Fox to change World Series time for Obama

The Hollywood Reporter ^ | Oct 15, 2008 | Paul J. Gough

[AnnaZ]

Fox to change World Series time for Obama

Presidential candidate's ad buy interfering with game

By Paul J. Gough

Oct 15, 2008, 03:15 PM ET

Updated: Oct 15, 2008, 10:06 PM ET

NEW YORK -- Barack Obama might have the power to move the World Series by a few minutes.

To accommodate a half-hour Obama time buy on Fox on Oct. 29, Major League Baseball has agreed to move the start time of World Series Game 6 by about 15 minutes. That would move the start of the game from 8:20 p.m. ET or so to 8:35 p.m.

"Fox will accommodate Senator Obama's desire to communicate with voters in this longform format," Fox Sports said in a statement. "We are pleased that Major League Baseball has agreed to delay the first pitch of World Series Game 6 for a few minutes in order for Fox to carry his program on Oct. 29. If requested, the network would be willing to make similar time available to Senator McCain's campaign."

Along with CBS and NBC, Fox was approached by the Obama campaign last week to purchase the 8-8:30 p.m. time slot Oct. 29. If a Game 6 is needed, Fox is obligated to carry the game. That prevented the network from agreeing outright to carry the commercial, which was cleared by CBS and NBC last Thursday.

The blessing from MLB clears the way for Fox to air the promo and collect upward of $1 million in ad revenue for the half hour, more than what either CBS or NBC was charging.

While a big network ad buy from a presidential candidate is rare, it's not unprecedented for a network and sports league to move the start time of a sports event to accommodate a political broadcast. In early September, the National Football League moved up the kickoff time of the opening-night game -- which aired on NBC -- to 7 p.m. to make sure that the game would be over before Sen. John McCain stepped up to the podium to accept the nomination of the Republican party during the RNC.

[Steve_Seattle]

"No one at my home will watch Fox that evening, even the World Series."

That's the message we should all be sending to Fox. You only delay a major sports event for a national or regional crisis or weather event, not to accommodate an egomaniacal, lying politician. This is simply sick.

[fatima]

Gosh I hope not.Well we have ABC in HiDef so no problem:)

[EDINVA]

Fox does have a marketing genius and, apparently, so does Obama. He will get 2x the audience at Fox, as folks who don’t pay attention to politics have tuned in to watch the World Serious. Hopefully, in this case, sports fans will be turned off (assuming a Game Six) by Obama’s interfering with what’s really important ;)

I got hooked on ‘24’ a few years ago because Fox was clever enough to air the first show right after the last NFL playoff game they had scheduled. But here’s a big difference between featuring an interruption before a game and featuring a show after a game.

[JavaJumpy]

“Gee Obama, how many underprivileged kids could you send to community college with all the money you are throwing around to buy the election?”

Hear, hear! May I borrow that line?

[14erClimb]

Thank you for reminding me about the jacka**es in NYC.

Yeah I don't know what is up with the fans at in TB/St. Pete but I'd be fired up about that team if I lived there.

I love the whole worst-to-first story line they bring and hope they finish it off.

[sarasota]

Fox News has dug a very deep hole for themselves by becoming Obama worshippers. I can’t even watch Brit Hume anymore, but still hold onto hope with Neil Cavuto.

[jersey117]

Absolutely!

[TribalPrincess2U]

So long Fox.

[donnab]

This won’t go over big with the Philly fans.
I mentioned it to them and said..just think of what he will
move around once he is president.
They are not very happy, even those who were thinking of voting for him are now thinking that maybe he is not the ONE.
You don’t mess with the Philadelphia fans sports. Obama just messed up big time.

[wolfcreek]

Just Damn! He’s already got the Obama channel on DishNetwork (73) 8 hour time slots of him repeating the same crap over and over again.

WHERE IS HE GETTING ALL THIS MONEY?

[According2RecentPollsAirIsGood]

Here's hoping the Rays make it to the WS and sweep the Phillies in four.

Hear, hear! Especially after the booing of our Sarah at the Flyer's game. Philadelphia fans aren't known as the worst in the country for no reason it seems.

[cookcounty]

Who are the sponsors? Lets start a MAJOR BOYCOTT NOW.

And since FoxNews was so adoring of their Lord Messiah Barack Hismajesty Obama last night, maybe we should all take a vacation from THEIR negativity as well.

[meyer]

now, McCain has to get on the stick and buy up tons of tv ads, done almost live, to counter act that arrogant jerk.

Ads during the game. Or even during Obambi's little program or immediately after.

What's with Fox - they turned a hard left sometime around 2005 for some reason. I can count on one hand, the few neutral or conservative people on that channel. I still remember that crybaby Shep standing on the bridge in New Orleans post-Katrina trying his best to get the people of the other 49 states to carry the weight for others' mistakes.

[MinuteGal]

Agreed. Manager Brit Hume and the Faux All-Stars should be sent down to the minors forthwith. They're batting around .200 lately.

Leni

[LibertyRocks]

[mo]

Oh rly!!? “The Messiah” speaks!!!

[woodbutcher1963]

I also love that they have the LOWEST payroll in baseball.
The Rays could be the team to beat in the American League for years to come.

[tina07]

FOREIGN donations and HOLLYWEIRD???

[wastedyears]

I’m sure over 90% of this area is in the tank for Obama, so they wouldn’t mind.

[RetSignman]