Superstation

==== Conflicts with professional sports leagues ====
Much of the appeal of superstations to viewers came from the national carriage of sporting events involving professional league teams that contracted their telecasts to the originating stations within home markets. Although professional sports teams benefited heavily from their national exposure—especially with regards to WTCG/WTBS's carriage of the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks, and WGN-TV's broadcasts of sporting events featuring the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls—superstation broadcasts of [[National Basketball Association]] (NBA) and [[Major League Baseball]] (MLB) games were met with resistance from league commissioners, who contended these telecasts—regardless of the positive effects on team loyalty—diluted the value of their national television contracts with other broadcast and cable networks. Some superstation operators (like Ted Turner and former [[Tribune Media|Tribune Company]] vice president John Madigan) note a lack of corroborating evidence of any negative effects on game attendance and league revenue, suggesting that sports leagues have used superstation telecasts of their games as a scapegoat for financial problems incurred by the league caused by other factors such as the performance of certain teams and management issues.<ref>{{cite news|title=Baseball on Cable-TV Still Has Fuzzy Image|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-04-19-sp-2113-story.html|agency=United Press International|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=April 19, 1987|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref>

The only federal restrictions applying to sports events shown on superstations and other imported signals was the so-called "same-game rule," enacted by the FCC in June 1975 to prohibit cable systems from retransmitting a sports event through a distant signal within a {{convert|35|mi|km|0}} zone around the city of the home team's arena if the game is not airing on a local television broadcaster, with a subsequent amendment requiring the broadcast rights-holder to inform local cable systems of game deletions no later than Monday of the preceding calendar week of the proposed deletion. (Other leagues had proposed a broader blackout zone: the [[National Hockey League]] [NHL] suggested that the protection zone should be extended across a team's entire home market, while the [[National Football League]] [NFL] and Major League Baseball each advocated for a {{convert|75|mi|km|adj=on}} zone, with the latter also seeking a {{convert|20|mi|km|adj=on|disp=sqbr}} zone around the cities of [[Minor League Baseball|minor league]] franchises and a {{convert|35|mi|km|adj=on|disp=sqbr}} zone around a team's local television rights-holder.)<ref>{{cite magazine|title=FCC on course for adopting same-game rule for importation of distant sports|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications Inc.|page=30|date=June 30, 1975}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=Same-game rule is out of bounds, say sports, broadcasters|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications Inc.|page=63|date=September 1, 1975}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=For the Record|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications Inc.|page=73|date=November 17, 1975}}</ref> The major professional sports leagues eventually imposed their own broadcasting restrictions around the number of games that could air annually on any out-of-market stations, which resulted in superstations sometimes substituting sports events with syndicated programming and feature films in adherence. (This had an adverse effect on WGN, WWOR and WPIX, which each had news departments, as some of their respective newscasts would be subjected to substitutions if a sports event—particularly one shown during prime time—was preempted.)

