Re: Sox Fox

[Mark Shneyder <bostonradio@yahoo.com>]

--- PUBLICREF3 <norwood@mln.lib.ma.us> wrote: 
> It appears that WFXT-25 and the Red Sox are closing in on new, possibly
> long-term, over-the-air TV deal that would probably have WFXT cover 60
> regular-season Sox games a year starting in 2000.
> 
> This might be good news for their struggling newscasts.

This is exactly why Rup is getting the Sox on deck in
Boston. He did the same thing in NYC last year by
overpaying(by 50%) for the rights to have Yanks 50
times a season on WNYW-TV/Fox5 in 1999 and 2000.
It costs Murdoch  $400,000 a game(all produced by MSG
Cable, which is partly owned by Fox Sports Net) to show 
the Yanks on free TV in NYC. However, WPIX-TV(WB11) still
outrated WNYW-TV in the 10 o'clock news wars during Spring,
Summer and Fall books. The main question is what will happen
to the Yanks after next year? Cablevision boss Chuck Dolan who owns MSG(Knicks and Rangers)
wants to buy the Yanks and move all the games to cable.

Maybe Rup will sell the Dodgers(they are on a Tribune
station in LA anyway) and buy the Sox so he could move
all the games to Fox Sports New England in a couple of years?! :)
In a meantime, the Sox games should surely help out struggling
Fox 25 newscasts....

This also raises a question of what will happen to
Barry Diller's plans to convert Ch.66 into an independent.
His converted markets -- Miami(WAMI-- "Whammy 61"),
Atlanta(WHOT -- Hotlanta 34) and Dallas(KSTR
--Star 49) -- now all have some kind of a sports tie-in
with road NBA/MBL packages. Now that he got shot out from
a sports package in Boston(Sox really didn't want to be
on Ch.66 in the first place), he'll probably just rely
heavily on  syndicated fare to fill 66's programming next
year(benny hill episodes will return for a 2-year run).
His CityVision idea got scaled back to almost zero(Miami station
is dead last in the English-language market with much
of the local programming gone). Syndication packages and sports now make up most of the
programming on USA Broadcast Group stations....

Happy Thanksgiving,

Mark
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