Competition has become so heated for the rights to baseball telecasts that News Corp. has recently been including equity stakes in its Fox regional sports networks as part of its its deals with teams.
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The Texas Rangers, who signed a 20-year deal with Fox Sports Southwest in 2010 that begins in 2015 and is worth $3 billion, was the first MLB team to get an ownership stake in an RSN. Last month the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim inked a 20-year, $3 billion deal with Fox Sports West that also included an ownership stake in the RSN for team owner Arte Moreno. Next up are the San Diego Padres, who are on the verge of getting a deal with Fox Sports San Diego that will make the team on owner in the network.
News Corp. chairman and Forbes 400 member Rupert Murdoch began branding Fox?s RSNs in 1996 as a means of taking on ESPN by getting high television ratings by showcasing the local teams in big sports hubs. The strategy has been immensely successful.
Fox Sports Net is the largest RSN programmer, with ownership interests in 12 RSNs and is also affiliated with an additional nine RSNs that
have approximately 83 million subscribers and have rights to telecast live games of 66 of 81 U.S. professional sports teams in MLB, the NBA, the NHL and many college and high school sports teams.
But distributors have become more aggressive in acquiring sports programming and some teams have started their own RSNs. Comcast SportsNet, launched shortly after FSN, has been bidding fiercely for baseball programming in recent years and long ago began taking on teams like the San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago?s White Sox and Cubs and, most recently, the Houston Astros, as partner. In 2006 FSN lost the small market Cleveland Indians, as the team launched its own RSN, SportsTime Ohio. And Fox has been concerned that Time Warner could snatch the Los Angeles Dodgers away.
Murdoch isn?t worth $7 billion because he loves giving away equity. But he knows he will have to take on more MLB teams as partners to keep the programming. While big market teams like the Dodgers can get around 35% ownership of the RSN, mid-market teams can expect only around 15%. And small market teams like the Kansas City Royals? They can expect nothing.
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