One of the first known legal efforts to challenge superstation telecasts of sports events came in April 1981, when Eastern Microwave Inc. filed a declaratory judgement inquiry in the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of New York]], contending that its cable retransmissions of WOR's New York Mets telecasts did not constitute copyright infringement. Mets owner [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday Sports Inc.]] contended it had the right to control the telecasts outside of its home market and informed EMI that the telecasts would be recorded upon transmission, effectively subjecting them to copyright by Doubleday; EMI contended that it was exempt from paying royalties for the telecasts under Section 111 (a) (3) of the Copyright Act, which contends that the secondary transmission of a program by an intermediary carrier did not infringe upon a copyright if the carrier had "no direct or indirect control over the content or selection of the primary transmission or over the particular recipients of the secondary transmission," and if the carrier's transmission activities only pertained to providing "wires, cables or other communications channels for the use of others."<ref name="b&c-interpretcopyright"/> On March 12, 1982, District Judge [[Neal Peters McCurn|Neal P. McCurn]] ruled that EMI and other satellite carriers were liable for royalty payments to program suppliers. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit]] (in a reversal of the Central District Court decision on October 20) and the Supreme Court (in a February 25, 1983, decision refusing review of the case) both concurred with EMI's arguments, holding that the company constituted as a "passive" carrier exempt from copyright fee payments—along with noting that EMI had only one available transponder for its extraterrestrial services and "naturally" sought to re-transmit "a marketable station"—under the Copyright Act's existing structure.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Judge's ruling in Eastern Microwave case muddies copyright waters|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications Inc.|page=73|date=March 22, 1982}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=Court reverses Eastern Microwave|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications Inc.|pages=73–74|date=May 24, 1982}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=Eastern Microwave cleared by Supreme Court|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications Inc.|page=73|date=May 24, 1982}}</ref>

Outside of the teams that benefited from the broader exposure the telecasts gave them, Major League Baseball had long felt that superstations ate into their ability to gain revenue from agreements with national networks like ESPN. (As a comparison, in 1992, ESPN televised 175 baseball games as part of a broader $100-million-per year deal at a per-game cost of $571,428, about 12 times more than what TBS, WGN, WWOR and WPIX paid cumulatively for their respective team-based packages that year, encompassing a combined 435 games for an annual fee of $20&nbsp;million or a per-game cost of $46,000). A succession of three MLB Commissioners—which, among the position's responsibilities, handles negotiations for all national broadcasting contracts but is prohibited under the federal compulsory license law from controlling carriage of superstation telecasts—attempted to curb the telecasts or convince superstations to pay a higher fee for the national telecasts to varying success. After Bowie Kuhn was appointed Commissioner in 1981, team owners lobbied the league to place a tax on superstation telecasts; the proposed tax passed in a 24–2 vote (with the Braves and the Cubs dissenting). Other legal attempts by Kuhn and league management to reduce the superstation telecasts ultimately failed because of federal copyright laws that protected the broadcasts. The tax was implemented in January 1985, under successor [[Peter Ueberroth]], with Ted Turner becoming the first MLB team owner to agree to the revenue-sharing plan, under which he made annual contributions to the league's Central Fund for the continued right to carry Braves baseball games over WTBS. The Tribune Company (then-owner of WGN and WPIX, the former of which cited its absent accounting of its national cable audience in its advertising rates for its initial participation reluctance, as well as the Cubs), [[MCA Inc.]] (then owner of WWOR) and Gaylord Broadcasting (then owner of KTVT) soon each agreed to contribute to the fund for the right to air Cubs, White Sox, Yankees, Mets and Rangers games outside the teams' respective home markets. (The total payment reflected the reach of each superstation; by 1992, Turner and the Cubs paid $12&nbsp;million and $6&nbsp;million, respectively, reflecting WTBS's 58-million subscriber audience and WGN's 35 million subscribers at the time, whereas WWOR and WPIX each chipped in only $1&nbsp;million, better reflecting their more regionalized distribution.).<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Turner and baseball come to terms|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications Inc.|pages=33–34|date=January 28, 1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Ueberroth: Superstation are Hazardous to Baseball's Health|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1985-04-07-0290070043-story.html|author=Russ White|newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=April 7, 1985|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=What's Good for Ted Turner May Not Be So Super for Us: WGN|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-01-29-8501060379-story.html|author=Skip Myslenski|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=January 29, 1985|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Vincent Tries a Little Tenderness|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-06-21-9202250151-story.html|author=Jerome Holtzman|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=June 21, 1992|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref>

