Channeling the future industry veteran is watching HDTV

by JERRY KAVANAGH   Published Nov. 01, 2004 in SportsBusiness Journal

ARTICLE REPRINTED FROM THE SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, NOV. 01, 2004

Joseph Cohen, chairman of the board and CEO of HTN Communications, has been a leading figure in the television broadcast industry. He founded Madison Square Garden Network and established it as one of the largest regional cable broadcast networks in the country. On behalf of MSG he acquired the Hughes Television Network. He also co-founded the USA Network, where he negotiated the first-ever cable broadcast contracts for the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball.

Cohen later formed an investment group, which bought HTN from MSG, and was a consultant for Rainbow Program Services, president and CEO of Spectacor and chairman of the Los Angeles Kings. He returned in 1995 to MSG to oversee its media assets and the development of a practice facility for the New York Knicks and Rangers, but left the company again in 2002 and acquired HTN for the third time.Cohen has served on the television committees for the NHL and NBA and has been active in the production and management of live events at arenas and racetracks.

He spoke recently with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.

You have been called a pioneer in television. What new frontiers in TV are yet to be explored?
Cohen: We’re in a new frontier now. High-definition television is as dynamic a change as color television was in the ’60s. HDTV is like watching a movie in your living room. And particularly for sports, which is my area of greatest interest, it adds new dimension to the game. In basketball, you can see the players’ faces; you can see the coaches’ faces. Anything that the helmet doesn’t protect is fair game now. And the clarity: It’s like watching a baseball, hockey, football or basketball game in a movie theater. It’s dynamic and dramatic and it’s really exciting now because it’s starting to take off.

What can we look for in the coming year, in the near future, in sports television broadcasting?
Cohen:  You can look for being able to sit in your living room and direct your own game. That’s already a fact. Some of the cable operators with digital channels let you pick which camera you’re watching of the coverage. And of course high definition lets you watch the game as if it were alive in your living room.

Aside from sports, do we need reality TV? Is life not real enough?
Cohen:  I don’t watch a lot of non-sports reality TV. You know, the evening news is reality TV, and more often than not, it’s harsh reality, stark reality. It’s great to see Mark Cuban and Donald Trump begin new careers, though. But the world continues to change. And it’s evolving through reality TV, and it will evolve to another art form when the time comes.

During a sports broadcast, we get multiple camera angles, replays, play-by-play and analysis, graphics and statistics, promotions, and interactive and commercial elements. With all of the distractions going on during the game, is there a danger of the sideshows overshadowing the main event?
Cohen:  Yes. And the best producers and directors have a sense of that. If you watch Al Michaels on “Monday Night Football,” I think he’s got a particularly good sense of the event and where it fits in the continuum of a football season. And I think that the best professionals, whether they be announcers or producers and directors, never lose sight of the event. On the other hand, you have special producers for halftime shows and pre- and postgame shows, so everybody’s got a point of view and a job to do.

NBA TV, the NFL Network, The Baseball Channel — Is the day coming when the leagues will take over and control all of their own TV coverage?
Cohen:  The art form of television, and sports television, is constantly changing. It’s obvious that if the leagues have their own channels, they become avenues of exhibition for their games, if that becomes the highest and best use. If any league is not satisfied with the rights fees that the networks are offering, they’re developing an alternative for themselves. The leagues are creating an extra bidder, themselves, for their own rights. It’s a way of making sure that the marketplace gives them a return that they’re happy with.

You acquired HTN three times. What’s so special about HTN?
Cohen:  It’s a good luck charm for me. It’s a business that provides a service to rights holders and it’s a particularly good use of my career because I’m selling a service to people that I’ve done business with for many years.

What’s the best call you have made in your career?
Cohen:  The first call was at the outset when I decided that whatever career I pursued, I wanted it to be fun, and I actively pursued a career in sports and entertainment. The best single decision was probably in 1977 when Madison Square Garden was looking for a partner to launch a national exhibition of the rights it held at that time. I selected UA Columbia Cable, a cable operator, to help us exploit our rights nationally, as opposed to a movie company or HBO at that time. Having a cable operator as a partner gave us great insight into national distribution and satellites and how cable operators thought. And the result of that was USA Network, which I co-founded in 1977 with Bob Rosencrans. That’s become a great success that we’re all very proud of.

Who’s the shrewdest or most creative person in sports business?
Cohen:  David Stern has always been on the cutting edge of what his business needed. He never seems to be caught short, whether it’s in dealing with his owners, his players, the international community or the television community.

Steinbrenner gets a thumbs up for empire building.

Also, George Steinbrenner has done a very good job in following the principles he adheres to and in building a dynamic empire. And Ed Snider, who’s been consistently ahead of the curve with the [Philadelphia] Flyers, local sports television [Prism] and private arena management.

What’s gone wrong with Madison Square Garden? And with the decline of the Knicks and Rangers?
Cohen:  When I started at Madison Square Garden in 1970, it was the only indoor arena in the metropolitan area. In the ’70s and ’80s Nassau Coliseum came along, the Meadowlands, a brand-new Giants Stadium, which became a competitor for concerts. And now we’re looking at potential new buildings in Newark, Brooklyn and a Jets stadium. So, part of the problem is that there’s a lot more competition.

When I started at Madison Square Garden, the circus played for 13 weeks because there was no other place for it to play in the metropolitan area. Now it’s playing in Long Island and New Jersey and its run at the Garden is two weeks, more or less. So, part of this is just sheer competition with more facilities coming into the neighborhood.

What impact did 9/11 have on sports coverage?
Cohen:  There was a time early in my career when I questioned the validity of what I did in sports and entertainment as having a socially redeeming impact. It’s easy to see the impact that doctors have and social workers and lawyers have on society. But it was pointed out to me at that time to go into the arena and watch people enjoy themselves at a sporting event or concert or circus and understand that people need positive, leisure-time activities as a diversion. I think that I learned that lesson again as a result of 9/11. And, in fact, I enjoyed the recent HBO documentary [“Nine Innings From Ground Zero”] on the impact the Yankees had on 9/11 survivors and the New York community. I actually lived through that and it resonated for me.

Much has been written about the so-called convergence of sports and entertainment. Where are we with that? How do you see it?
Cohen:  I think we’ve reached the point where sports is entertainment. I think it probably started with people like Joe Namath and Muhammad Ali. But if you pick up People magazine now, you’re reading about A-Rod, you’re reading about Tiger Woods, you’re reading about Agassi or Roddick. And sports stars are as big as the biggest movie stars. You see it in the magazine pages, you see it on the entertainment news shows, that what these people do, what they wear, how they live, all have media worthiness, and that makes it important to the society. And, therefore, makes it economically more important, and we’ve seen the impact of that.