Bowl Championship Series on television and radio

When the Bowl Championship Series was formed in 1998, television coverage was consolidated on the ABC Television Network. Beginning with the 2006 season, the Fox Broadcasting Company took over television coverage of the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl games. ABC retained the Rose Bowl game under a separate contract. [http://www.ncaasports.com/football/mens/story/7908456 ABC Pulls Its BCS Bowl Bid] . NCAA Sports, November 20, 2004] Radio broadcast coverage has been on ESPN radio.

Television

From 1999 to 2006 (1998-2005 seasons), all games of the BCS were televised by ABC Sports. Generally, coverage consisted of two games on New Year's Day, one on January 2, and one on either January 3 or 4. ABC paid nearly $25 million per year for the broadcast rights to the Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowls during that time.Michael Hiestand - [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2004-11-21-hiestand_x.htm Fox to announce deal to air Fiesta, Orange, Sugar bowls in 06] . USA Today, November 21, 2004] Overall, the contract was worth $550 million over the eight years for all the bowl games.Keith Dunnavant - [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_40/b3902105.htm The Muddle In The BCS Huddle: Will a deal to expand the Bowl Championship Series get sacked by TV?] BusinessWeek, OCTOBER 4, 2004]

Starting with the 2006 season, coverage will be split between ABC and FOX. Fox will pay each bowl game $20 million. [Steven Zeitchik - [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ic850f8926b4343a693dcb88a09fedc33?pn=2 Fox faces BCS contract challenges] . The Hollywood Reporter, December 28, 2007] Four of the BCS bowl games will be on FOX: the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and a new fifth game, the BCS National Championship Game. ABC will continue to broadcast the Rose Bowl Game. ABC has a $300 million eight-year contract that extends to 2014 for the broadcast rights for the Rose Bowl.

In 2007, ABC and FOX showed one game each on January 1, FOX then showed one game each on January 2 and 3 and came back with the championship game on January 8. A similar schedule is planned for future years.

FOX will show all BCS championship games the first three years of the contract, while in 2010 the Rose Bowl stadium will be the location of the BCS Championship game, and ABC will televise it.

2007-08 announcers

Relationship between co-holders

FOX currently is not permitting ESPN to re-broadcast BCS game highlights. For example, despite both the historic nature of the 2007 BCS championship game (Florida's win gave it simultaneous Division I football and basketball championships, which had never before been accomplished) and the compelling 2007 Fiesta Bowl, FOX would not allow ESPN Classic (a sister network to rights co-holder ESPN) to show the games as "instant classics." Instead, Fox Sports Net aired both games as hour-long versions of "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" later in January.

Similarly, some ESPN programs were not allowed to show highlights of any of FOX's BCS games, at least not some days removed from them. For example, when Ted Ginn, Jr. was the subject of "happy trails" during an episode of "Pardon the Interruption" that aired in mid-February, the show's producers could only show still photographs from the contest, not even clips of his opening kickoff runback for a touchdown (Ginn, Jr. had announced that he was entering the NFL Draft). Also, videotape of the same game was missing from ESPN's coverage of the Gators' repeat championship win in the basketball tournament later that year. However, it is unknown if ESPN or its other channels had sought to air footage from the BCS title game.

However, footage did appear on ESPN's ESPY Awards that July and again on the "SportsCenter" specials "Year in Review" and "Top 10 Games" in December.

In 2008, the relationship between the Rose Bowl and the BCS was downplayed before and during the telecast. Pre-game promotional announcements that aired on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC did not mention the BCS in any way. During the USC-Illinois game, the logo was not displayed and the announcers did not mention on-air that the game was part of the series. As for footage, Fox did consent to share highlights with ESPN, but those that aired on discussion shows like "First Take" contained the continuous label "COURTESY FOX SPORTS." Those on "SportsCenter" did not carry the label. Plans for long-term use remain unclear.

References

ee also

*College football on television
*FOX Sports
*ESPN on ABC
*List of announcers of major college bowl games