ESPN Trades Al Michaels to NBC (No joke)..

[SirFozzie]

(we have our first ever Sports NETWORK trade...)

In the deadly serious business of sports, a cartoon character from 1927 played a role in Al Michaels' hop from Monday Night Football to NBC.

The network traded rights to Ryder Cup matches, Olympics highlights, historic cartoon character Oswald the Rabbit and more to ESPN to acquire the services of Emmy-winner Michaels for its Sunday night games it was announced Thursday.

NBC takes over Sunday night next season from ESPN, which will broadcast Monday Night Football. John Madden, Michaels' partner for the last four seasons, agreed in June to a six-year contract with NBC.

Besides Madden and Michaels, NBC will have Bob Costas and Cris Collinsworth as co-hosts of the network's studio show.

"When we made the deal with the NFL this spring, there were four key stars I knew I wanted to build our football team around, but I wondered from the beginning, if I would be lucky enough to get them all," NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said in a statement Thursday.

To get the final piece of Ebersol's team, NBC gave ESPN broader access to the Olympics, Ryder Cup golf, Notre Dame football, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

NBC also returned Oswald the Rabbit to The Walt Disney Company almost 80 years after the character played a role in the development of Disney's signature icon.

Walt Disney produced 26 Oswald cartoons in 1927, but Universal distributed the series and owned the rights to the character, prompting Disney to develop Mickey Mouse.

Specifically, ESPN gets:

• Rights to broadcast live Friday coverage of the Ryder Cup golf championship between the United States and Europe in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, as well as the right to re-air NBC coverage and extended highlights.

• Expanded Olympics highlights from this year through 2012.

• Monday Night Football promotions during the NBC Sunday night through 2011.

• Expanded highlights from Notre Dame football, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness through 2011.

When the Monday games move to ESPN next season, retired quarterback Joe Theismann, Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico will be in the ESPN booth.

Michaels had been with ABC since 1976 and had been the play-by-play voice of Monday Night Football since 1986, when he replaced Frank Gifford.

[Butter]

Oswald the Rabbit????

[gottimd]

Oswald the Rabbit????
http://www.disneyarchief.nl/img/oswald.jpg

[pennywisesb]

http://www.disneyarchief.nl/img/oswald.jpg

I don't think I've ever seen him before....

[jbmagic]

so he not going to do ABC Pro Basketball anymore this season? he was the leading guy there.

[Bee]

Good to see Oswald reunited with Disney.

[SirFozzie]

From the Toonopedia: http://www.toonopedia.com/oswald.htm

Walt Disney's first successful animal star wasn't Mickey Mouse. It was a little guy few people today have ever heard of — Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

An earlier Disney series, the "Alice" comedies, was faltering, so the studio traded her in for a new character — one that, in appearance at least, differed from the Pat Sullivan Studio's Felix the Cat mainly in having long ears. The first Oswald cartoon was Trolley Troubles, released September 5, 1927. Between that year and the next, Disney's studio produced over two dozen black and white, silent Oswald cartoons, which were very favorably received by reviewers.

Even then, however, Disney constantly strove for higher and higher quality, and as a result, the cartoons became more and more expensive to produce. In 1928, Disney went to New York to approach his distributor, Charles Mintz (representing Universal Studios), about an increase in his budget. Mintz not only refused — he actually told Disney to accept a 20% cut in the budget, or Universal, which was the legal owner of the series, would give it to another studio.

Rather than accept the cut, Disney relinquished his creation, making Charles Mintz the first of many who thought, wrongly, that they could assume Disney's success simply by hiring or hijacking someone or something away from him. Mintz gave the series to his brother-in-law, George Winkler, who set up his own studio, manned by several ex-Disney animators, to produce new Oswald cartoons for Universal.

Within a year, Disney was back on top with Mickey Mouse, and Winkler was out of the picture. Universal opened a studio of its own, headed by Walter Lantz, so it was Lantz who finally inherited the character. Lantz's first big change was to add sound. Mickey Rooney (who already had a toon connection — he'd played Mickey McGuire of Toonerville Folks in silent comedies) was the first to do the character's voice.

