More TV Sports, Cable Group Says
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WASHINGTON — Television viewers are getting more sports than ever as both cable TV and conventional broadcasters increase their sports coverage, a cable group said today, seeking to deflect criticism that cable is draining sports from “free TV.”
Total broadcast network sports programming rose to a record 1,753 hours in 1988, according to “Fair Games: Broadcast and Cable Coverage of Televised Sports,” a study of TV sports coverage during the 1980s prepared by the National Cable Television Assn.
That was compared to the previous high of 1,695 hours of broadcast sports coverage in 1984, which, like 1988, was an Olympics year, the study said.
The three major broadcast networks showed 1,454 hours of sports in 1985, 1,436 hours in 1986 and 1,559 hours in 1987, the study said.
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