Charlotte scores big with sports syndication.

• Author: Goldberg, Steve
• Position: Charlotte, North Carolina; syndication of television programs

If the average TV-sports fan weren't halfway to the fridge by the time the credits rolled, he'd know that the Queen City has become a major player in the national arena of sports syndication. "Every major collegiate conference has the rights to their syndicated football and basketball packages held by Charlotte businesses," says Roger Roebuck, director of operations and syndication for 48-employee Jefferson-Pilot Sports.

Sporting events can take three routes to your living room. They can come from a national network or cable channel, from a regional cable operator or from a local station (via syndication). College sports, because of their strong local and regional appeal, have become big business for those who peddle programs station to station. And three companies, all headquartered in Charlotte - Raycom, Creative Sports Marketing and Jefferson-Pilot Sports - have commandeered the cream of collegiate-sports programming from Tallahassee to Tacoma. The trio produces and sells nearly 800 football and basketball broadcasts a year, creating work for hundreds of free-lance producers, directors, camera operators and announcers.

To Ken Haines, executive vice president of 70-employee Raycom, the success of syndicated sports on a local level is quite simple. "Nothing plays better than the home team," he says. "We were able to build a business on this." According to Raycom, it has paid out more than $250 million in rights fees to various conferences since 1979. Says Roebuck, "Our business is based on the idea that stations will pre-empt network programming for our product."

Perhaps that was the motivation for ABC when, in an unprecedented move, the network signed a deal in 1991 with Raycom to produce, package and sell the network's entire college-basketball lineup. With four complete seasons under its belt, that landmark deal has proved very successful. It has been renewed through 2000.

"We're proud this year because we beat CBS' package," boasts Tony Petiti, vice president of programming for ABC Sports, who helped negotiate the original deal between Raycom and ABC Sports. ABC squeaked by CBS with a 2.5 to 2.4 ratings-point victory (each point is equal to about 945,000 homes), and that's good news for both partners. "We'll increase from 11 telecasts this past season to 17 for 1995-96," Petiti says. "That's how much we think it works."

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