Under the terms of its freshly signed eight-year agreements, Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, News Corp.’s Fox and Time Warner Inc.’s TBS will pay a combined $12.4 billion — about twice as much as what baseball received for TV rights in previous contracts. “This is a remarkable day for baseball,” Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig said in a conference call today.
Major League Baseball has secured its media rights deals through the start of the next decade, coming to agreements with Fox and Turner Sports on a pair of new eight-year pacts worth billions. According to sources with knowledge of the negotiations, while the requisite legal papers have not been signed, the league has an agreement in principle in place with both media companies. A formal announcement could arrive as soon as Sept. 24.
Fox is in the leadoff position for a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar broadcast rights deal with Major League Baseball. Rival broadcaster CBS, which had talked to Turner Sports about a joint bid, is no longer interested. NBC put a bid on the table but came up short, sources say.
Negotiations for Major League Baseball’s national TV rights deals are likely to be the knottiest in sports media history, as fundamental pricing agreements will be complicated by a host of thorny issues. Renewed interest from a former network partner and a bifurcated linear/digital rights structure could keep baseball at the table throughout the summer. The only certainty is that the cost of doing business with America’s pastime almost certainly will soar.
Major League Baseball plans to revamp its divisions and playoff format with a series of moves that will have significant ramifications for at least two of its media partners — Fox and Turner Broadcasting — and millions of fans.
Major League Baseball and embattled Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt have agreed to a unique structure for the auction of one of the game’s most-storied franchises. Under a deal hammered out during two weeks of intense negotiations last month, MLB won’t oppose McCourt and his advisers’ efforts to solicit separate bids for the team and the future media rights to its games, according to people familiar with the talks.
Exclusives
The Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals might be headed to the World Series, but the Philadelphia Phillies garnered the top local TV ratings in 2011. This season, nearly one-tenth of Philadelphia households — the most of any market — tuned in during regular season, locally televised Phillies games, and more than double (21.6%) of those households tuned in during the playoffs. Interestingly, half of the playoff teams were among the top 10 for household ratings for regular season, locally televised games and all three top teams made the playoffs.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig vetoed a long-term media deal for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday, a move that could push the club into insolvency and set up a lengthy court battle between Selig and embattled Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