Concerns by many of Major League Baseball team owners that the share would be used to buoy the expansion of KTVT into a fourth national superstation (a move that would have had to be undertaken by United Video as it was the station's satellite redistributor), American League team owners voted down Gaylord Broadcasting President [[Edward L. Gaylord]]'s initial bid to purchase 33% of the Texas Rangers on January 11, 1985, in a 9–5 confirmation vote (below the two-thirds votes needed to approve the sale). Ueberroth would invoke a "best interests of baseball" clause on February 8 to approve the sale and associated broadcast contract with KTVT, which required Gaylord Broadcasting to pay re-transmission fees for games that the station televised outside of its six-state cable footprint.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Telecastings: Struck out|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications, Inc.|pages=99–100|date=January 28, 1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=In Brief|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications, Inc.|page=96|date=February 11, 1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Officials Feel Gaylord to Get OK on Rangers|url=https://newsok.com/article/2094444/officials-feel-gaylord-to-get-ok-on-rangers|author=Volney Meece|newspaper=The Oklahoman|publisher=Oklahoma Publishing Company|date=January 12, 1985|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Ueberroth Approves Gaylord-Rangers Deal|url=https://newsok.com/article/2097646/ueberroth-approves-gaylord-rangers-deal|author=Jerry McConnell|newspaper=The Oklahoman|publisher=Oklahoma Publishing Company|date=February 9, 1985|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Rangers' New Owners Not Planning Changes|url=https://newsok.com/article/2152637/rangers-new-owners-not-planning-changes|author=Jerry McConnell|newspaper=The Oklahoman|publisher=Oklahoma Publishing Company|date=July 5, 1986|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> Similar issues also prevented Gaylord from buying the 58% interest by majority-owner [[Eddie Chiles]], a share that Chiles would ultimately sell in a $46-million deal to an ownership group led by eventual [[Governor of Texas|Texas Governor]] and U.S. President [[George W. Bush]], real estate developer [[H. Bert Mack]] and investor Frank L. Morsani in April 1989.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Rangers sale opens up question for Gaylord|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications Inc.|pages=51–52|date=September 5, 1988}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=Cablecastings: Ranger report|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications, Inc.|page=68|date=April 10, 1989}}</ref>

Ueberroth's successor, [[Fay Vincent]], took a more hard-line approach against baseball telecasts shown over superstations. During his two-year tenure as league commissioner, he tried to introduce contract language in local broadcast agreements that would allow a team to terminate the contract if broadcasts were re-transmitted "by any means" to more than 200,000 homes outside the team's territory, launched a petition to the FCC to redefine how its non-duplication rules constitute a "network program" to force cable systems to blackout superstation-licensed live sports broadcasts, and asked Congress for the repeal the compulsory copyright license and the inclusion of an amendment to the [[Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992]] that would force superstations to enforce blackouts of sporting events if a conflict occurred with a local telecast of the same game. (The latter amendment spurred an on-air campaign by Turner Broadcasting, which saw responses, mostly opposed to the proposed legislation, by more than 17,000 viewers.)<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Baseball Asks FCC for Local Exclusivity Against Superstations|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Cahners Business Information|page=95|date=September 10, 1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=In Brief|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Cahners Business Information|page=97|date=October 8, 1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=NCTA, Superstations Take Swing at Baseball's Exclusivity Protection Pitch|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Cahners Business Information|page=83|date=October 15, 1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=It's Root, Root, Root for the Out-of-Town Team|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications, Inc.