The future major sports events will inevitably require television broadcasting. The sale of television broadcasting rights will even become the most important income of sports events. The broadcasting rights income of many large-scale events is calculated in units of "billions", which is as high as US$4.1 billion compared with the 2016 Rio Olympics. The most profitable professional sports league in the world is the NFL of rugby, and its television broadcasting rights can be sold for US$7.2 billion.

TV was invented in the 1920s, and TV stations were found in the 1930s. The first live TV broadcast in history was in 1936. Germany took the lead in live TV broadcasting of the Berlin Olympics, which was also the first to live broadcasting sports competitions in the palace. However, in that era, the television media used sports events as a public resource to broadcast for free, so there was no saying that the right to sell the television broadcasting rights at that time.

Rugby was a sport that embraced live TV. In 1941, Rugby's NFL sold its first broadcasting rights to the championship, runner-up finals, which was the first time in the world to sell the right to broadcast the sports competitions. However, with the advent of World War II, the broadcasting of sports competitions stopped.

It was also a very controversial thing to sell television broadcast rights in early sports competitions. Take the Olympics as an example. At the 1948 London Olympics, BBC spent 1,000 pounds to buy the broadcast rights of the London Olympics that year. You are right, not 10 million pounds, but 1,000 pounds. At that time, the broadcast rights of an Olympics were only worth 100 pounds, and you couldn't even buy a better car.

This Olympic Games is also the first time that the International Olympic Organizing Committee has charged the Olympic TV broadcast rights. However, within the Olympic Committee, there is also controversy over whether to charge the Olympic TV broadcast rights, because many people in the International Olympic Committee insist on the non-commercial Olympic idea and will oppose it if they have anything to do with business.

At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, major broadcasters in the United States refused to pay broadcast fees to the International Olympic Committee, on the grounds that the Olympic Games were news, and broadcasters reported on the Olympic Games were also reporting news. From the perspective of freedom of the press, the International Olympic Committee should not charge fees. This incident also put the International Olympic Committee in a dilemma. In the end, the International Olympic Committee had to amend the Olympic Charter and make special provisions: the right to broadcast television will be sold by the Olympic Organizing Committee under the approval of the International Olympic Committee, and the income will be distributed according to the documents.

Another major sports event, Football World Cup, was broadcasted for the first time in 1954. As for the broadcast rights of the Winter Olympics, they were sold in 1960.

Driven by the Olympics, after 1960, paid broadcasts of sports competitions became normal. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, the television broadcasting rights were sold for a total of 1 million US dollars. Since then, the television broadcasting of the Olympics has entered a booming era.

The Tokyo Olympics in 1964 were broadcast live to the world through satellites for the first time. At the 1968 Mexico Olympics, the first color TV live broadcast and slow motion film technology was conducted. The 1976 Montreal Olympics had already reached 32 million US dollars, and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics had the right to broadcast the television to reach 287 million US dollars for the first time. The organizers of Los Angeles made huge profits, and since then the hosting of the Olympics was no longer a loss to make money. It is precisely because the Olympics can make money that countries have become keen to apply for the Olympics.

In the 1980s, televisions were already popular in developed countries. At this time, any sports league of some size would be broadcast live. Needless to mention the Olympics and the World Cup, the four major sports leagues in the United States, and the five major football leagues in Europe, all began to broadcast live TV, and the rights to broadcast sports games were sold. The sale of television broadcast rights became the main income of various sports events.

Among the four major sports leagues in the United States, the first to sign a broadcast contract with the TV station was NFL of football. In 1941, NFL sold the TV broadcast rights for a final, and it took a full ten years until 1951 that NFL officially moved the professional league to the TV. The NBA, which is most familiar to the Chinese, did not appear on the TV for the first time in 1958. From the 1958 to 1959 season, NBA's TV broadcast rights were sold for US$39,000, which was considered a bargain at that time.

