The billions of dollars Rupert Murdoch is pouring into
sports broadcasting rights around the globe are radically
changing "the rules of the game," and are helping him "tie up"
viewer loyalty for his programming operations, according to this
week's VARIETY. In addition to Fox Broadcasting, Murdoch is the
outright owner or a key backer of free and pay TV channels in the
U.K. (BSkyB), Hong Kong (Star TV), Australia (Channel Seven,
Galaxy) and Germany (Vox). Michael Williams reports that popular
sports are the "locomotives" to help get new programming services
moving and this sports-based strategy is turning heads among
broadcasters, who fear a sports "oligopoly," and sports promoters
and enthusiasts, who want major sporting events to remain
available on free TV. Williams notes whether it is the NFL on
Fox or Chinese soccer for satcaster Star TV, sports rights are
being used successfully to promote entire networks and increase
subscriber bases (VARIETY, 7/17-23). MURDOCH STEPS UP LATIN
AMERICAN PRESENCE: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. recently announced
a strategic partnership with Brazil's Globo to develop pan-
regional pay TV. The as-yet unnamed service will go head-to-head
with Hughes Communications' DirecTv Latin America and is slated
to launch in early '96 (Andrew Paxman, VARIETY, 7/17-23).
