The World's Best on the Worldwide Leader

From Day One, the Professional Bull Riders has thrived on a regular national TV broadcast.

Even during the inaugural season in 1994, when there were only eight events on the then Bud Light Cup Series, the association had a fine TV contract with The Nashville Network. It was a great affiliation because TNN was viewed by dyed-in-the-wool country/western music fans, the same type of people who warmed up to NASCAR.

At the time, the weekly Mesquite Championship Rodeo's broadcast on TNN was successful. Interestingly, people who had a limited knowledge about rodeos would put the Mesquite Rodeo on the same level as the Cheyenne Frontier Days or the Calgary Stampede. Many reasoned that if Mesquite was on TV in a similar manner as Cheyenne and Calgary, it must be big. That's what the power of television can do.

In reality, the Mesquite Rodeo mostly featured weekend warriors, cowboys who competed part-time. But Cheyenne and Calgary featured the sport's elite, cowboys such as Ty Murray, Jim Sharp, Cody Custer and Cody Lambert who were on pace to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo.

But the PBR's broadcasts regularly featured the Murrays, the Sharps, the Custers and the Lamberts; a charismatic, talented group of bull riders who were facing the toughest bulls around, and they quickly built a fan base. The national TV series succeeded because it had all of the basic elements for burgeoning growth even when the tour was small.

Over the years, the PBR has thrived as a result of offering a consistent television broadcast on TNN and Versus. Today, Versus is the home of the Built Ford Tough Series, the PBR's top tier tour. And the association has also benefited in recent years from occasionally broadcasting the tour stops on the major networks such as Fox and NBC.

This week, the PBR announced that it has cut an additional TV deal with ESPN and ESPN2 to broadcast five shows in August and September. The series, called the PBR Team Shootout, marks the PBR's first bull riding broadcasts on the ESPN family of networks.

"This rounds out our television package," said Randy Bernard, the PBR's chief executive officer. "We consider Versus the home of our Saturday and Sunday prime-time television (for the BFTS). We look at our major network television as a place to really build our audience with the way we follow the NFL and NASCAR (afternoon time slots), which is mainstream. And we look at ESPN as a way to build fans with those who are sports enthusiasts."

J.W. Hart, the PBR's 2002 World Finals average winner who now regularly serves as a color commentator for the Versus broadcasts, said the ESPN deal will be a great addition to the outstanding job that Versus, Fox and NBC are presently doing to advance the sport.

"It's just known that ESPN is the sports king," Hart said. "We really feel like we have the greatest sport in the world and we just need to get it out there to a broader audience. It's just another step in our long-term goal. We want to be known around the world and ESPN can help take us there." Angela Smith, a PBR public relations manager, said the ESPN deal is a strategic move. She said it will enable the PBR to reach viewers who are denied receiving Versus on their cable package, but receive ESPN.

"It also will get some of those die-hard sports fans who always watch ESPN and ESPN2 and hopefully the PBR will get some new sports fans who are on ESPN and checking out sports in general," Smith said. Kim Jessup, senior publicist at ESPN Communications, said the Team Shootout is excellent way to present bull riding to sports fans. "The PBR Team Shootout series is a great opportunity for ESPN to serve fans of bull riding and to expose even more general sports fans to this exciting sport and to the top riders who will be competing in this event," Jessup said.

The new format will showcase the top 20 bull riders in the Built Ford Tough Series world standings and a teammate of their choice from all eligible PBR card holders. Each team member will ride two bulls at each nationally televised event, with the highest score on four bulls determining the winning team. Each team will compete to take home individual event purses and all teams will be competing for points to qualify for the 2008 PBR Team Shootout final event in Pueblo, Colo., which is scheduled to be broadcasted on Sept. 14.

The qualifying shows are in Del Mar, Calif. (the broadcast date is Aug. 10), Paso Robles, Calif. (Aug. 17), Molalla, Ore. (Aug 23), and Guthrie, Okla. (Sept. 7).

Each team will compete at two of the four qualifying PBR shows. Then, the top 10 teams will advance to the Pueblo championships. In Pueblo, the winning team will receive a nice winner-take-all prize.

The first four broadcasts will be on ESPN2 and the last one will be on ESPN.

"It will be an experiment, but we think that the team concept will be fun and exciting during August, which has been a slow time for us," Bernard said. "We don't want to do anything that would take away from the Built Ford Tough Series. But what we want to do is deliver a new and exciting product that fans can watch and look forward to and be completely different, but at the same time would allow cowboys to earn more money." And that's been the mindset over the years. It doesn't matter whether the broadcast is on a cable network such as ESPN, TNN or Versus, or a major network such as NBC or Fox, the PBR's broadcasts have had one common denominator: an all-star cast of riders vs. the world's rankest bulls with big money on the line.

"Consistent television coupled with the very, best of the best in the world delivers the audience," Bernard said. "That's why the NFL works, that's why major league baseball works and that's why NASCAR works. Nobody wants to watch amateurs. To me, when you put the best of the best in the world and you couple that with great time slots, then it builds a great fan base and loyalty, and we have some great loyal fans."

With all that in mind, here's some questions for you, the fan:

1. How has being on TV on a consistent basis over the years helped the PBR to grow?

2. What kind of strategic moves should the PBR make to improve its television outreach?

3. What is the best thing that the PBR is doing with TV these days?

4. What type of impact can the ESPN telecasts make for the PBR?