November 9, 1989: The NBA signs a lucrative 4-year television deal with NBC.
The deal, worth over $600 million, “more than triples” the NBA’s previous 4-year deal with CBS. Under the deal, NBC would air 20-26 regular season games — up from 16 games on CBS — all either “in prime time or on weekends.”
NBC would also “spend some $40 million to promote the league on TV and radio.”
Then-CBS Sports president Neal Pilson: “[T]he increase in the total cost of the package sought by the league … was substantially more than we were prepared to pay.” CBS and ABC both rejected the NBA’s terms.
NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol noted that NBC executives were “unbelievably surprised” to get the rights to the NBA. In the 18 months leading up to the deal, CBS spent billions on the rights to Major League Baseball and two Winter Olympics, leading to expectations that “CBS would again dig deep to retain the NBA.”
CBS resigning with the league seemed like such a sure thing that when Ebersol wrote that acquiring NBA rights was his #1 goal, he added “with God’s help” in the margins.
Sources: New York Times, Sports Illustrated
