WRAL wins lottery contract

Will produce nightly drawings at studio

WRAL-TV, whose ownership had publicly and vocally opposed the new state lottery, will produce the games' nightly number drawings for broadcast statewide.

Under a deal approved Tuesday by lottery commissioners, WRAL will host the drawings at its studios in West Raleigh and make the show available to a station in each of the state's other TV markets.

Drawings generally last one minute and are shown live about 11 p.m., giving the games' broadcasting partners a way to draw viewers for the nightly news while providing exposure for the lottery.

Lottery officials are working to line up stations in every major market in the state, but they say response has been lukewarm.

Deals are likely with stations in Greenville and the Triad, and talks are under way with an Asheville station, lottery director Tom Shaheen said.

But no station in Charlotte or Wilmington expressed interest in airing the drawings.

The deal to produce the drawings gives WRAL exclusive rights to air them in the Triangle. That will include carrying the Wednesday and Saturday drawings for Powerball, a multistate jackpot game that begins selling tickets in North Carolina on May 30.

The state expects to begin a Pick 5 game in the fall and add more daily pick games next spring. In those games, players choose numbers ahead of time and then watch to see if they match numbers drawn later.

WRAL and lottery officials haven't decided who will host the drawings. But WRAL officials said that the person won't come from among the familiar faces delivering the news.

WRAL beat out Durham's WTVD-TV for the production contract, based mostly on its position as the top- rated station in the market and its willingness to promote the lottery more than WTVD.

No money changes hands as part of the deal. But aside from a potential ratings draw, WRAL will get preferential treatment in lottery advertising purchases, officials said.

Shaheen said that 50 percent, or about $340,000, of the lottery's annual planned advertising spending in the Triangle will go to WRAL. Typically, it would have been 35 percent to 40 percent, he said.

Jim Hefner, WRAL's vice president and general manager, acknowledged that WRAL owner Jim Goodmon fought the lottery's creation.

"The lottery, however, is now a reality," Hefner said, "and we're happy to participate in it."