More spin from Joe on ABA TV

[Sam Hill]

Question from Billy (and many others): "Why doesn't the ABA have games on national TV?"

Answer: Thanks for the question Billy. It is a good question and has been asked by many people. In fact, if all of the people who have asked this question were to tune in, we'd have higher ratings than the WNBA's telecasts which have a .2 rating. The answer is that I simply don't know why a major network or cable channel has not picked up the games.

Well if you just sit there and wait for somebody to "pick up" the games, it's not going to happen. That's the first thing.

Secondly, the WNBA got a .4 for its finals telecasts (about 440,000 viewers) and averages about a 1.0 when it's on ABC (over a million viewers). I'm guessing that you haven't had 440,000 people ask you about ABA TV, because there aren't 440,000 people who know about the ABA or would care enough to watch it on TV.

Years ago, Joe said he was putting the "finishing touches" on the ABA's TV contract. Last year published reports quoted ABA people as saying games would be carried on ESPN. Hasn't happened yet.

[Pounder]

If anyone remembers last year, they might remember the ABA signing on with something called the America One network. We questioned its existence, naturally.

As of sometime a couple months ago or so, that network is actually carried in Boise... over the air, even. Heck, I think I'm getting all the CFL telecasts (go BC Lions!). I suspect one reason Boise might have it is because the ECHL also supposedly have a contract with them, bully for the Steelheads to get some, um, national air time. Therefore, I'm hoping to be able to ignore ABA telecasts this year instead of merely assuming that they don't exist... or at least watch a wee bit of action to get a crowd count before listing the sponsors in advance of the boycott. :D

The rest of the network is... eee, "interesting" isn't necessarily the word I'm looking for. I swear they get half their shows out of the public domain (lots of old and rather unrecognizable black and white programming). If it wasn't for the weekend Horse show, I'd have a hard time understanding why a fledgling Boise station would even carry it.