[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2011/02/Feb-15/Media/LakersTWC.aspx

Time Warner Cable signed a 20-year rights deal with the Lakers that will lead to the creation of two new regional sports networks in the L.A. market next year. Time Warner Cable will fully own the two new RSNs — one in English and one in Spanish. The RSNs will have the rights to pre-, regular- and postseason Lakers games starting with the ’12-13 season. Fox, which already operates FS West and Prime Ticket in L.A., had been negotiating to keep the Lakers’ rights on FS West, and sources familiar with the Lakers’ proposal to Fox indicated that the team was looking for a $3B, 20-year deal, which averages out to $150M per year. The Lakers’ exclusive negotiating window with FSN, which carries Lakers games on FS West, lapsed at the end of December; the club’s exclusive negotiating window with local broadcaster KCAL-CBS, which carries 41 games, ceased at the end of September. FSN VP/PR Chris Bellitti released a statement yesterday saying, “Fox made an offer to the Lakers that would have paid them one of the highest local TV rights fees in professional sports. We did not believe that going higher was in the best interest of our business or pay TV customers in Los Angeles, who will bear the cost of this deal for years to come.” Because of the popularity of the Lakers, many of their games are picked up by national broadcasters. ESPN has the right to carry up to 10 Lakers games on its net and six on ABC, and it generally has used most of those over the past several years. TNT can show the Lakers up to nine times during the regular season (John Ourand, THE DAILY). In L.A., Joe Flint cites sources as saying that under their deal with FS West, the Lakers were “getting about $30 million a year in rights fees.” A KCAL spokesperson said that the loss of the Lakers “will not stop the channel from making ‘local sports a big part of the station’s identity'” (L.A. TIMES, 2/15).

CHANGING CHANNELS : Lakers Senior VP/Business Operations Tim Harris said that the team “had been engaging in conversations with KCAL and Fox while remaining open to other possibilities.” Harris: “When we had our first discussions with the Time Warner folks, the thing that really kept driving us forward, there was this synergy, and the best way I could describe it is … more Lakers.” Time Warner Cable Exec VP & Chief Programming Officer Melinda Witmer said, “This was a quick romance.” The dedicated Spanish-language RSN is a “first in U.S. broadcasting, a development that Lakers owner Jerry Buss said he was ‘particularly proud’ of” (VARIETY.com, 2/14). MULTICHANNEL NEWS’ Umstead & Reynolds wrote the deal is a “major regional sports network coup” for TWC. Lakers home games have been airing on cable since ’85, while KCAL “has been televising the club’s road games since the 1970s” (MULTICHANNEL.com, 2/14). Witmer said, “Our experience is that Time Warner has a large footprint and the bulk of basketball fans through the country get their sports through a cable regional sports network” (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 2/15).

MORE THAN JUST LAKERS CONTENT: TWC execs said they will be scouting other content for the channels eventually. Witmer said, “We’re not in conversations with anybody right now. We’ll be looking at all manner of sports that will be of interest to consumers in this marketplace, as well as other content and some lifestyle programming.” The Dodgers’ local rights deal ends in ’13; the Angels’ deal runs another six or seven years (Ourand). ESPN L.A.’s Dave McMenamin noted TWC’s RSNs “will feature an expansive amount of Lakers content, but will not exclusively broadcast programming related to the purple and gold like” the Yankees’ YES Network. Witmer said that the channels “will broadcast a nightly Lakers news magazine show as well as develop and create both original and historical Lakers programming.” The nets will be available to “all satellite, cable and telco distributors in the Lakers’ territory, which includes all of Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii” (ESPNLA.com, 2/14).

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

By the way, this is why one of the great failures of David Stern (who has unquestionably been a great commish) is that he has not tried to save the owners from themselves when they have moved franchises to smaller, poorer markets that simply will never offer the kind of revenue potential of the big markets. Southern California and the New York metro should have three teams and Chicago should have two. Going from Vancouver to Memphis was dumb. Allowing Shinn to ruin Charlotte and then jump ship to New Orleans was dumb. Selling the Sonics to an Oklahoma-based ownership group was dumb. The overall health of the league and the disparity of wealth between the teams is worse because the owners went to worse markets. Even with the Thunder selling out, how much more revenue would they be generating if that team was sold to a Seattle based group? The public will to build an arena would have turned with Durant and Westbrook leading the team. The television revenue of the Seattle market dwarfs OKC, and the the ticket pricing in Seattle can be higher because it is a wealthier city. 

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

By the way, this is why one of the great failures of David Stern (who has unquestionably been a great commish) is that he has not tried to save the owners from themselves when they have moved franchises to smaller, poorer markets that simply will never offer the kind of revenue potential of the big markets. Southern California and the New York metro should have three teams and Chicago should have two. Going from Vancouver to Memphis was dumb. Allowing Shinn to ruin Charlotte and then jump ship to New Orleans was dumb. Selling the Sonics to an Oklahoma-based ownership group was dumb. The overall health of the league and the disparity of wealth between the teams is worse because the owners went to worse markets. Even with the Thunder selling out, how much more revenue would they be generating if that team was sold to a Seattle based group? The public will to build an arena would have turned with Durant and Westbrook leading the team. The television revenue of the Seattle market dwarfs OKC, and the the ticket pricing in Seattle can be higher because it is a wealthier city. 

