Broadcasting Rights

In MLB, where local contracts dominate, all locations get their local team nearly nightly, along with a general interest game a couple of times each week. In the NFL, where there is literally no such thing as a local television broadcast, fans get approximately the same thing (61 The Market for Sports Broadcast Rights). They will see the home team every week, along with a few games of broader interest. The NFL has a national contract of $2.3 billion annually and the MLB has a national contract of $814 million annually. The previous contract for the NFL (1998-2005) totaled $23.1 billion which was 21% more then the current contract. The previous MLB contract was $4 billion which is 42% more then the current contract (81 The Market for Sports Broadcast Rights). The National Media generates more then the local media in 25 of the 32 teams in the MLB and 80% of the teams cover more then half of their player salaries just from the media alone. In contrast, the NFL covers all player costs with the media revenue source alone for every team but the Packers and Chiefs. Although the NFL has so many fewer broadcast slots they make a drastic amount more then the other leagues because they provide a better reach to the important demographic target of advertisers. This money is collected by the media providers and sent through to the NFL. The NFL games are sold through their leagues in the form of a national contract, where as the MLB sells their games by the team through local contracts. 

The beginning of broadcasting problems in the MLB came in April of 1953, when ABC signed three teams. The MLB banned ABC from broadcasting their games within a 50-mile radius of the home teams stadium. Around 1965, ABC paid $5.7 million for the rights to the 28 Saturday and holiday games but continued to black out the games in the home cities of the clubs playing those games. In 1969, MLB had grown to 24 teams and TV revenues rose to $20.7 million, a significant increase from 1950, which had a $2.3 million income. This contract then rose to $72 million from 1972-75 but continued the local blackouts and continued to when the 1976-1979 contract was $92 million. By 1980, income from TV was 30% of the $500 million in the MLB. Then in 1983, MLB, ABC, and NBC agreed to a six-year contract worth $1.2 billion. In 1989, CBS agreed to $1.8 billion over a four-year span, which cost CBS a great deal of money and disputes over the contract with the MLB. The disputes led the MLB to go into the business of producing their own telecasts. Shortly after, the MLB made a new deal with ABC and NBC; they would take 85% of the first $140 million in advertising revenue, then 50% of the next $30 million, and 80% of any additional money. After another dispute in 1994 NBC and ABC decided to cut all ties with the MLB for the remainder of the 20th century. In 1995 Fox and NBC made a deal with the MLB and began it by showing games based on the viewers regions. Then in 2000, Fox signed a six year deal worth $2.5 billion.

In the NFL, all away games are aired in the local region of the away team; this is done because of the difficulty for fans to attend away games. All sold out home games are also aired the local region of teams unless the games do not sell out 72 hours before kickoff. Games not sold out 72 hours before kickoff are in jeopardy to blackout in the local region. Prior to 1973, all home games were blacked out in the local region of the home team, even during championship games. This policy came into effect because the president wanted to watch the Redskins in a playoff game and was unable to because of the blackout. The league commissioner at the time, Pete Rozelle, was forced to lift the blackout under a new law eliminating the blackout under the 72 hour rule in place now. Some NFL teams however have arrangements with local television stations or businesses to purchase unsold ticket. In 2011, only four blackouts occurred and less occurred in previous years, 2010 with only two, 2009 with only 3, 2006 with only one. NBC was the first major television network to cover an NFL game on October 22, 1939. Regular broadcasting of games began after World War 2 and the first NFL championship game to be televised was in 1948. In 1950, the LA Rams and the Washington Redskins became the first NFL teams to have all their games televised, and in the same year other teams made deals to have selected games telecast. The DuMont Network, in the same, paid a rights fee of $75,000 to broadcast the 1951 Championship game across the entire nation, and was the first to do so. In 1953-1955 the network became the first to broadcast live NFL games across the entire nation, and did so for the entire season. NBC, in 1955, became the new home of the NFL championship game, paying $100,000 to the NFL. In 1956, CBS began to televise the selected NFL regular season games. When 1959 came around, big teams had all their games televised but the smaller teams still did not. This was until Pete Rozelle became the commissioner and a goal of his to see that every team got all its games on TV.  In 1987, ESPN became the first to cable network to broadcast regular season games. In 1990, the NFL, from all the combined contracts, was bringing in the largest some in TV at the time with $900 million annually totaling to $3.6 billion.

Graph of media revenues for NFL