The TV broadcast rights of NFL have always been very good. This sport is very suitable for watching through TV. As a professional league that was the first to broadcast on TV, NFL has also attracted a large number of TV viewers. NBA's situation is much worse. Before the 1980s, NBA was always heavily in debt and almost went bankrupt several times. It was not until David Stern became the president of NBA that NBA entered a new era. Under the leadership of David Stern, NBA's TV broadcast rights revenue also exceeded 50% of its total revenue.

As a time traveler, Chen Qiang certainly knows the importance of television broadcasting to sports events, so he plans to live broadcast the grand event of the first All-Star Game of the New League through TV, so that TV audiences across the United States can see this All-Star Game.

In this era, the right to broadcast sports events cannot be sold for money, and Chen Qiang did not intend to make money by selling the right to broadcast the All-Star Game. If a TV station is willing to broadcast it, it would be fine to let Chen Qiang pay the money.

What Chen Qiang wants is to expand the influence of the basketball league, and broadcasting the All-Star Games in TV is obviously the best way to expand its influence.

In addition, Chen Qiang also hopes to take advantage of the opportunity of TV broadcasting All-Star Games to make plans for future TV broadcasting regular season games. What Chen Qiang pursues is not the current TV broadcasting rights benefits, but to be able to seize the initiative in TV broadcasting.

In the future, the NFL TV broadcasting rights of rugby nfl can be bought for US$7.2 billion, while NBA basketball can only be sold for US$2.6 billion, which is only a little more than one-third of nfl. One of the important reasons is that rugby has more TV viewers. A large part of the reason for this is that rugby nfl is the first sports league to broadcast on TV.

In the 1940s, NFL was also in a state of half-dead and on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1951, NFL signed a television broadcast contract with American TV stations, but completely saved NFL. At that time, many families in the United States already had TV sets, and various TV programs were gradually enriched. However, the TV broadcast of sports games was a blank, and the addition of NFL filled this gap. Moreover, since NFL's rugby game was the only professional sports league to broadcast on TV, the audience in front of the TV had no choice. If you want to watch sports games, only rugby can watch, which also made NFL cultivate a large audience group.

For American families in the 1950s, sitting by the TV to watch an NFL football game on weekend afternoons has almost become a habit, and this living habit has directly affected several generations of Americans. Imagine if you started watching NFL games when you were a child, you would definitely be a NFL fan when you grow up. Thanks to the influence of TV broadcasts, rugby has gradually grown into the largest sports in the United States.

It can be said that in terms of television broadcasting, the nfl of football has seized the lead, and has taken the lead step by step. If nfl does not plan to broadcast TV first, it may still be unknown whether football can surpass baseball and become the largest sports in the United States.

Now that Chen Qiang has created a new basketball league, he certainly does not intend to give the first opportunity to rugby's NFL. When he broadcasts the fat piece of meat, Chen Qiang decided to eat it himself.

The All-Star Game is a good opportunity, but the first problem Chen Qiang encountered is whether it can support live broadcasts of sports competitions on a technical level.

The phone ringing sounded, interrupting Chen Qiang's thoughts, and Chen Qiang immediately answered the phone.

"Mr. Chen, what you asked me to inquire has already come to an end. With the existing technology, it is completely fine to broadcast a basketball game on TV. NFL had already tried to broadcast a football game on TV. It is said that more than a dozen cameras were placed at that time, and finally the TV broadcast was completed. Since all rugby can be broadcast on TV, there is definitely no problem with basketball." The other party said.

The football field is 100 yards long, which is much larger than the basketball court. The larger the sports field, the more cameras are needed, and the more complicated it is for TV broadcasting. For example, for table tennis, a camera can be broadcasted. If you aim at the table tennis table, the audience will see it clearly; for basketball, at least three to four camera positions must be at least three or four camera positions; for football, more than a dozen camera positions are needed to capture the movements of the players in the field; for f1 racing, it is impossible to broadcast without hundreds of camera positions.

So from this perspective, it is much easier to broadcast basketball games than to broadcast football games. At least with the technology in 1944, it is no problem at all.