An early highlight of Oswald's career in the talkies was in the live-action feature The King of Jazz, which, by the way, was his first appearance in color. Oswald is a minor character in an animated song-and-dance number in which Paul Whiteman, who starred in the extravaganza, seizes a lion's crown to become the titular jazz king.

Lantz turned out Oswald cartoons by the dozen, all through the early and middle 1930s. By 1936, however, the era of rubber-limbed, Felix-inspired characters had run its course, and Oswald was re-designed into a more complex figure. He did not make this transition very smoothly, however, and faded from view a couple of years later. He made an appearance in the first Andy Panda cartoon, starred in one cartoon in 1943, and was a supporting character in another in 1952 — but his regular series ended in 1938.

In 1942, The Funnies, a comic book published by Dell Comics, changed its name to New Funnies and its content to stories about Walter Lantz's animation stars. Comics were thick in those days, so Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda weren't enough to fill it. And so, Oswald the Rabbit — minus the appellation "lucky" — got a new lease on life. A year later, he began making sporadic appearances in Dell's Four Color Comics. These continued until the early 1960s.

Since then, Oswald has been dormant. As for his creator — Walt Disney seems to have done reasonably well without him.

[Wolfpack]

I guess Oswald is the "bag of pucks" in the trade. Old, slow, lousy on the forecheck, but needed to be moved to balance the trade.

[moriarty]

I think they should have held out for Greg the Bunny, but that's just my opinion.

[rkmsuf]

Good to see Oswald reunited with Disney.


Yes, we were all sweating that one.

[gottimd]

Yes, we were all sweating that one.
I haven't slept in decades.

[rkmsuf]

Sooooo Michaels was traded for some sports highlights, a 90 year old cartoon and a couple of commercials on NBC.

"The Dukes ruined my life over a bet? For how much?"

"A dollar."

[st.cronin]

A steal for NBC, depending on Michael's contract, and their salary cap situation. But what they gave up is worthless.

[stevew]

Man, not to sure about this booth on Sunday night. Madden's pretty overrated. I suppose the longer Maguire doesnt have a job, the better.

[dervack]

Man, not to sure about this booth on Sunday night. Madden's pretty overrated. I suppose the longer Maguire doesnt have a job, the better.
Well, it isn't any different then the booth on Monday Night's this past season. Just a year older.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The valuable item in the package appears to be the promo's.
Figure 17 wks X 6 years = 102 promos (at 1 per week)
Depending upon what sort of promo spots these are (live-read? produced? :15? :30?), I'd guesstimate that's somewhere between $5m & $10m in value bare minimum. And if they're actual commercials, the value could be significantly higher.

If you figure that ABC et al was willing (maybe even hoping) to let Michaels walk, getting 8 figures back in return ain't a bad deal really (think Hawks paying Suns for Joe Johnson).

[bbor]

What about Fritz the cat?

[rkmsuf]

What about Fritz the cat?

Disney offered Mike Tirico and wouldn't budge on including Stuart Scott in the deal so NBC declined.

[Ksyrup]

Disney offered Mike Tirico and wouldn't budge on including Stuart Scott in the deal so NBC declined.
That's too bad. Had we known that was the offer, I'm sure many of us would have gotten together to make that an economically feasible deal for NBC. I would have been happy to throw some Booyah in the pot.

[ISiddiqui]

The valuable item in the package appears to be the promo's.
Figure 17 wks X 6 years = 102 promos (at 1 per week)
Depending upon what sort of promo spots these are (live-read? produced? :15? :30?), I'd guesstimate that's somewhere between $5m & $10m in value bare minimum. And if they're actual commercials, the value could be significantly higher.

