Television viewers who want their daily fix of the lottery numbers they?ve gotten for more than a decade from WJZ-TV Channel 13 are going to have flip the channel next month.
Maryland Lottery Director Buddy Roogow is asking the Board of Public Works on Wednesday to approve a new four-year contract with WBAL-TV Channel 11, even though WBAL?s bid to broadcast the daily drawings will cost the state almost 70 percent more ? $2.1 million a year compared with the $1.2 million bid from WJZ.
“WBAL offered what we thought was the most innovative proposal,” Roogow told The Examiner. It will provide “a far greater amount of promotional announcements” that are worth “far, far more” in additional advertising with a “far, far greater impact” on lottery sales, he said.
WJZ Vice President and General Manager Jay Newman said, “We have enjoyed providing production services for the Maryland lottery in the past and look forward to working with them on other projects in the future.”
As part of the package, WBAL-TV will use radio talent from its sister radio stations, WBAL (1090 AM) and WIYY 98 Rock (97.9 FM), to appear on the air drawing the lottery numbers.
“They?ve never been hosted by an on-air personality,” Roogow said, and he believes “it provides much more personality to the drawing.”
WBAL General Manager Jordan Wertlieb said the station is still finalizing the details about who will do the drawings, but he thinks the three-station combo deal “is a powerful platform for the lottery.” Whether the twice-daily lottery drawing, plus the weekly drawings for Mega Millions, will drive more viewers to WBAL is “hard to quantify,” Wertlieb said.
“We just thought there was value” to broadcasting the lottery drawings, he said.
“I don?t think anyone in the country can match the combination,” Roogow said.
Based on the additional advertising and promotion WBAL threw in as part of the deal, lottery officials calculated it will generate an additional $35 million in lottery sales. In fiscal 2006, the lottery had over $1.5 billion in sales, generating $471 million in revenues to state coffers.
The state?s comptroller?s office estimates lottery sales will slow over the next year with only 2.6 percent growth projected.
“I hope their estimates are conservative,” Roogow said. “We?ve had nine straight years of record sales and record growth” despite the “incredible competition around us,” including slots in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia. The new contract is another way to pump up sales, he said.
In the Washington market, the lottery drawings are carried on cable News Channel 8 in areas where cable does not carry the Baltimore broadcast stations.
