Turner Sports will enter Major League Baseball’s postseason following the league’s 2007 campaign.
As part of deals that are expected to be announced in Pittsburgh before Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at PNC Park, MLB will announce that it has struck multiyear regular-season and postseason deals, terms of which were not disclosed, with Turner and Fox.
From 2007-13, TBS would become the home to all four Divisional Series. Those contests -- which would be presented to a large degree in the form of doubleheaders and even tripleheaders -- have been airing on Fox and ESPN. This marks the first time the Divisional Series will air entirely on cable.
The following year, TBS would take its first swing at a 26-week Sunday-afternoon package, according to sources familiar with the deal, who indicated that those contests would not be exclusive.
For its part, Fox, from 2007-13, would retain the World Series and one of the League Championship Series. Fox would also continue to present the All-Star Game, and it would have the right to expand its exclusive Saturday-afternoon game coverage to 26 weeks from its current 18-week schedule.
The next owner of the other LCS package -- which Fox has held the rights to under the $2.5 billion, six-year contract that expires after this season -- remained unclear at press time.
Fox and Turner officials declined to comment. MLB officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
TBS’ major step up to the plate will result in a further scaling back of its coverage of the Atlanta Braves.
Under a seven-year pact signed with MLB last season, TBS is airing 70 Braves games this season and next, and it was scheduled to present 45 in the last five years of the pact. However, the new pact dissolves that commitment, as the 45 Braves games will be aired locally on WTBS in Atlanta and/or within the club’s six-state home territory.
The new game-of-the-week deal allows TBS to air up to 13 games of any team, including the Braves, nationally per season. In its heyday, TBS carried up to 125 Braves games nationally.
For Fox -- which has taken a write-down on the value of its current deal -- the new contract will reduce its commitment to MLB during October.
Momentum for the network’s primetime schedule -- just weeks after what has traditionally been the start of the new TV season -- has often been disrupted by the large commitment to baseball during that month. Fox has responded by going to a more year-round scheduling approach and by delaying the start of such hits as serialized thriller 24 and American Idol until January.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6351427.html?display=Breaking+News
As part of deals that are expected to be announced in Pittsburgh before Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at PNC Park, MLB will announce that it has struck multiyear regular-season and postseason deals, terms of which were not disclosed, with Turner and Fox.
From 2007-13, TBS would become the home to all four Divisional Series. Those contests -- which would be presented to a large degree in the form of doubleheaders and even tripleheaders -- have been airing on Fox and ESPN. This marks the first time the Divisional Series will air entirely on cable.
The following year, TBS would take its first swing at a 26-week Sunday-afternoon package, according to sources familiar with the deal, who indicated that those contests would not be exclusive.
For its part, Fox, from 2007-13, would retain the World Series and one of the League Championship Series. Fox would also continue to present the All-Star Game, and it would have the right to expand its exclusive Saturday-afternoon game coverage to 26 weeks from its current 18-week schedule.
The next owner of the other LCS package -- which Fox has held the rights to under the $2.5 billion, six-year contract that expires after this season -- remained unclear at press time.
Fox and Turner officials declined to comment. MLB officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
TBS’ major step up to the plate will result in a further scaling back of its coverage of the Atlanta Braves.
Under a seven-year pact signed with MLB last season, TBS is airing 70 Braves games this season and next, and it was scheduled to present 45 in the last five years of the pact. However, the new pact dissolves that commitment, as the 45 Braves games will be aired locally on WTBS in Atlanta and/or within the club’s six-state home territory.
The new game-of-the-week deal allows TBS to air up to 13 games of any team, including the Braves, nationally per season. In its heyday, TBS carried up to 125 Braves games nationally.
For Fox -- which has taken a write-down on the value of its current deal -- the new contract will reduce its commitment to MLB during October.
Momentum for the network’s primetime schedule -- just weeks after what has traditionally been the start of the new TV season -- has often been disrupted by the large commitment to baseball during that month. Fox has responded by going to a more year-round scheduling approach and by delaying the start of such hits as serialized thriller 24 and American Idol until January.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6351427.html?display=Breaking+News
