KCTV-5, Metro Sports end nightly sportscasts, but Chiefs coverage to continue

Hey, remember this? It's the cover of RTNDA Communicator a couple of months after KCTV-5 cut loose its sports director, William Jackson, as part of its unusual arrangement to outsource sports to the Time Warner Cable service Metro Sports.

Well, the two parties are still in business, just not so much as before. Metro Sports GM John Denison told me he doesn't expect there to be any cutbacks in his shop as a result of the decision by Channel 5 to stop doing nightly sports segments on its news. Metro Sports, Denison said today, always has more to do than it has employees, and it relies heavily on contract employees. In other words, Leif Lisec's job is as safe as it was before KCTV made its decision.

While reporting this story, I learned that KCTV and the Kansas City Chiefs recently extended for another two years their agreement to broadcast the Chiefs preseason games. I think when it comes to production trucks capable of handling something like that, Metro Sports is still the only game in town.

Here's what I wrote for tomorrow's paper:

KCTV-5's half-decade experiment with outsourcing its nightly sportscasts will end in January. The CBS affiliate decided not to renew its contract with Metro Sports, a unit of Time Warner Cable of Kansas City.

"Metro did a great job for me," said Kirk Black, the general manager of KCTV and KSMO-TV. "I would do this deal again in a heartbeat. I just can't justify what I'm paying for a minute a night Monday through Friday. I'd rather give that to my investigative unit."

When the announcement was made in late 2003 that KCTV would be closing up its sports department and relying on Metro Sports, the development made national news. Sports director William Jackson was laid off and sports reporter Leif Lisec went to work for Metro Sports, which supplied sportscasts during KCTV's 5, 6 and 10 p.m. news

Two years ago, KCTV and Metro Sports extended their contract but reduced the commitment to just the 10 p.m. news. With economic hard times squeezing his station's budget, Black decided to eliminate sports entirely. He said internal research confirmed what most sports fans already know: Cable and the Internet, not local news, is where most people turn for scores and highlights.

And most nights, Black said, sports wasn't even counted in KCTV's key 30-minute Nielsen rating for late news. Because the 10 p.m. newscast devoted increasing amounts of time to news and weather, sports often didn't get on the air until after 10:30 p.m., or as Black put it, "the second meter click in the ratings." That meant its rating was lumped in with the first 10 minutes of David Letterman's show.

John Denison, general manager of Metro Sports, and Black both stated their intention to continue working together on KCTV's other sports programming, including Chiefs preseason games, which KCTV recently agreed to broadcast for two more years.

"It's the end of an era but not the end of a relationship," said Denison.

P.S. Did you know Metro Sports programs tons of stuff that doesn't even air in the KC metro area, including all the live events for a sports network run by the Mountain West Athletic Conference? Me neither. Denison said he will make up the lost KCTV revenue with other business.--AB