It’s coming down to the wire, as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Fox Sports are coming down to the wire on a 20-year media-rights deal that will yield the team between $6 billion and $7 billion.
In many ways, it’s not a surprise — we reported on a deal of this size way back in August, when talks began — but Deadline Hollywood has the details on the negotiations between Dodgers and Fox officials. There’s a deadline of Nov. 30 set by the Dodgers to close the deal, which means we could see an announcement by the end of the week. Through a deadline is causing last-minute activity, the basic parameters of a deal have been in place for months: the two sides are haggling over the side details, like whether a Dodgers-associated entity, Dick Clark Productions, will play a role in programming on Fox.
The current deal between Fox and the Dodgers ends after the 2013 season.
What makes this deal unique: at a time when teams have had success forming their own networks and then selling off stakes — as YES Network did recently, in another deal that involved a Rupert Murdoch entity — the Dodgers went positively retro, deciding to sell media rights to a media giant for a media fee.
Here’s what we wrote way back in August:
The key to any good business purchase is unlocking upside. In the case of the Dodgers, there was a lot of potential upside both in terms of operations and media rights. The new owners are starting to address both: the operations side will surely benefit by the hiring of Janet Marie Smith, and the ledger will surely benefit from a smartly negotiated media deal. In a decade, we may look back and see the purchase price of $2 billion as a bargain.
RELATED STORIES: Dodgers, Fox already informally talking new TV rights deal; Why $2B for Dodgers might have been steal: $7B in media rights; LA brings in Janet Marie Smith to oversee Dodger Stadium renovations; Kasten: Dodger Stadium renovations could hit nine figures; New Dodgers owners: We need to upgrade fan experience; New owners take control of Los Angeles Dodgers; Court approves Dodgers sale
—-
Share your news with the baseball community. Send it to us at editors@augustpublications.com.
Are you a subscriber to the weekly Ballpark Digest newsletter? You can sign up for a free subscription at the Newsletter Signup Page.
Join Ballpark Digest on Facebook and on Twitter!
Follow Ballpark Digest on Google + and add us to your circles!