Fox Wins Exclusive Baseball Contract

$2.5 billion deal covers 2001-06; 44 percent higher than present contract

New York, September 29, 2000 -- Fox just expanded its sports stable. Willing to gamble on a sports which suffered a ratings drop during the mid and late 1990s and one which may be bracing for more labor strike after the 2001 season, the network announced it would acquire the national over-the-air rights to televise Major League Baseball games from 2001-06 for a price of $2.5 billion.

This is the first exclusive broadcast network deal for baseball in almost a decade. In the early 1990s, CBS acquired the exclusive rights in a marriage that turned sour. Rival NBC and ABC and ESPN declined to bid.

Fox will have the exclusive right to broadcast the World Series and all other postseason games. Fox will pay an average of about $400 million annually starting next season. The amount represents a 44 percent increase over the present agreement with Fox and NBC, which pays $290 million annually.

It could be that that Fox overpaid for these rights. The division and pennant series have traditionally received lower ratings than the World Series. And those ratings have trailed the Super Bowl, NBA Championships and the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four. But Fox remains the "Fourth Network" and needs the marquis sports programming to sell its other broadcasts.

                                                                                                                Mark Conrad


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