowdy called it the most memorable game he ever called because of its historical significance.<ref name=Sandomir></ref> While the Orange Bowl was sold out for the game, the live telecast was not shown in Miami due to both leagues' unconditional [[blackout (broadcasting)|blackout]] rules at the time. This game is thought to be the earliest surviving Super Bowl game preserved on videotape in its entirety save for a portion of the [[1968 Baltimore Colts season|Baltimore Colts]]' fourth quarter scoring drive.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, CBS used a [[marching band]]-like instrumental arrangement of the song "Confidence" (from [[Leon Carr]]'s score for the 1964 off-Broadway musical ''[[The Secret Life of Walter Mitty#Stage adaptations|The Secret Life of Walter Mitty]]'') as the theme for their NFL broadcasts.
==References==
[[Category:History of National Football League broadcasting| ]]
[[Category:ABC Sports]]
[[Category:CBS Sports]]
[[Category:NFL on NBC| ]]
[[Category:American Football League]]
[[Category:1960 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1961 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1962 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1963 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1964 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1965 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1966 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1967 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1968 National Football League season| ]]
[[Category:1969 National Football League season| ]]
from Wikipedia - New pages [en] https://ift.tt/2YODEIo
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment