Fox Sports TV executives have talked with potential Clipper owners

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-clippers-tv-20140529-story.html

Joe Flint - May 29, 2014

Executives from Fox Sports have had preliminary discussions with suitors for the Los Angeles Clippers regarding the team's television contract, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Fox-owned Prime Ticket is the current rights holder for Clippers games. Whoever ends up acquiring the team from embattled owner Donald Sterling will likely want to renegotiate the television deal, which still has two seasons to run. 

Fate of Clippers Remains Uncertain as Potential Buyers Pursue Team

http://online.wsj.com/articles/fate-of-clippers-remains-uncertain-as-potential-buyers-pursue-team-1401322388?mod=rss_media_marketing

The fate of the L.A. Clippers zigzagged Wednesday as potential buyers lined up to make a bid for the team even as owner Donald Sterling vowed to fight a sale of the franchise amid an effort by the NBA to force him out of the league. 

AT&T Interested in Astros and Rockets TV Rights?

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/05/26/Media/Houston-rights.aspx

At least three companies have expressed interest in picking up the Houston Astros’ and Rockets’ local TV rights from CSN Houston, the troubled regional sports network that filed for bankruptcy protection last September.

According to several sources, NBC Sports Group, AT&T and Fox Sports have talked with network executives about obtaining the teams’ local rights as a way to fix the problems with the RSN, which has not been able to get meaningful carriage since its launch in October 2012. The media companies’ initial offers place the value of the rights for both teams at $80 million per year, the sources said. That amount is considerably less than the $100 million the teams had been due to receive this year. 

NFL Pivotal to AT&T's Deal for DirecTV

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304422704579571843978833858?mod=rss_media_marketing&mg=reno64-wsj

Updated May 19, 2014 7:28 p.m. ET

AT&T agreed to buy DirecTV for $49 billion, creating a new pay-TV giant and giving AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson more clout with content companies as video moves to the Internet. Shalini Ramachandran reports. Photo: Getty.

AT&T Inc. T -0.98% 's proposed $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV DTV -1.77% comes with a big caveat: Without football rights, there may be no deal.

AT&T can walk away if the satellite-TV provider isn't able to renew its prized "Sunday Ticket" offering with the National Football League on "substantially…the terms discussed between the parties," the telecom company said in a securities filing Monday. DirecTV's current deal with the NFL expires at the end of the 2014 football season. 

Dodgers have faded from view on TV; will they fade from fans' hearts?

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-tv-20140518-story.html

Nearly two months into the season, Dodgers fans are coming to grips with the team's being largely absent from television.

The Dodgers have played 44 games yet their TV broadcasts remain off-limits to anyone who doesn't subscribe to Time Warner Cable.

The cable company, which acquired rights to Dodgers games starting this year, has yet to sign deals with other distributors, such as satellite broadcaster DirecTV, to make the games widely available. 

AT&T-DirecTV deal to further transform media and telecom landscape

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-att-directv-deal-20140519-story.html

AT&T is acquiring satellite broadcaster DirecTV for nearly $49 billion, the latest in a series of big deals that are transforming the media and telecommunications landscape.

The purchase will turn AT&T into a massive player in the pay-television space because DirecTV has more than 20 million subscribers in the U.S. and an additional 18 million in Latin America.

For DirecTV, the deal will allow it to package its TV service with the telecommunication giant's phone and broadband offerings. AT&T has almost 120 million wireless subscribers and 16.5 million broadband customers across the nation. 

Dodgers are out of sight, could become out of mind

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-plaschke-20140518-column.html

The Dodgers were destined to do amazing things this season, but only six weeks into the season, it seems they've already done the impossible.

One of baseball's most glamorous teams, playing in the second-biggest media market, has somehow completely disappeared.

There is no buzz surrounding them. There is scant conversation concerning them. There is only occasional Dodgers cheering being heard from bars. There is virtually no sound of Vin Scully anywhere. 

CBS: Football “Isn’t Going To Define Us”

http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/05/14/cbs-football-isnt-going-to-define-us/?mod=WSJBlog&cb=logged0.6534033049829304

AP

The most prominent addition to CBS’s primetime schedule this year isn’t a TV series or awards show. It’s NFL football.

The network will air seven NFL games on Thursday nights- plus one on Saturday – after a deal with the league that moves some contests over from NFL Network. That caused CBS to rearrange its Thursday lineup. 

ESPN upfront focuses on World Cup

http://www.snl.com/interactivex/article.aspx?KPLT=7&id=28104792

By Deborah Yao

ESPN staged its upfront May 13 at a new venue and packed its presentation with many sports stars before concluding with an elaborate samba dance finale.

The cable network seemed to be trying a bit harder this year to please advertisers, which is never a bad thing. Instead of holding the event in the basement of the Best Buy Theater, which had been the venue for the past three years, ESPN chose the Minskoff Theater, which is home of "The Lion King" Broadway musical.

ESPN also staged two musical numbers for the first time in three years: a samba number to bring home the fact that ESPN has rights to the World Cup in Brazil and a closing number evoking a scene from "The Lion King." 