If you figure that ABC et al was willing (maybe even hoping) to let Michaels walk, getting 8 figures back in return ain't a bad deal really (think Hawks paying Suns for Joe Johnson).
I'm agreeing with this. I don't understand those saying it was a steal for NBC. ESPN already announced its team for MNF and it didn't include Michaels. They didn't have a spot for him and they turned it around for a good amount of promotions on the new SNF for the new MNF. Some expanded highlights, the Ryder Cup, and the rabbit were thrown in to 'equalize' the deal, but the promos for Michaels may be equal itself, knowing the position Michaels was in at ABC.

[rkmsuf]

We need Oswalt to hold a press conference and share his thoughts on 90 years of waiting for this deal.

"Yeah, well it's a good thing I'm a cartoon. You'd think at some point they could have come up with something...like maybe swapping me for like Alex Karras or something."

[Ksyrup]

I think you guys are discounting the loss of Michaels on football AND basketball. Like him or not, he's a solid play-by-play guy. I've never heard of that Breen guy, not that I watch basketball. And Tirico, while solid, is not that well known. And isn't he a golf guy anyway?

So they are giving up something in no longer having Michaels' services. Now, whether they had already decided to give up on him, or whether he was internally pulling a Herm Edwards and forced them into making this deal and getting what they could out of it (since NBC wanted him so badly), we probably will never know.

[Bee]

I think you guys are discounting the loss of Michaels on football AND basketball. Like him or not, he's a solid play-by-play guy. I've never heard of that Breen guy, not that I watch basketball. And Tirico, while solid, is not that well known. And isn't he a golf guy anyway?

So they are giving up something in no longer having Michaels' services. Now, whether they had already decided to give up on him, or whether he was internally pulling a Herm Edwards and forced them into making this deal and getting what they could out of it (since NBC wanted him so badly), we probably will never know.

I think you're discounting the impact of Oswald the Rabbit.

[Ksyrup]

Squiggy says that Oswald Octopus is much more valuable.

[VPI97]

Squiggy says that Oswald Octopus is much more valuable.http://www.fof-ihof.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_thumbsup.gif

[Pumpy Tudors]

And Tirico, while solid, is not that well known. And isn't he a golf guy anyway?Tirico regularly does college football broadcasts for ESPN and ABC, and he does college basketball from time to time, too. He may also do some NBA games for ESPN, but I don't really watch the NBA, so I'm not sure. He used to call a little hockey, if I remember correctly, also. To me, he's best known for allegedly sexually harassing tons of chicks at ESPN, though! What was the name of that book about the "dark side" of ESPN, anyway?

And I think Oswald the Rabbit is going to head to MTV in a sign-and-trade deal next month. You read it here first.

[henry296]

I'm agreeing with this. I don't understand those saying it was a steal for NBC. ESPN already announced its team for MNF and it didn't include Michaels. They didn't have a spot for him and they turned it around for a good amount of promotions on the new SNF for the new MNF. Some expanded highlights, the Ryder Cup, and the rabbit were thrown in to 'equalize' the deal, but the promos for Michaels may be equal itself, knowing the position Michaels was in at ABC.

ESPN had previously announced the Michaels and Thiesmann would do MNF. As this deal was being finalized, they announced the new team yesterday. Michaels was under contract for a number of years with ABC/ESPN.

[ThunderingHERD]

How did Oswald end up in NBCs possession?

[Ksyrup]

http://www.fof-ihof.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_thumbsup.gif
You must have kids to know what the hell I"m talking about!

[Ksyrup]

How did Oswald end up in NBCs possession?
Read post #7.

[General Mike]

I think you guys are discounting the loss of Michaels on football AND basketball. Like him or not, he's a solid play-by-play guy. I've never heard of that Breen guy, not that I watch basketball. And Tirico, while solid, is not that well known. And isn't he a golf guy anyway?


Breen is the Knicks play-by-play guy on the Madison Square Garden Network. He used to do some games on NBC too.

[kcchief19]

I think this was Ebersol throwing his ego to get the guy he wanted. I don't see this helping NBC that much, and I think they threw away a lot of money.

The highlights are a good deal for both -- more highlights promote NBC coverage, so that helps there. And if ESPN has actual footage for highlights and everybody else has still photos from the Olympics, it helps them.

