T
he ESPN/ABC Sports
sales team is approaching advertisers about ABC's live prime-time broadcast of the "Battle at Bighorn," a one-round, match-play duel between Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia on Aug. 28. Scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET, the made-for-TV event will take place at the Canyons Course at Bighorn Golf Club in Indio, Calif.Ad agency executives say the asking price for 30-second spots is as much as $175,000 apiece. The sales team also will seek a title sponsor, with an asking price likely around $2.5 million.
Motorola Inc. was the title sponsor of ABC's telecast of the match-play battle between Woods and David Duval last August. That matchup marked the first time that a broadcast network aired a golf event live in prime time.
Woods' victory over Duval was a ratings success, scoring a Nielsen household average of 6.9 — tied for the second-highest-rated golf event in 1999. Only CBS' broadcast of the Masters' final round, which posted a 10.1 household average, delivered a better number. CBS' coverage of the final round of the PGA Championship, which Woods won by one stroke over Garcia, also delivered a 6.9 household average.
PITCHING WIMBLEDON: Turner Sports
is talking with automotive companies, including Cadillac, about the network's Wimbledon ad packages, sources say.Earlier this year, Turner snagged U.S. cable rights to Wimbledon with a three-year deal that begins with this summer's event, slated for June 26-July 9. TNT, which will become the first basic-cable network in the country to televise the Grand Slam tennis tournament, will provide 61 hours of coverage. Sister network CNN/Sports Illustrated, a 24-hour-a-day sports news channel, will air 28 hours.
Turner Sports officials wouldn't comment on ad sales.
THE WOODS FACTOR:
For a golf tournament, it's a given: If Tiger's in the hunt, TV ratings will rise.With Woods dueling Hal Sutton at The Players Championship, NBC scored an overnight Nielsen household ratings average of 5.6 for its March 26 coverage of the PGA Tour event — the highest overnight number for the tournament since 1991.
From 4:30 to 5 p.m. ET on March 26, the network's telecast delivered a strong 7.4 overnight average. But about 5 p.m., a thunderstorm canceled play for the day. The network continued its coverage until 6:30 p.m., airing interviews and earlier action. Its coverage from 5 to 5:30 p.m. posted a 5.3 overnight average.
The next day, NBC broadcast the tournament's finish, providing coverage from 9 to 10:30 a.m. (live on the East Coast).
For the third round, on March 25, NBC recorded a 4.7 overnight average — the highest overnight number for Saturday play at the tournament since 1984.
APPOINTMENTS:
NFL Insider magazine has a new publisher. Joe Blaney, who had been associate publisher, replaced Mark Goldsmith at the helm. Goldsmith is the new vice president/publisher of Motor Trend and Truck Trend magazines, which, like NFL Insider, are published by Emap USA. NFL Insider will be published seven times this year. ... Hal Trencher is the new vice president of advertising at Worlds.com. Trencher will be in charge of selling advertising on the company's entertainment and sports portal, and developing alliances with advertisers, ad agencies and other Web sites and portals. He was senior vice president of business development at MarComm Partners, a sports marketing and communications company. Before that, he held senior executive sales positions at Sports Illustrated Television and CBS Sports.