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When the Bowl Championship Series was formed in 1998, television coverage was consolidated on the ABC Television Network. Beginning with the 2006 season, the Fox Broadcasting Company took over television coverage of the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl games. ABC retained the Rose Bowl game under a separate contract. Radio broadcast coverage has been on ESPN Radio.
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Television
From 1999 to 2006 (1998-2005 seasons), all games of the BCS were televised by ABC Sports. Generally, coverage consisted of two games on New Year's Day, one on January 2, and one on either January 3 or 4. ABC paid nearly $25 million per year for the broadcast rights to the Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowls during that time. Overall, the contract was worth $550 million over the eight years for all the bowl games.
Starting with the 2006 season, coverage will be split between ABC and Fox. Fox paid for each bowl game US$20 million. Four of the BCS bowl games were on FOX: the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and a new fifth game, the BCS National Championship Game. ABC will continue to broadcast the Rose Bowl Game. ABC had a $300 million eight-year contract that extends to 2014 for the broadcast rights for the Rose Bowl.
In 2007, ABC and Fox showed one game each on January 1, Fox then showed one game each on January 2 and 3 and came back with the championship game on January 8. A similar schedule is planned for future years.
FOX showed all BCS championship games the first three years of the contract, while in 2010 the Rose Bowl stadium was the location of the BCS Championship game, and ABC televised it.
In 2011, ESPN will televise all BCS championship games from January 2011 through January 2014. This is the most prominent sports championship not shown on broadcast television. The 2011 BCS championship was the most watched program in the history of cable television, with 27.3 million viewers in 17.7 million households.
2007-08 announcers
From Fox Sports, December 4, 2007.
Previous seasons
In 1999, 2002, 2003, and 2006, Keith Jackson was the play-by-play announcer for the National Championship, with Bob Griese in '99, Dan Fouts in '03 and '06, and Tim Brant in '02. Brent Musburger and Gary Danielson were the announcers for the 2000 and 2004 title games, while Brad Nessler and Griese called the 2001 and 2005 title games.
Other ESPN/ABC announcers who called the various BCS games during its eight-year run included Mike Tirico, Sean McDonough, Ed Cunningham, Kirk Herbstreit, Bob Davie, David Norrie, Terry Bowden, and Dean Blevins. Sideline reporters primarily included Lynn Swann, Todd Harris, and Jack Arute.
Radio
ESPN Radio provides coverage of all five games. Usually, the announcers called games on television throughout the regular season. For example, Ron Franklin and Davie called the 2006 Rose Bowl for the network, and Holly Rowe was the sideline reporter.
Relationship between co-holders
FOX currently is not permitting ESPN to re-broadcast BCS game highlights. For example, despite both the historic nature of the 2007 BCS championship game (Florida's win gave it simultaneous Division I football and basketball championships, which had never before been accomplished) and the compelling 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Fox would not allow ESPN Classic (a sister network to rights co-holder ESPN) to show the games as "instant classics." Instead, Fox Sports Net aired both games as hour-long versions of The Best Damn Sports Show Period later in January.
Similarly, some ESPN programs were not allowed to show highlights of any of Fox's BCS games, at least not some days removed from them. For example, when Ted Ginn, Jr. was the subject of "happy trails" during an episode of Pardon the Interruption that aired in mid-February, the show's producers could only show still photographs from the contest, not even clips of his opening kickoff runback for a touchdown (Ginn, Jr. had announced that he was entering the NFL Draft). Also, videotape of the same game was missing from ESPN's coverage of the Gators' repeat championship win in the basketball tournament later that year. However, it is unknown if ESPN or its other channels had sought to air footage from the BCS title game.
However, footage did appear on ESPN's ESPY Awards that July and again on the SportsCenter specials "Year in Review" and "Top 10 Games" in December.
In 2008, the relationship between the Rose Bowl and the BCS was downplayed before and during the telecast. Pre-game promotional announcements that aired on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC did not mention the BCS in any way. During the USC-Illinois game, the logo was not displayed and the announcers did not mention on-air that the game was part of the series. As for footage, Fox did consent to share highlights with ESPN, but those that aired on discussion shows like First Take contained the continuous label "COURTESY Fox SPORTS." Those on SportsCenter did not carry the label. Plans for long-term use remain unclear. However, ESPN will hold exclusive rights to all BCS products (including footage and internet) starting with the 2011 edition.