‘Difficult Decision’ To Punt On ‘Inside The NFL’: Greenburg
HBO Sports Boss Eyes More Renditions Of NFL Training Camp Show, ‘Hard Knocks’
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 2/16/2008 1:47:00 AM
The New York Giants’ 17-14 triumph in Super Bowl XLII that put an end to the New England Patriots’ pursuit of National Football League single-season perfection wasn’t the only shocker in the pro football world this month.
HBO Sports abruptly announced that Inside the NFL’s wrap-up coverage of Super 
Bowl XLII would be the show’s last -- ending a 31-year run. The move caught most by surprise and prompted Inside the NFL host Bob Costas to call the program punt a “bonehead” decision.
Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead caught up with HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg to discuss the premium service’s decision to discontinue the series, as well as the network’s boxing and sports-documentary strategy for 2008. An edited transcript follows:
MCN: Why did you decide to cancel Inside the NFL after 31 years?
Ross Greenburg: It was a sad day for us. The “Show the Pros Watch” was also a very popular show amongst nearly 2 million viewers who watched every week. There’s no clear-cut explanation, other to say that there are so many ways to watch highlights in modern-day America, whether it’s through the Internet or the multitude of NFL review and preview shows on a number of basic-cable networks.
We felt it was time to put the best football show to bed. It was a difficult decision.
MCN: Were you surprised at some of the negative reactions over the decision? Inside The NFL host Bob Costas, for example, said during the show’s last episode that HBO made a “
bonehead” decision.RG: The reaction has been pretty interesting. I guess you don’t know what you’re missing until its not there anymore.
MCN: Will you look to replace the show with a similar NFL-oriented series?
RG: I think we’re now energized to look for different ways to get the NFL on HBO. We will continue Hard Knocks (a summer miniseries that follows one NFL team’s pre-season training camp) and discussions are ongoing now to see what team we’ll follow this season.
MCN: HBO generated a network record $200 million in pay-per-view boxing revenue in 2007. Can you repeat that?
RG: I think we’re going to surprise some people by with some big fights live on HBO in the first half of the year. We’re going to prop up the sport again on HBO and then have some big blockbuster pay-per-view fights to look forward to. The upcoming [Bernard] Hopkins-[Joe] Calzaghe [light heavyweight title fight] will be on the network April 19. [On Feb. 16, HBO is presenting the pay-per-view rematch of Kelly Pavlik-Jermain Taylor bout.]
MCN: What are you working on from a documentary perspective?
RG: We’re developing a documentary on the 1960 Cherry Hill U.S. Open golf tournament where, on the back nine, three generations of golf legends squared off against each other. Ben Hogan, the great Arnold Palmer and the amateur and future of the sport, Jack Nicklaus, all fought it out.
In the fall, we’re going to do a documentary on the integration of college football. In the 1960s and early 1970s the landscape of college football changed, particularly in the South and Southwest, and we want to explain how that story unfolded.
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