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Trade: Oswald to Disney, Michaels to NBC
Industry News, Scoop, Friday, February 10, 2006 Walt Disney once created his animated magic with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit. Al Michaels once asked the nation, "Do you believe in miracles?" as the USA defeated the Soviets in the 1980 Lake Placid games of the Winter Olympics.
Now the semi-obscure rabbit and the veteran sportscaster have been traded for each other.
"Al Michaels was traded from ABC to NBC for a cartoon bunny, four rounds of golf and Olympic highlights," read the lead yesterday evening in the Associate Press's report on the transfer for Oswald to The Walt Disney Company and Michaels to NBC.
"Disney and his partner, Ub Iwerks, created the rabbit in 1927 at the request of Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures, and made 26 silent cartoons. After Disney learned that Universal held the rights, he created a new character, eventually named Mickey Mouse, who resembled Oswald, but with shorter ears," the AP reported. "Universal continued to make Oswald films from 1929-38 - Mickey Rooney was one of his voices - and appeared in a comic book from 1943-62."
Disney has reportedly been quietly pursuing founder Walt Disney's predecessor to Mickey Mouse for some time now, but Michaels' recent announcement that he would not follow Monday Night Football's migration from ABC to ESPN set the stage for the major swap.
Michaels' broadcast partner of the last four years, John Madden, has already signed to NBC's new Sunday Night Football. Michaels will now join him at the network that also employs his brother, while Oswald will join his formerly estranged brother, Mickey.
Numerous sources reported that as part of the deal, NBC gave ESPN the cable rights to Friday coverage of the next four Ryder Cups and granted the sports network increased usage of Olympic highlights through 2012. NBC likewise will receive the rights to use expanded highlights from ABC and ESPN.
CBS Marketwatch reported that Disney did not spell out what it planned to do with Oswald at this point.
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