|page=24|date=August 10, 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Vincent Blasts Superstations|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-04-30-9202080473-story.html|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=April 30, 1992|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=TV: Vincent's Two-Way Problem|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-08-28-9203180654-story.html|author=Steve Nidetz|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=August 28, 1992|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> Then in July 1992, in a move seen by some as targeting the Cubs' WGN telecasts, Vincent ordered a realignment of the [[National League (baseball)|National League]] (NL) that sought to move the Chicago Cubs and the [[St. Louis Cardinals]] to the [[National League West]] and the Atlanta Braves and the [[Cincinnati Reds]] to the [[National League East]] starting with the 1993 season. Tribune staunchly opposed the proposed realignment, filing a [[breach of contract]] lawsuit accusing Vincent of overstepping his authority in ordering the realignment and arguing it would dilute existing team rivalries. (The realignment proposal also sparked concerns that local advertising revenue for WGN's prime time newscast would be depressed by frequent post-9:00&nbsp;p.m. <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Central Time Zone|Central Time]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> delays during the regular season from an increased number of Cubs games involving [[Pacific Time Zone]]-based Western Division teams starting in the late evening in the eastern half of the country. The Braves as well as the Cubs' [[American League]] [AL] rivals, the Chicago White Sox, had each already played many late-evening [Eastern/Central Time] games during the regular and postseason against West Coast teams in the western divisions of the [[National League West|National]] and [[American League West|American Leagues]].) U.S. District Judge [[Suzanne B. Conlon]] issued a preliminary injunction in favor of Tribune and the Cubs on July 23, 1992, six weeks prior to an 18-9-1 [[motion of no confidence]] against Vincent among team owners on September 4.<ref>{{cite news|title=TV SPORTS; Chicago (Not in Standings) Now in First|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/25/sports/tv-sports-chicago-not-in-standings-now-in-first.html|author=Richard Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 25, 1992|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=Cubs Balk at Vincent Move|author=Steve McClellan|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|page=10|date=July 13, 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=Judge Backs Up Cubs in Dispute Against Baseball|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|page=4|date=July 27, 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Too Many Small-Market Owners Are Being Shortsighted|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-09-06-9203210386-story.html|author=Jerome Holtzman|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=September 6, 1992|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Vincent Quits; May Be Last Baseball Czar|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-09-08-9203210911-story.html|author=Jerome Holtzman|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=September 8, 1992|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> Impacts to baseball's attempts to curb superstation telecasts were felt following Vincent's subsequent resignation as MLB Commissioner on September 7, 1992; one week after his departure, the proposed blackout amendment failed to make a Cable Television Act reconciliation bill due to the lack of support for the provision in the Senate.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Vincent Departure Impacts MLB's Washington Agenda|author=Joe Flint|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications, Inc.|page=68|date=September 14, 1992}}</ref>

The NBA also undertook actions to limit superstation telecasts of the league's games. In 1982, it began prohibiting television stations that reached at least 5% of all out-of-market cable households from airing games that conflicted with those shown on the league's national cable partners (at the time, [[NBA on ESPN|ESPN]] and [[NBA on USA|USA Network]]); this transitioned in June 1985 to a 25-game limit on the number of seasonal NBA telecasts that could be licensed to superstations (sixteen fewer than the 41-game maximum under existing NBA local broadcast rules).<ref>{{cite news|title=N.B.A. Expansion Unlikely for 1986–87|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/27/sports/nba-expansion-unlikely-for-1986-87.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 27, 1985|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> Concerned with the potential impact that the concurring returns of the Chicago Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks to WGN and WTBS, respectively, would have on its national contracts with [[NBA on NBC|NBC]] and ESPN, in April 1990, NBA Commissioner [[David Stern]] further reduced the amount of superstation-licensed NBA telecasts to 20 games per season. This sparked a 5½-year legal battle against the NBA by Tribune Broadcasting and Chicago Bulls parent Chicago Professional Sports L.P. The conspiracy and antitrust lawsuit filed by the co-plaintiffs in the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois]] on October 16, 1990, alleged that the 20-game limit was aimed at "phas[ing] out such superstations telecasts entirely in increments of five games each year over the next five years," a separate plan proposed by Stern that was never voted upon by NBA team owners. (The NBA contended the restriction was exempt from antitrust law under a provision of the [[Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961]], which was deemed in later rulings to only be applicable to the sale or transfer a national game package to a television network and not those involving individual teams.)