The American Basketball League was the first independent professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

league for women in the United States. The ABL lasted two full seasons: 1996–97 and 1997–98. On December 22, 1998; with almost no warning, the ABL declared

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

and suspended operations. Each team had played between 12 and 15 games of the 1998–99 season.

Television package

Ultimately, the ABL never did land a major TV contract. None of the ABL games were broadcast nationally or on prime television channels for basketball.

SportsChannel

When the ABL began operations in 1996, its games were carried by the

SportsChannel SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC. Operating from March 1, ...

regional networks and Black Entertainment Television (

BET Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

) under a two-year contract. SportsChannel would televise 12 games on Sunday nights while BET would televise only 8 games on Saturday nights. SportsChannel televised the

San Jose Lasers The San Jose Lasers were a women's professional basketball team in San Jose, California. It was a member of the American Basketball League. Their home games were primarily held at the San Jose State Event Center with an occasional game being ...

' opening game on Friday, October 25, 1996 and would televise their January 5 game against the Richmond Rage.

BET

BET initially would televise eight Saturday night games, starting with the

New England Blizzard The New England Blizzard was a women's professional basketball franchise based in Hartford, Connecticut. The Blizzard was a charter member of the American Basketball League (ABL). Playing from 1996 through 1998, the team produced many memorable ...

at the

Columbus Quest The Columbus Quest was a professional women's basketball franchise located in Columbus, Ohio, in the now-defunct American Basketball League (ABL). They were one of the league's original eight teams that started play in 1996. In the league's b ...

on January 4, 1997 and ending with a playoff semifinal February 22. New England home games on January 25 and February 15 would also be shown during the 1996–97 season. Come the second year, the ABL's television package included 36 games combined on

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

and BET. During 1997, the ABL averaged a 0.6

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of a metric (e.g. quality, quantity, a combination of both,...). Rating or rating system may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness ...

while rival league, the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

(WNBA) scored nearly a 2 rating on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. A rating point is equal to 980,000 TV households. Besides NBC's weekly game,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and the Lifetime channel also each got a weekly WNBA game. That's a total weekly exposure of 130 million homes, more than double the 66 million the ABL reached on SportsChannel and BET. BET was scheduled to televise 12 games on Saturday nights. After broadcasting four games in December 1997, the remaining eight would be aired starting on January 4 and the following Saturdays through February. The ABL's revenue came solely from the BET. In comparison, the WNBA (as previously mentioned) boasted major television deals with NBC, ESPN, and the Lifetime cable network. BET would use the games to build a lead-in audience for reruns of ''

227 Year 227 (Roman numerals, CCXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Senecio and Fulvius (or, less frequently, year 980 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...

''.

Fox Sports Net

When league officials were negotiating with Fox Sports Net, it was in revision of a contract that the league signed with Fox Sports Net's forerunner,

Prime Network Prime Sports (originally known as the Prime Sports Network (PSN), and also known as Prime Network or simply Prime) is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that were owned by Liberty Media, op ...

. The ABL games were often broadcast on tape delay on BET and Fox Sports Net. All the while, the ABL had paid a

fee A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for rights or services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup. Traditionally, professionals in the United Kingdom (and previously the Republic of Ireland) receive a fee in contrad ...

to have two games of its championship series aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

had the 1998–99 season been played in full and 16 games on Fox Sports Net, which at the time consisted 22 regional sports cable channels, up to seven playoff games, including all of the best-of-5 ABL championship series. Fox Sports Net's primary broadcast team included Tracy Warren (play-by-play), Debbie Antonelli (color commentary), and

Heather Cox Heather Cox ( Schoeny) (born June 3, 1970) is an American sportscaster who is a sports reporter for NBC. As Heather Schoeny, she played college volleyball at University of the Pacific. Biography High school Cox attended Capistrano Valley ...

(sideline reporter). Also utilized by Fox Sports Net were Ron Barr (play-by-play) and Debbie Gore (color commentary).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:American Basketball League (1996-1998) on television Fox Sports Networks original programming BET original programming SportsChannel History of sports broadcasting