On the other side of the phone, he continued: "Mr. Chen, it is not difficult for the TV station to broadcast a basketball game on TV, but based on the information I have collected, the TV station is not interested in broadcasting sports games."

"Why? Does the TV station think broadcasting sports competitions will not bring ratings?" Chen Qiang asked.

"No, the TV station believes that the cost of broadcasting sports competitions is too high. There are many camera positions required for the broadcasting site, which requires many professional photographers. In addition, a large number of lenses will also bring complex director work. In addition, the transmission of broadcast signals also costs money." The other end of the phone explained.

"As long as the TV station is willing to broadcast, I can bear part of the broadcasting cost." Chen Qiang said.

"Mr. Chen, I don't think you need to spend this money. Although many American families have TVs, the popularity of TVs is far less than that of radios, so you can consider using radios to broadcast the competitions, so that more Americans will hear the broadcast of the competitions, and the cost is also lower. Camera positions must be arranged, and photographers do not need to be photographed. Just two commentators are needed to explain to the microphone." The other end of the phone suggested.

"There will be radio broadcasts, but I hope there will be TV broadcasts," Chen Qiang replied.

Radio broadcasting sports competitions was no longer new in the 1940s. In the United States at that time, almost all large-scale sports competitions were broadcasted on the radio, especially baseball mlb. Every game could be listened to on the radio. For example, there was a scene when the movie "Captain America" ​​ended. When Captain America woke up, a game that Captain America had watched was playing on the radio.

In the 1990s, when domestic football was just beginning to become professional, many local radio channels would use radio to broadcast the football league live, and old fans should have some memory of this. In that era, when you go to a taxi, you might hear the announcer broadcasting the A League live on the radio.

In the United States in the 1940s, radio broadcasting sports competitions was already a very mature industrial chain. Many sports practitioners made a living by explaining competitions to the microphone, and some ace commentators would also receive relatively high rewards.

Radio broadcasting competitions are much easier than TV broadcasting competitions, because there is no camera, it depends entirely on the announcer to speak with one mouth, and the broadcaster does not need to cut back the camera. Of course, the viewing experience brought by sound is much worse than the viewing experience brought by the picture. As far as sports competitions are concerned, the picture can bring the audience the most direct sensory stimulation. A game with pictures but no sound, and a game with sound but no picture, I believe that the audience will choose the former.

Moreover, radio broadcast competitions have great limitations. Because the audience cannot see the game screen, the broadcast effect depends entirely on the commentator. Some powerful commentators can rely on their voice to drive the audience's atmosphere and make the audience addicted to the competition; while some mediocre commentators will probably only describe the process of the competition dryly, and the audience will feel bored and bored.

Radio sports competition broadcasting was the mainstream at that time, so Chen Qiang certainly would not give up. However, if he could perform live TV, Chen Qiang would still perform live TV. Even if he would lose some money in the end, Chen Qiang would do whatever he wanted.

Cultivating a large number of TV audiences for basketball is a long-term strategy. Maybe some money will be lost at the beginning, but as TV sets become more popular and TV broadcasting technology continues to develop and improve, the money you lose will be made back thousands of times. Once the audience in front of the TV set develops the habit of watching basketball, it will be difficult to change them at that time.

As a time traveler, Chen Qiang personally experienced the process of NBA entering the Chinese market and then slowly developing into a behemoth. When NBA first entered China, it was through CCTV Sports Channel's regular broadcast of several games, and slowly gathered fans. Finally, after more than 20 years of market training, China has hundreds of millions of people who follow NBA. Although these people may not be fans, they are NBA's customer base and can bring benefits to NBA.

To change the idea, if CCTV Sports Channel was not playing NBA, but other games, then the popularity might not be NBA.

As for the development of a professional sports league, live TV is really the most important strategic high ground. What Chen Qiang has to do now is to take the lead in occupying the strategic high ground of TV broadcasting. In the future, Chen Qiang will have the opportunity to build his basketball league into the number one sports league in the United States!

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Chapter completed!