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| American Football League on ABC | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | AFL on ABC |
| Genre | AFL game telecasts |
| Presented by | Seelist of commentators |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Various AFL stadiums(game telecasts) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 210 minutes or until game ends |
| Production company | ABC Sports |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 11, 1960 (1960-09-11) – January 16, 1965 (1965-01-16) |
| Related | |
American Football League (AFL) on ABC is atelevision program that broadcastprofessional football games of the then fledgling (when compared to the more establishedNational Football League)American Football League on theAmerican Broadcasting Company (ABC), then itself a less established player in American network television. ABC broadcast AFL games from the league's first season in1960[1] until the1964 season, whenNBC took over as the league's primarynetwork television broadcaster.
On June 9, 1960, the league signed a five-year television contract with ABC, which brought in revenues of approximately$2,125,000 per year for the entire league. The deal called for ABC to broadcast approximately 37 regular season games, theAFL Championship Game and theAFL All-Star Game. These games were typically broadcast regionally on 15 consecutive Sundays and onThanksgiving Day. This became the first ever cooperative television plan forprofessional football, in which the proceeds of the contract were divided equally among member clubs; theNational Football League would follow suit in 1961, a move that required Congress to pass theSports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to accommodate such collective broadcasting contracts.
ABC and the AFL also introduced moving, on-field cameras (as opposed to the fixed midfield cameras ofCBS and the NFL), and were the first to have players "miked" during broadcast games. As the AFL also had players' names stitched on their jerseys, it was easier for both television viewers and people at the games to tell who was who.
The last AFL game onABC television was theAll-Star Game on January 16, 1965; rights were sold in January 1964 toNBC for $36 million over five years, beginning with the1965 season.[2][3] This infusion of cash helped spur a bidding war for talent with the NFL, which led to theAFL–NFL mergeragreement in June 1966. With the exception of the 1966Continental Football League championship, ABC did not carry pro football again until after the completion of the merger and the subsequent creation ofMonday Night Football for the1970 season.
Pat Hernon hosted ABC's national postgame show out ofNew York. While ABC did show scores and updates from both the AFL and NFL, seldom if ever did viewers see any actual AFL highlights except from the game that had just been broadcast in their region, or nationally. They however, never showed any actual NFL highlights whatsoever.