The promos are probably overrated, but I think it's a big coup for ESPN to get another network to promote them like that. I don't think it will drive a lot of traffic to the MNF because the people who are going to watch MNF on ESPN already know about the game. It could even backfire if the game ESPN has is lousy and Madden starts bagging on what a bad game it is.

The Ryder Cup Friday is a HUGE question to me. Normally NBC would farm this to one of their cable nets, probably USA. Sending this ESPN might help get them some promotion for the weekend, but what about the advertising revenue? Will ESPN keep it all or is there sharing? What about costs? I doubt ESPN will send their own crews -- I imagine it will just be on-air talent. Does that mean ESPN will help NBC pick up the tab? All these variables make it hard to figure who makes out the best. If NBC is able to shove a loss-leader like Friday coverage on to ESPN and pick up some money for support, it could be a good deal for NBC.


Surprisingly, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is a bigger piece of the pie than NBC and most people probably realize. Universal didn't really have any way to use Oswald, but Disney does. I worked for Disney and the company and its "Disneyana" collectors are nuts about this stuff. Expect a splashy DVD set of all the surviving Oswald material, maybe some new stuff to tease people and a nice line of collectibles and t-shirts. Disney will make a tidy sim off merchandising -- never underestimate the House of Mouse.

The only reason this really makes sense for NBC is that the only football play-by-play guy they have doesn't want to do it -- Costas would rather do the steady studio work than the games these days. Costas would have been a much better choice for PBP, but they would never get him to do it. What were NBC's options? Poach Dick Enberg from CBS? Or go for an up-and-comer and hope he grows into the job? Somebody like Kevin Harlan would be a great way to go, but NBC didn't spend a few hundred million to turn the keys over to a young guy -- they wanted a veteran. The options were pretty limited.

I think the loss of Michaels on the NBA is overrated -- he's not a great basketball guy anyway, and ESPN has depth there. Plus, nobody watches the NBA. But at least it's not hockey.* :)

* - Given the choice, I'd watch hockey over the NBA in a heartbeat.

[stevew]

You must have kids to know what the hell I"m talking about!

I liked that penguin guy on oswald. I don't know if they make the show anymore? Did you by chance happen to see the "Big Banana" episode?

[GrantDawg]

Oswald?
http://i.tbs.com/v5cache/TBS/Images/Dynamic/i10/drewcarey_oswald_240x260_052820041523.jpg

[clintl]

The only reason this really makes sense for NBC is that the only football play-by-play guy they have doesn't want to do it -- Costas would rather do the steady studio work than the games these days. Costas would have been a much better choice for PBP, but they would never get him to do it. What were NBC's options? Poach Dick Enberg from CBS? Or go for an up-and-comer and hope he grows into the job? Somebody like Kevin Harlan would be a great way to go, but NBC didn't spend a few hundred million to turn the keys over to a young guy -- they wanted a veteran. The options were pretty limited.



What I read in one of the articles covering this today was that prior to getting Michaels, the plan was to have Cris Collinsworth as the PBP guy teaming with Madden. Michaels is obviously a huge upgrade over that.

[Ksyrup]

I liked that penguin guy on oswald. I don't know if they make the show anymore? Did you by chance happen to see the "Big Banana" episode?
I have no clue if they're making it anymore. The girls watch it every now and then, but I don't recall seeing it recently. Squiggy makes that show watchable.

[stevew]

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit makes an appearence in a featurette on the new Disney Wii game "Epic Mickey."

[Ksyrup]

(we have our first ever Sports NETWORK trade...)
When the Monday games move to ESPN next season, retired quarterback Joe Theismann, Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico will be in the ESPN booth.

WORST. TRADE. EVER.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit makes an appearence in a featurette on the new Disney Wii game "Epic Mickey."
I wish the trade wouldn't have happened. That way, we'd see Al Michaels in the game instead.

[Rizon]

WORST. TRADE. EVER.

Yeah, that booth was horrendous.

[Greyroofoo]

Do you believe in Miracles...