<ref>{{cite magazine|title=WGN-TV Takes NBA to Court Over Superstation Rule|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Cahners Business Information|page=42|date=November 5, 1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=TV SPORTS; Bulls, Superstations And Power Moves|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/16/sports/tv-sports-bulls-superstations-and-power-moves.html|author=[[Richard Sandomir]]|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 16, 1991|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Bulls, WGN Sue NBA for Telecast Cut|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-10-27-9003310965-story.html|author=Steve Nidetz|author2=John Gorman|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=October 27, 1990|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref name="marquette-bullscase">{{cite web|title=The Economics of Sports Leagues – The Chicago Bulls Case|url=http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1441&context=sportslaw|author=Franklin M. Fisher|author2=Christopher Maxwell|author3=Evan Sue Schouten|website=Marquette Sports Law Review|year=1999|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> After four separate rulings in favor of Tribune and the Bulls issued by Northern District Judge [[Hubert Louis Will|Hubert L. Will]] (on January 26, 1991, and January 6, 1995),<ref>{{cite news|title='Geraldo' Goes to Moscow|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-01-27-9101080557-story.html|author=James Warren|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=January 27, 1991|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=PRO BASKETBALL; N.B.A. TV Limits Ruled Illegal|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/07/sports/pro-basketball-nba-tv-limits-ruled-illegal.html|author=Richard Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 7, 1995|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit|Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals]] (on April 14, 1992),<ref>{{cite news|title=Bulls, WGN Big Winners in Court|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-04-15-9202030798-story.html|author=James Warren|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=April 15, 1992|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> and the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] (on November 5, 1992),<ref>{{cite magazine|title=High Court Rules for WGN in NBA Case|author=Rich Brown|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|page=54|date=November 9, 1992}}</ref> a Seventh Circuit judiciary panel overturned their 1992 ruling on September 10, 1996,<ref name="marquette-bullscase"/> which forced WGN-TV – which had been allowed to air at least 30 Bulls telecasts over its local and national feeds between the [[1992–93 Chicago Bulls season|1992–93]] and [[1995–96 NBA season|1995–96]] seasons per agreement between the lawsuit parties – to relegate the 35 Bulls games it was scheduled to air during the [[1996–97 Chicago Bulls season|1996–97 season]] exclusively to the Chicago area signal. (The embargoed Bulls telecasts were supplanted on the WGN superstation feed by syndicated feature films, and caused the national preemption of the station's 9:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast on nights when prime time games overran into the time slot.)<ref>{{cite news|title=Bulls Get OK for 30 WGN Games in '92–93|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-02-21-9201170182-story.html|author=James Warren|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=February 21, 1992|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Bulls Get More WGN Telecasts|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-01-07-9501070108-story.html|author=Matt O'Connor|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=January 7, 1995|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Appeals Court Reverses Call on Bulls Telecasts|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-09-11-9609110123-story.html|author=Matt O'Connor|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=September 11, 1996|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=WGN to Televise 35 Bulls Games—To Local Audience Only|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-10-15-9610150176-story.html|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=October 15, 1996|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=No Bulls; Cable TV can't carry Chicago games|url=https://www.postbulletin.com/no-bulls-cable-tv-can-t-carry-chicago-games-if/article_991403a5-3121-54a4-bec0-1045dfbef46b.html|newspaper=[[Post-Bulletin]]|publisher=Post-Bulletin Company, LLC|date=October 19, 1996|access-date=May 6, 2019|archive-date=April 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401151340/https://www.postbulletin.com/no-bulls-cable-tv-can-t-carry-chicago-games-if/article_991403a5-3121-54a4-bec0-1045dfbef46b.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Tele-Communications Inc.]] (TCI, now defunct) cited the national restrictions on the Bulls as partly being behind its December 1996 decision to remove the WGN national feed from most of its systems throughout the country, affecting around 3.5&nbsp;million TCI subscribers by March 1997, though criticism over the move led TCI to rescind its plans to remove the WGN national feed from affected systems in [[Illinois]], [[Indiana]], [[Iowa]], [[Wisconsin]] and [[Michigan]] with the remaining systems reinstating WGN through 1999.