The division formerly known as ABC Sports is struggling severely.
In 2003, ABC had the rights to several marquee events: the Super Bowl, Monday Night Football, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, PGA Tour golf, and the entire Bowl Championship Series. Now, the network only has the NBA Finals, the Rose Bowl, NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup and the British Open — events that, with the exception of the Rose Bowl, will be hard pressed to draw more than 10 percent of the audience.
Losing the rights to all NFL coverage, most BCS games, the PGA Tour and even the NHL have left ABC fairly bare of sports programming. From August to January, the network airs college football and NASCAR. From January to June, a pittance of NBA games takes center stage. And from June to August, the only events on ABC’s schedule are the British Open, the Little League World Series and WNBA All Star Game.
In addition to losing the rights to major events, ABC has lost several big name personalities. Al Michaels, the face of sports on ABC, weaseled his way out of his contract with ESPN (which would have allowed him to remain as the voice of NBA games on ABC) to call Sunday Night Football games on NBC. Keith Jackson, the voice of college football, retired from broadcasting after the 2006 season. Now Brent Musburger, who some of a certain age still associate with CBS, is the face of the network, broadcasting college football and NASCAR.
It’s one thing to lose marquee sports and big name announcers. But last August, ABC Sports lost its entire identity. What was once the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” and a celebration of the “Wide World of Sports”, became ESPN on ABC — a mere extension of the more popular cable brand. Any trace of ABC has been wiped from sports broadcasts, with the exception of a larger-than-normal, solid black ABC logo in the corner. ESPN’s logo is now the only one that can be found on an ABC sports broadcast, and there is no difference visually between a telecast on ABC and one on ESPN.
Certainly, the decision to have ESPN on ABC replace ABC Sports was a smart one from a business perspective. More young people recognize ESPN than ABC Sports, and young people are the market that needs to be cultivated for long-term success. Still, the decision effectively destroyed ABC Sports.
The ABC Sports brand was one of the most powerful in the industry. The aforementioned tagline of “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”, iconic personalities like Howard Cosell, Al Michaels and Keith Jackson, and signature programs like “Wide World of Sports” and “Monday Night Football”, gave ABC Sports its own personality and identity. That identity began eroding in the late-1990s. Now, ABC Sports has about the same stature as ESPN2, just with more popular events.
In short, ABC has lost most of its marquee events, its high-profile announcers and its entire identity. If that’s not ‘agony of defeat’, then nothing is.
