Fox Looking for Right Media Mix With Time Warner Bid

http://online.wsj.com/articles/fox-looking-for-right-media-mix-with-time-warner-bid-1405536826

July 16, 2014 7:31 p.m. ET

As Comcast Corp. CMCSA +0.29% and AT&T Inc. T +0.58% pursue a pair of megamergers that will reshape TV distribution for years, there has been a prevailing wisdom in the media industry: It is time for content players to get bigger in response.

It is tempting, then, to view 21st Century Fox Inc. FOXA -6.22% 's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Inc., TWX +17.07% an $80 billion offer that was rejected last week, simply as a means to gain scale and therein leverage over the pay-TV operators that license programming. 

NBA Seeks to Double Rights Fees From Disney, Time Warner

http://online.wsj.com/articles/nba-seeks-to-double-rights-fees-from-disney-time-warner-1405387769?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f

The National Basketball Association is seeking to double the TV-rights fees it receives from ESPN majority owner Walt Disney Co. DIS -0.15% and Time WarnerInc. TWX -0.84% 's Turner Broadcasting, as the league looks to lock up deals for nationally televised games in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Fox deploys ‘super serve’ coverage strategy for All-Star Game

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/07/14/In-Depth/Television.aspx

By John Ourand, Staff Writer
Publsihed July 14, 2014

Fox Sports will return to what it’s calling a “super serve” programming strategy for its coverage of this week’s MLB All-Star Game, using its 24-hour sports channel Fox Sports 1 and live streaming app Fox Sports Go to surround the event.

Kevin Burkhardt (left), Gabe Kapler and Frank Thomas will handle pregame duties. Photo by: Fox Sports

That’s the same strategy Fox used during the Super Bowl and for NASCAR’s Speed Weeks. And it appears to be a blueprint for how the News Corp.-owned media company plans to treat big sports events.

“We take an event like the All-Star Game and try to surround it with programming on Fox Sports 1 to take advantage of the event and promote the event,” said Bill Wanger, Fox Sports Media Group’s executive vice president of programming, research and content strategy. “We’re surrounding the week with cool All-Star Game programming to get people in the mood and get people jazzed up.” 

On a new RSN, Dodgers see TV numbers dive

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/07/14/Media/MLB-RSNs.aspx

By John Ourand, Staff Writer - July 14, 2014, Page 1

The Los Angeles Dodgers, one of sports’ marquee franchises, this season are posting their lowest RSN ratings ever, averaging a 0.74 local rating and 40,000 homes in the country’s second-biggest media market, according to viewership figures through the first week of July.

Despite on-field success, things are looking down for the Dodgers on TV. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

Not only are the team’s SportsNet LA regional ratings and viewership figures down 70 percent from last year’s Dodgers games, which were carried on the Fox Sports-owned Prime Ticket, but it’s the team’s poorest TV performance since at least the mid-1990s, when Prime Ticket started adding more Dodgers games to its schedule.

Perhaps even more concerning to the team: This season’s numbers fall well below those of the Dodgers’ cross-town rival, the Los Angeles Angels. Angels games on FS West have doubled the Dodgers’ viewership so far this season, averaging 80,000 homes. Viewership for the Dodgers, a team that has traditionally dominated sports fans’ discussions in Southern California and has been near first place for much of this season, compares more closely to franchises in Oakland and Denver than the franchises in New York. 

FOX Sports Ohio's Full-Page Ad Welcomes Home LeBron

Cards telecast Saturday to be on FOX Sports 1

St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- Friday, July 11

Rivals Wary of Comcast's Mobile-Ad Prowess

http://online.wsj.com/articles/rivals-wary-of-comcasts-mobile-ad-prowess-1404770381?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f

Comcast Corp.'s CMCSA -1.31% recent purchase of one of the major players in online video advertising is stoking fears at media companies that the cable giant is gathering too much influence over the digital-TV business, adding to the leverage it already has in traditional television.