Home Team Sports VP/GM Jody Shapiro said last night the
regional sports network has retained the cable TV rights to the
Orioles, Bullets and Capitals, according to Milton Kent of the
Baltimore SUN. Shapiro said Westinghouse-backed HTS has matched
a proposal made by the Fox/Liberty partnership to land the teams
for their new cable channel set to debut November 1. But
industry sources indicated the Orioles have already signed a deal
with Fox and that HTS "does not retain a contractual right to
match any Orioles offer, but can attempt to counter one." Asked
about that scenario, Shapiro said, "You'll have to ask the team
about that." Terms of the deal were not disclosed (Baltimore
SUN, 9/19). Under the previous deal, the Orioles received about
$5M in rights fees annually from HTS, with the Bullets and Caps
getting between $3-4M. There have been "unconfirmed" reports
that Fox/Liberty had offered a total of $25M a year for all three
teams, according to Leonard Shapiro of the WASHINGTON POST. One
source told Shapiro that Fox/Liberty could still start its own
cable channel in the area and continue to bid on the teams while
they air programming from other regional networks (Leonard
Shapiro, WASHINGTON POST, 9/19).
