The Flyers were unable to reach a one-year deal with
Prism/SportsChannel and are now offering their package of 46
regular-season games directly to area cable operators, according
to Bill Fleischman of the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS. Flyers COO
Ron Ryan said deals were reached with Comcast, Lenfest
Communications and Garden State Cable to carry 38 home games and
eight road games. The three systems reportedly reach 1.5 million
subscribers. Ryan said the team had given Prism a Saturday
deadline, but "for whatever reason, they couldn't pull the
trigger." But Prism Senior VP/GM Laureen Ong said they are still
talking to the team: "We're still interested" (PHILA. DAILY NEWS,
9/30).
NEW YORK: The new sports and business channel in New York
owned by ITT and Dow Jones, WBIS+, will debut its sports
programming in January and will "open on January 21 by airing"
the Knicks-Bulls game from Chicago (N.Y. DAILY NEWS,
9/30)....During the Rangers-Devils game on MSG on Saturday, MSG
announcers read commercials selling Devils tickets. Devils GM
Lou Lamoriello said the MSG Network had to broadcast the
commercials because "it decided to televise the game" from
Continental Airlines Arena before getting approval from the team.
The Devils then requested MSG give them free commercials. But MSG
Exec VP Joseph Cohen said MSG had bought TV rights from the
Devils before making the agreement to broadcast the spots (N.Y.
TIMES, 9/28).
MARINERS: The Mariners two-year deal with Prime ended
yesterday, but the team has been in talks regarding an extension.
Prime paid $3.8M for the rights through this season, however,
with the team's success and all-time high ratings on Prime,
"expect the price to be more exorbitant this time" (Bob Condotta,
Tacoma NEWS TRIBUNE, 9/28).
