CBS REGAINS NFL; NETWORK WILL PAY $2.5 BILLION FOR AFC.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

With a massive financial commitment, CBS has returned to televising NFL games after a four-year absence by agreeing to pay $500 million a year for five years for AFC games.

Fox Sports retained its part of the NFL package for NFC games, committing $550 million a year over five years. But if NBC, which currently holds the rights to AFC games, wants to remain in professional football, it will have to wrest the rights to Monday night games from ABC.

Negotiations for ``Monday Night Football'' and two cable contracts will continue over the next several days.

Securing ``Monday Night Football'' would give NBC another night of prime-time leadership even as it sees its primacy on Thursday night challenged with ``Seinfeld'' ending production this season.

The annual value of the CBS and Fox deals will grow if the NFL exercises its option to extend the contracts to eight years. But from those deals alone, the NFL will reap at least $8 billion over eight years, almost twice the $4.4 billion it earned from three broadcast networks and two cable networks in the current contract, which covered 1993 to 1997.

``This reopening option would enable the NFL clubs to benefit from future positive changes in marketplace conditions, ratings, audience demographics, changes in technology and other factors,'' NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Monday.

The stunning prices that the networks will pay only further hikes what has already been pledged for major events. Recently, NBC and Turner Sports signed deals worth $2.6 billion for four years of NBA telecasts starting next season. And NBC has committed billions of dollars to future Summer and Winter Olympics telecasts.

Although the league confirmed only the Fox deal, persons knowledgeable of the negotiations were able to corroborate CBS' deal.

At $500 million a year, CBS will pay 130 percent more than the $217 million NBC is now paying to televise the AFC games. Still, CBS believes it is worth the gamble, as it owns seven TV stations in AFC cities.

CBS' increased dependence on its television and radio station group made such a huge bid a worthwhile risk, and the revenues generated from local advertising on NFL games was deemed crucial to CBS' huge bid.

Fox's $550 million-a-year deal to keep what it has represents a 39 percent increase over its current contract. The increase is larger than expected because Fox's current deal, which expired Sunday with the NFC championship game, was already 71 percent higher than ABC's, which was $230 million a year.

The war over ``Monday Night'' should be stunning. When ABC renewed it four years ago, it paid a mere 2 percent increase. The new contract, currently $230 million a year, could cost well over $500 million.

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