Here are a couple of notes that you may have missed from the last couple of weeks:
- Right at the start of the new year, the Philadelphia Phillies and Comcast SportsNet announced a new 25-year agreement that keeps the team on the RSN well past the current agreement that expires in 2015. Sports Business Daily reported that the Phillies would receive on average $100 million annually and get an ownership stake in the channel. There were rumors that if Comcast and the Phillies could not reach an agreement, Fox Sports would have been interested in starting a new RSN in the Delaware Valley, however, the talks never reached that level and it appeared the two sides had reached an agreement during the 2013 season.
In a related note, announcers Chris Wheeler and Gary Matthews were let go by Comcast SportsNet shortly after the new deal was announced. Wheeler had been an analyst and sometimes play-by-play man dating back to 1977. Matthews had been on the Phillies broadcasts for seven seasons. Under terms of the new agreement, CSN now has some editorial control of the broadcasts and will hire a new analyst to team with play-by-play voice Tom McCarthy. That analyst will not be former reliever Brad Lidge who turned down CSN’s offer to be part of its two man booth.
The network continues to look for a new analyst. And the annual rights fee puts the Phillies in the upper echelon of MLB teams rights agreements with the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Anaheim Angels, Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners.
- And while Comcast is happy over signing a new deal with the Phillies, it has to be disappointed over its NBC Sports division losing the rights to Major League Soccer, just two years after wresting them away from Fox.
Last week, Goal.com and Philly.com’s The Goalkeeper blog reported that ESPN and Fox won the bid for MLS rights beginning in 2015. Sports Business Daily’s John Ourand and Christopher Botta report that ESPN/Fox will pay on average $70 million over eight years.
Jonathan Tannenwald at The Goalkeeper says NBC wanted to keep the rights pledging to promote MLS through combined doubleheaders with the English Premier League, but dropped it out of the bidding without making a formal offer.Fox wanted the deal which contained U.S. men’s national team World Cup home qualifiers so it could promote the FIFA World Cup of which it will have the rights beginning in 2015. ESPN will also get rights to some of the qualifiers.
One of the main attractions for both networks was “TV Everywhere” rights which allows ESPN and Fox to stream MLS games on their mobile and tablet apps to authenticated cable and satellite subscribers.
The rights fee was a surprise considering that MLS’ ratings were down considerably in 2013.
- Expect to see an announcement in the next 24 hours from Fox regarding a big push for Fox Sports 1 during Super Bowl Week. In fact, FS1 is already running a promo for it. In the days leading up to the Big Game in New Jersey on February 2, Fox Sports 1 will have several events in the New York area including a college basketball doubleheader, a U.S. women’s soccer event, a UFC Fight Night and live studio programming originating from the Big Apple. I’ll keep you updated.
And that will do it for now.
