They'd better hope their immortal values are keeping pace with inflation. Programming costs are going to go up like basketball players' salaries. If that inflation rate sounds absurd, you can only imagine how the people writing the checks feel. NBC Chairman Robert Wright compared his network's failed attempt to negotiate part of the football contract to a party where everyone looked better than they really were as the night wore on. The price kept going up and up, beyond what Wright considered any sense of reality.
Football offers advertisers a dependable way to reach the coveted demographic of young men.
When CBS lost its football contract to Fox four years ago, it not only lost millions in advertising revenue, it lost the chance to promote its prime-time programming to young men. CBS's audience got older, and even less desirable to advertisers. The fear of repeating CBS's experience of four years ago, exploited masterfully by NFL negotiators, helped drive prices through the roof, experts say. Go ahead and try, NBC says. Because people like ourselves will run out of money very quickly.