[llperez]

not everybody can be in a big amrket. Owners who purchase or move teams into smaller markets know they wont be on the financial level of a los angeles or NY. You cant really do anything about that. Owners just need to run frnahcises in such a way they dont actually lose money and the nba has a business model that keeps the league as close to an even playing field as possible. Ive been to down town oklaoma city a few times and the team being there does a lot for the area and the local businesses and the team is selling out. Seattle deserves a team as well though so eventually someone will have to get back there.

[llperez]

not everybody can be in a big amrket. Owners who purchase or move teams into smaller markets know they wont be on the financial level of a los angeles or NY. You cant really do anything about that. Owners just need to run frnahcises in such a way they dont actually lose money and the nba has a business model that keeps the league as close to an even playing field as possible. Ive been to down town oklaoma city a few times and the team being there does a lot for the area and the local businesses and the team is selling out. Seattle deserves a team as well though so eventually someone will have to get back there.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

<!–[if gte mso 9]> Here is how to not lose money, don’t put a team in New Orleans or Memphis. Here is how to make money, put a team in cities with jobs, money, and lucrative television rights. Now, what cities would those be? Oh, the big ones.

It is one thing when the league had a small percentage of teams in small markets. Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Sacramento, and Portland were five of between twenty-six and thirty teams. If you add Memphis, Oklahoma City, and New Orleans while taking out Vancouver and Seattle as well as ruining Charlotte in the process, it is making the league worse off. The league makes less money than it could as a result. Donald Sterling has been one of the worst and most profitable owners in the game by just milking the LA market. Why is it that the league needs to enhance revenue sharing? There are 20 million people in metro NY, 13 million in metro LA, and 9.5 in metro Chicago. New Orleans, Memphis, and OKC don’t even have 1.5 million people. When the same owners who made the stupid move to a weaker market are wanting player salary rollbacks, the question ought to be raised why they are in the bad market to begin with.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

<!–[if gte mso 9]> Here is how to not lose money, don’t put a team in New Orleans or Memphis. Here is how to make money, put a team in cities with jobs, money, and lucrative television rights. Now, what cities would those be? Oh, the big ones.

It is one thing when the league had a small percentage of teams in small markets. Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Sacramento, and Portland were five of between twenty-six and thirty teams. If you add Memphis, Oklahoma City, and New Orleans while taking out Vancouver and Seattle as well as ruining Charlotte in the process, it is making the league worse off. The league makes less money than it could as a result. Donald Sterling has been one of the worst and most profitable owners in the game by just milking the LA market. Why is it that the league needs to enhance revenue sharing? There are 20 million people in metro NY, 13 million in metro LA, and 9.5 in metro Chicago. New Orleans, Memphis, and OKC don’t even have 1.5 million people. When the same owners who made the stupid move to a weaker market are wanting player salary rollbacks, the question ought to be raised why they are in the bad market to begin with.

[llperez]

keep in mind that when owners purchase teams they have regional rights to the area and they can veto the addition of teams in the vicinity. Im not exactly sure how that works, but i know i have heard about how if a team was added in anahiem the lakers/clippers could fight it and if a team was added in san jose the warriors could fight it. Im assuming there is some kind of agrrement about this when the teams are purchased.

[llperez]

keep in mind that when owners purchase teams they have regional rights to the area and they can veto the addition of teams in the vicinity. Im not exactly sure how that works, but i know i have heard about how if a team was added in anahiem the lakers/clippers could fight it and if a team was added in san jose the warriors could fight it. Im assuming there is some kind of agrrement about this when the teams are purchased.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

When teams don’t share local revenue like they do now, territorial rights can be an issue. When they have to share them as Stern is going to push for in the next CBA, sharing a market of 20, 13, 10 million will look more favorable than simply sending money to a smaller market. In one model, the overall pot gets bigger. The Lakers, Knicks, and Bulls are already ATM machines. They sell out all their games, and the tv revenue would not be impacted by another team (and there is a chance in negotiations to add another team to the market that they get a piece of that action like the Orioles/National deal). What they have to fear is parts of their local revenue getting taken away with nothing to show for it.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

When teams don’t share local revenue like they do now, territorial rights can be an issue. When they have to share them as Stern is going to push for in the next CBA, sharing a market of 20, 13, 10 million will look more favorable than simply sending money to a smaller market. In one model, the overall pot gets bigger. The Lakers, Knicks, and Bulls are already ATM machines. They sell out all their games, and the tv revenue would not be impacted by another team (and there is a chance in negotiations to add another team to the market that they get a piece of that action like the Orioles/National deal). What they have to fear is parts of their local revenue getting taken away with nothing to show for it.

[Author]

Posts