Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports, is in many ways like his famous father, the late Jim McKay. He is smart, detail-oriented and not given to overstating anything his network is involved with, opting to let the ratings and the broadcasts speak for themselves.
The network needed a partner to keep the NCAA tournament. That partner wound up being Turner Sports, and it is indeed a full partner. CBS will have the rights to the Elite Eight, Final Four and national championship game through 2015. After that, CBS and Turner will start splitting the regional finals, and the Final Four and national championship game will alternate every year between the two networks. CBS will get the games in the odd years with TBS having the even ones.
That is what it takes to put together a 14-year, $10.6 billion dollar deal.
“When we entered this deal with Turner Sports, we were comfortable that they would be the perfect partners for us,” McManus said. “That said, you have two large networks with two sales staffs, two promotion departments and two production teams. Those are a lot of moving parts, but in the end I am very pleasantly surprised that we were able to work so well so soon in our relationship. It is a real credit to both teams for wanting to get things right from day one.”
Well, year one is almost over, and the agreement was a success on all levels. The ratings were the highest they have been in 20 years, and fans had a chance to see all the games live on CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV. The mixing of two networks went well; CBS and Turner Sports make world-class partners, with the fans being the real winners.
“I will be honest. I really did not know how quickly viewers would take to moving from network to network to watch their favorite game,” McManus said. “The CBS-Turner Sports broadcasters did a great job of guiding the viewers to the right network, and the fans did an equally good job of following all the games. So to be honest, we have exceeded my expectations on all levels, and hopefully things will only get better.”
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
