FOX wants to split baseball rights
David
Networks May Unite for Baseball Rights
By Ben Grossman
News Corp. is considering a partnership with another network, possibly
NBC, to cover the cost of new broadcast rights for Major League
Baseball.
Only last month, President Peter Chernin said Fox would walk away from
baseball if the economics didn’t make sense.
Fox holds the broadcast rights to baseball’s post-season through this
fall’s World Series, when its six-year, $2.6 billion deal expires. The
network has lost $200 million in the deal.
Partnering with another network could alleviate some of the financial
strain for Fox. One scenario being discussed: The network joins forces
with NBC for one post-season package, with the networks alternating
the World Series and splitting most of the games from the League
Championship Series. Both Fox Sports and NBC Sports declined to
comment, as did MLB. A package of two or three day games from the
League Championship Series, the entire first-round (MLB’s divisional
series) and the regular-season Saturday games of the week could then
go elsewhere, with ESPN the most likely candidate. CBS has also had
preliminary discussions with MLB but is not a likely suitor given its
strength in prime time. Fox’s entertainment division is said to still
covet the World Series, but it would be happy to jettison the first
two rounds of the post-season. Sports consultant and former CBS Sports
President Neal Pilson says he does not expect Fox to carry any
first-round games as part of a new deal: “It is too disruptive for
their fall schedule, and Fox wants to pay less.” Fox has enjoyed
fourth-quarter success with programming, such as Prison Break, that
appeals to its baseball audience. Its strategy of launching shows
before the playoffs, then promoting them heavily throughout the
playoffs, helped the network to a second straight season title in the
adult 18-49 demo. “All I care about is if [News Corp.] delivers it, I
know how to work with it,” says Fox Entertainment President Peter
Liguori. But some believe that Fox and baseball still need each other.
“Baseball is a challenge on network TV but still represents an
opportunity for Fox,” says John Rash, senior VP for media-buying
agency Campbell Mithun. “The economics of baseball lends itself to
major-market series more often, which makes the entire package more
palatable for the network.”
Another advantage to having baseball is that, with fewer weeks to
program regular series in the fall, the network runs fewer repeats.
Says Rash, “Viewers have become highly repeat-resistant.”
stonej
I don't see how this can work out well for NBC if they alternate with
Fox on the league
championship and world series. The NFL contract with NBC for Sunday
nights looks
like it could be a deal breaker for baseball. I don't see how
baseball is going to agree
with a deal that would keep it off of Sunday nights for either the
league championship
series or the world series. Day games are another matter but they
don't bring in the
ratings that evening games do and there is no way they won't show the
world series
at night.
Tony Calguire
>
> from broadcasting and cable
>
> Networks May Unite for Baseball Rights
> By Ben Grossman
>
> News Corp. is considering a partnership with another network, possibly
> NBC, to cover the cost of new broadcast rights for Major League
> Baseball.
>
How about a partnership with My Network TV?
David
<video...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>.
>
>Fox already splits the NASCAR rights with NBC, so I wouldn't be
>surprised if they do the same with MLB.
Didn't NBC lose NASCAR to ABC?
stonej
I believe they did. Some races on ABC and some on ESPN (owned by ABC).
Ian
the affiliates. Also, to disrupt its 5 day a week telenovelas would hurt it
more than a traditional network like Fox dropping program.
I see a more likely scenerio for a broadcast partner with Fox being ABC,
although from what I have read, they want the World Series and nothing else.
Also, Versus (soon to formerly be OLN) is expected to be a major bidder for
a MLB package
in article 448500...@tcfreenet.invalid, Tony Calguire at
calg...@tcfreenet.invalid wrote on 6/6/06 12:12 AM:
Sent using the Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac Test Drive.
Ian
calg...@tcfreenet.invalid wrote on 6/6/06 12:12 AM:
> David wrote:
MyNetwork TV wouldn't be a good match to share sports with Fox for numerous
reasons.
1. The number of O&O's are not as strong as any of the big 4.
2. It would disrupt the 5 night a week telenovela schedule that they have.
3. Its the same company paying for the rights and selling the ads, they'd
lose more money since they put some of that inventory on the lesser network,
and therefore, get lower ad rates than if it was on Fox.
About the NBC NFL thing, MLB has been considering starting the World Series
on a weeknight to get the games off the low rated Saturday nights for high
profile games 1 and 6. MLB could use the Sunday night NFL promotion for a
World Series game the following night. A Monday-Tuesday,
Thursday-Friday-Saturday, Monday-Tuesday schedule might be better for MLB.
On paper, ABC would be a better partner for Fox than NBC, but it has been
reported that the only MLB games that Disney wants on ABC are World Series
games, and nothing else. Fox, on the other hand, has been very willing to
keep the Saturday game on national TV, and just wants to clear some prime
time nights.
The wild card in this next round of MLB negotiations is Versus (OLN). Since
they lost out on the NFL, they'll be a major bidder for MLB and perhaps
those Division Series games that Fox does not want. We will see if ESPN
outbids them just to keep them from getting more legitimate sports.