Channel 21 butts heads with NFL
DAVID JONES
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
For five years, WHP (Channel 21) has been fighting a losing battle with the NFL. The ob ject: To convince the league that Harrisburg is much more a Pittsburgh Steelers market than a Baltimore Ravens market.
WHP general manager Matt Uhl has the figures to support the claim. When a Steelers game is fed, Uhl says, it commonly delivers between a 5.0 and 7.5 rating among the preferred 25-54 male demographic.
Ravens games yield usually between a 1.5 and 3.5. Both ratings sets depend on whether the Philadelphia Eagles are playing on Fox affiliate WPMT Channel 43.
"The viewers are telling us, flat-out, that they prefer the Steelers," Uhl said recently. "This is a Steelers market. This isn't me saying this. This is what the ratings tell us."
The NFL knows. It doesn't really care. When a conflict arises on Channel 21 between the Ravens and Steelers, it has ordered Uhl to bump the higher-rated Steelers and play the Ravens.
The NFL sees a bigger picture. It is more concerned about building what's called a "secondary market" for the Ravens.
They came to Baltimore as the Cleveland Browns only seven years ago and are hemmed in to the south by the Washington Redskins and to the northeast by the Eagles. The only place to build a following is to the northwest.
When he was forced to run the Oct. 12 Ravens-at-Arizona game -- an event only a handful of other CBS affiliates broadcast -- rather than the Steelers at Denver, Uhl threatened to run a crawl across the bottom of the screen. He wanted to explain to viewers that the choice was not his and offer NFL and CBS phone numbers for complaints.
Bill Moll, president of San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications, Uhl's ultimate boss, recommended restraint: "He said, 'Look, Matt, you have our support. We're behind you in this effort. Let's just stay cool and not step over the line.' So, I backed off. But I'm not giving up this fight."
This sort of fight is not uncommon. It goes on around the country in other secondary markets such as Orlando, Fla. (Dolphins and Jaguars); Youngstown, Ohio (Browns and Steelers); and Knoxville, Tenn. (Titans and Falcons).
Local Fox or CBS affiliates want to air the teams that get the better ratings for them (and local advertisers). But the league wants them to air the team whose market share needs a boost.
The networks are in the middle. Fox and CBS, who have paid major cash to the NFL to broadcast its games, are still restricted contractually to uphold a 25-year-old set of bylaws. One of them says: If a station's signal reaches within 75 miles of a team, that station must play that team's games when it's on the road.
So it goes for Channel 21 and the Ravens. It's especially maddening to Steelers fans when CBS does not have a doubleheader week. Then, the Ravens may play at 1 p.m. and the Steelers at 4, or vice versa, and no conflict appears to arise. But, if the Ravens are on the road, Channel 21 must air them. And it may not air a second game.
That's exactly the scenario on Dec. 14, when the Ravens visit Oakland for a 4 p.m. game. The Steelers' game at the Meadowlands at 1 against the Jets cannot be shown on Channel 21.
"Yes, we recognize Matt's plight and we're sensitive to it," said Vanessa Hargrave, a marketing and programming director for CBS. "At the same time, we have to adhere to the rules set to us by the NFL."
The other remaining conflict is Dec. 7. The Cincinnati Bengals are at the Ravens while the Raiders are at the Steelers, both at 1 p.m. The former will air.
Uhl was optimistic he may get some compromise from the league. Uhl said the only region in the market where he sees any Ravens support is York County.
If he is allowed to air the Steelers games in a conflict situation, he's willing to waive his right to embargo the Ravens signal so York-area cable systems may carry it there.
"The good news is the CBS and NFL lawyers are actually finally listening to me," Uhl said. "They're not slamming the door. They realize that we're a unique situation here."
DAVID JONES: 255-8187 or [email protected]
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