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=WGN-TV/NBA headed back to court in 6-year-old case|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|date=October 21, 1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=TCI move not so super for superstations|author=Jim McConville|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|pages=92, 94|date=December 9, 1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Networks on chopping block; TCI makes mincemeat of programmers' lineups|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19044057.html|author=Richard Katz|periodical=Multichannel News|publisher=Cahners Business Information|via=HighBeam Research|date=December 2, 1996|access-date=February 24, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105151508/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19044057.html|archive-date=November 5, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=WGN-TV gets Christmas present|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|page=34|date=December 30, 1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=WGN Looks to Soar After Difficult Period|url=https://www.multichannel.com/news/wgn-looks-soar-after-difficult-period-154013|author=Linda Moss|periodical=[[Multichannel News]]|publisher=Cahners Business Information|date=March 29, 1998|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> The Bulls, WGN and the NBA reached a settlement on December 12, 1996, allowing WGN-TV to air the league broadcast maximum of 41 games for the remainder of the 1996–97 season (35 that would air only on the Chicago signal and twelve that would be shown on both the local and superstation feeds). From the [[1997–98 Chicago Bulls season|1997–98 season]] thereafter, the number of games permitted to air on the superstation feed increased to 15 per year. The parties also agreed to replace the NBA's licensing tax for superstations with a revenue sharing model, under which the NBA would collect 50% of all advertising revenue accrued from the national WGN telecasts.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bulls Return to National Picture|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-12-13-9612130107-story.html|author=Michael Hirsley|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=December 13, 1996|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Bulls Storm the Court(room): Chicago Professional Sports Limited Partnership v. The National Basketball Association|url=https://www.law.berkeley.edu/sugarman/Sports_Stories_Bulls_Brian_Bell.pdf|author=Brien C. Bell|publisher=[[UC Berkeley School of Law]]|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref>

TBS was able to work around these issues by supplementing its Atlanta-originated sports broadcasts with more nationalized sports fare, including a package of regular season NBA games involving the league's other teams, early round [[NBA Playoffs|conference playoff games]] and the [[NBA draft]] (beginning with the [[1984–85 NBA season|1984–85 season]] and continuing until Turner Broadcasting shifted the NBA cable rights to sister channel [[TNT (U.S. TV channel)|TNT]] in [[2002–03 NBA season|2002]]),<ref>{{cite news|title=TV Sports Coverage Vaults to Profitability; NBC Wins Its Gold Before|author=Paul Farhi|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|page=h.01|date=September 11, 1988}}</ref> [[professional wrestling]] programs from several promotions (including [[Georgia Championship Wrestling]], the World Wrestling Federation [now the [[WWE]]], [[Jim Crockett Promotions]], [[Universal Wrestling Federation (Bill Watts)#Mid-South Wrestling (1979–1986)|Mid-South Wrestling]] and finally, the Turner-owned [[World Championship Wrestling]]) until 2001,<ref>{{cite magazine|title=WCW on the ropes|author=[[John M. Higgins]]|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|page=8|date=March 19, 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Turner to Drop Wrestling, Shed Jobs|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/11/business/turner-to-drop-wrestling-shed-jobs.html|author=Jim Rutenberg|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 11, 2001|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> [[National Collegiate Athletics Association|NCAA]] [[college football]] games (from [[1981 NCAA Division I-A football season|1981]] to [[1992 NCAA Division I-A football season|1992]] and from [[2002 NCAA Division I-A football season|2002]] to [[2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season|2007 season]]),<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Turner buys NCAA cable rights for $17.6 million|periodical=Broadcasting|publisher=Broadcasting Publications, Inc.|page=34|date=February 1, 1982}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Turner Cable TV Gets N.C.A.A. Football Pact|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/28/sports/turner-cable-tv-gets-ncaa-football-pact.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 28, 1982|access-date=May 6, 2019}}</ref> various [[NASCAR]] auto races and the Olympics-inspired [[Goodwill Games]]. The WGN national feed also was prohibited from carrying [[Chicago Blackhawks]] hockey games, when WGN-TV assumed local rights to the team during the [[2007–08 Chicago Blackhawks season|2007–08 season]], due to broadcast rights restrictions imposed by the NHL to protect the league's exclusive national broadcasting contracts with [[NHL on ESPN|ESPN]] and later a [[NHL on NBC|joint broadcast-cable contract]] with [[NBCUniversal]].