ESPN Upfront: Net Plans To Bid On EPL Rights, Touts ESPN2 Brand

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2014/05/13/EPL.aspx

ESPN will bid on EPL rights when the league's current deal with NBC Sports ends after two more seasons. During an impromptu press conference following ESPN's annual upfront presentation to advertisers, ESPN President John Skipper said he expects negotiations for the EPL's next deal to start next spring. Skipper said, "We'll be interested in it. We love the English Premier League."  

TV Ad Dollars Slowly Shifting to Web Video

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303851804579558091795473048?mod=wsj_streaming_latest-headlines&mg=reno64-wsj

Online video outlets are finally starting to chip away at television's hold on advertisers.

Several major advertisers, including MasterCard, MA +0.86% Mondelez InternationalMDLZ -0.97% and Verizon Wireless in the past year have moved a portion of the money they previously spent on television to online outlets, conscious that viewers are more frequently watching video online, ad executives say. And with online outlets in recent weeks unveiling plans to ramp up their programming, more shifts are likely, say media buyers.

Money for online video is "definitely coming out of TV," said Ben Jankowski, head of global media for MasterCard Inc., which shifted a small portion of its TV budget to online last year and will move more money this year. 

MLS Signs 8-year deals with ESPN, Fox, and Univision worth $90 million / year

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/05/12/Media/MLS-TV.aspx

With new media deals, league heads into future with big revenue increase, consistent schedule

By John Ourand & Christopher Botta, Staff Writers

Published May 12, 2014, Page 1

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A watershed moment in Major League Soccer’s 18-year history will occur this week, as the league is poised to announce new media rights deals that will bring in far more revenue and lead to a consistent, streamlined television schedule.

The eight-year deals with ESPN, Fox and Univision are priced five times higher than the average annual value of the league’s current media deals. 

Super Bowl, Cable Nets Drive Growth for 21st Century Fox

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303701304579548121773333640?mod=wsj_streaming_markets&mg=reno64-wsj

Fox's results are helped by the Super Bowl. Above, the company's sign outside its Los Angeles studio.REUTERS

21st Century Fox Inc. FOXA -0.89% posted solid operating profit growth for the March quarter, driven by its cable networks business and advertising revenue from the Fox broadcast network's airing of the Super Bowl.  

FOX Sports North’s 10th Annual Kids in the City Event Raises Over $120,000 for Boys & Girls Clubs

FOX SPORTS SUPPORTS THE BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS

FOX Sports North has embraced the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities as one of their key charity partners for over 10 years.

Since 2005, FOX Sports North has maintained and promoted the "All-Star Program" at eight different Clubs throughout the Twin Cities.  Each month, one youth ages 8 – 13 years old, from each Club is honored as a FOX Sports North All-Star. (selected based on participation and success in one or more of the 3 priority outcome areas—Academic Success, Good Character & Citizenship, and Healthy Lifestyles)

At the end of the year, all of the FOX Sports North Youth All-Stars earn the opportunity to attend “Kids in the City” –an event designed to reward the kids and serve as a major fundraiser for the organization.  

The event has helped raise nearly a million dollars over the past 10 years.

• WATCH FEATURE: http://youtu.be/z4XxynMEmg 

New Clippers owner would face local TV talks

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/05/05/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/Clippers-TV.aspx

By John Ourand, Staff Writer 

The Los Angeles Clippers’ local TV deal with Prime Ticket runs for another two seasons, putting negotiations for a new deal atop the to-do list of any new owner of the franchise. 

Social's growing stature in sports media ad sales

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/05/05/In-Depth/Media-Upfront.aspx

Network ad execs say social media deals, though small, are now vital to advertisers

By John Ourand, Staff Writer 

As ESPN ad sales executive Eric Johnson drove home from the Super Bowl to his suburban New York home in February, he looked to the New York City skyline and breathed a sigh of relief.

The Empire State Building was lit up in Seattle Seahawks colors, just as ESPN’s viewers had predicted a few days earlier as part of ESPN’s most popular Twitter-based ad sales campaign to date. Through a deal with Verizon, ESPN encouraged its viewers to use the social media platform to vote on the colors that would be used to light up the Empire State Building — either the Seahawks’ blue and green or the Broncos’ blue and orange.  

In Fox deal, USC finds strength in going solo

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/05/05/Colleges/USC-Fox.aspx

By Michael Smith, Staff Writer

IMG College and Learfield Sports, the two most dominant multimedia rights holders in college sports, have spent the better part of three years trying to outdo each other. Fox Sports, meanwhile, owns the rights at one school — the University of Southern California — and the sports media giant is perfectly happy with that. 

AT&T Has Approached DirecTV About Possible Acquisition

April 30, 2014 11:05 p.m. ET
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304178104579534673724368360?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories&mg=reno64-wsj

An AT&T and DirectTV deal would likely be worth at least $40 billion. Getty Images

AT&T T +0.79% has approached DirecTV DTV +1.32% about a possible acquisition of the satellite TV firm, say people familiar with the situation, the latest sign of a possible shakeup in the television industry.

A combination of AT&T with satellite TV firm DirecTV would create a pay television giant close in size to where Comcast Corp. CMCSA +0.41% will be if it completes its pending acquisition of Time Warner Cable. TWC +0.09%