RuperTVision

Sporting News, The, Jan 2, 1995 by Michael Knisley

The Sporting Nems MOST POWERFUL 100

1 RUPERT MURDOCH Chairman & chief executive, News Corp. Rank Last Year:

59

Dick Pound, the man who bargains on behalf of the International Olympic Committee when it sells its television rights, is one of the very few people who have said no to Rupert Murdoch in the past 12 months. Early in 1994, Pound said no to Murdoch's interest in buying the broadcast rights to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

"He'd just bitten off this NFL thing," says Pound, who represents Canada on the IOC's Executive Board. "He'd never actually broadcast a sports event on Fox at that point. We sort of persuaded him, without refusing a bid or anything like that, that it might be better for him to wait. We just said, 'Look, we're confident you'll probably be able to do things by 1998, but maybe it's a little premature for us to be turning over a property of this importance to a network that has not yet done anything at all.' I think he essentially agreed with the position, so we did our deal with CBS."

At the time, Pound probably was right. It was premature to expect that Murdoch's Fox network could be trusted with the Olympic Games. But that was before Murdoch and Fox turned the first of their four years of televising the National Football League -- a deal worth $1.58 billion -- into the smash-mouth success it is.

Now, a few short months later, it appears that anything is possible for Murdoch and Fox, including the Olympics. In just more than a year, Fox Sports has rocketed from a figment of Murdoch's visionary imagination to a role as the most influential and far-reaching force in the world of sports today.

Since the IOC turned him away, Murdoch has made it exceedingly difficult for anyone to say no. The National Hockey League said yes -- to his $155-million deal to bring its games onto Fox's over-the-air network. The World Golf Tour said yes -- to his $25-million offer to underwrite and televise a proposed eight-tournament schedule in 1995. The NFL said yes for a second time, when it agreed to bring Fox on as a $40-million partner in the World League, which reopens in April with six European teams playing a 10-game schedule.

And, in the most dizzying development of all, New World Communications Group said yes in May to Murdoch's $500 million for 12 stations previously affiliated with the other three networks. Those stations gave Fox the distribution to make its sports properties credible.

Suddenly, Fox and Murdoch are everywhere. For that reason, Murdoch is No. 1 on THE SPORTING NEWS 100, our fifth annual list of sports' most powerful people.

"Rupert Murdoch's presence has brought the most dramatic change to the marketplace the world of sports has seen in the past decade," says Nicholas H. Niles, president of THE SPORTING NEWS. "He is truly a powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with. He is a visionary on an international scale, and his impact will reach well into the 21st century, which is fitting for the No. 1 person in the TSN 100."

Murdoch joins two other television executives -- Turner Broadcasting's Ted Turner (1993) and CBS' Laurence Tisch (1990) -- as holders of the top spot in the TSN 100. Five years ago, Tisch had an unprecedented stranglehold on sports broadcast rights, not altogether dissimilar to Murdoch's recent moves; but since then, CBS has lost the rights to the NBA, major league baseball and to its 38-year-old National Football League package.

Murdoch's interest in sports promises more staying power.

"We are broadcasters. They (CBS) are financiers," Murdoch says flatly. "From my life in the media, I know that sports is the great draw, whether I'm broadcasting or publishing newspapers and magazines. We're not here to create Fox just to sell it. We're here to expand it and make it a greater power in the land and for it to be the cornerstone of our worldwide broadcasting.

"To that end, sport will always be really fundamental. I can't imagine that would ever change. For us to change our thinking, the whole American experience and lifestyle and public interest would have to change, and that isn't going to happen. Some sports may rise in importance and some may decline in importance, but sport will always be the great common denominator that brings people together in this country."

When CBS commandeered the lion's share of sports broadcast rights at the beginning of the '90s, the strategy was intended to take the network from No. 3 to No. 1 in the ratings race. It worked. CBS rose to the top.

Murdoch's objectives are slightly different. Fox is using sports to establish itself as a viable alternative to the Big Three networks. And that plan, too, is working. Although Fox still trails CBS, NBC and ABC overall, the latest ratings from the November Nielsen sweeps (the heart of football season) show Fox as the only network to post across-the-board increases compared with ratings a year earlier.

It's an expensive proposition. The average annual cost of Murdoch's NFL package is $395 million, which is about $150 million more per year than CBS paid to televise NFC games in its last contract. But as Fox's successes continue, the risks appear to be abating.