OH cable operator Bob Gessner "thinks he's found a way
to control his sports programming costs" and plans to "start
a friendly bidding competition between ESPN and Fox Sports
Ohio [FSO]," according to Steve Donohue of ELECTRONIC MEDIA.
The network with the lower carriage fee will remain on the
basic tier of Gessner's 45,000-subscriber system, with the
other going to a new sports tier that would require
customers to pay an additional cost. Gessner: "Since they
(Fox and ESPN) love competition so much, let them compete
for our basic subs." Massillon Cable will launch a PR
campaign "if it decides" to go ahead with its plan and will
notify subscribers of the proposal. Massillon "would likely
charge about $5 per month for the network that gets bumped
off of its basic tier." Donohue: "Not surprisingly, both
ESPN and Fox Sports executives said they oppose Massillon's
plan." ESPN said that its contracts "require" that the net
be carried on basic cable. Fox Sports Senior VP/Media
Relations Vince Wladika: "Tiering is as unacceptable to us
as it is for ESPN." Gessner said that FSO "is a cheaper
service," but declined to specify how much he pays for
either FSO or ESPN. Donohue reports that subscriber fees
for Fox generally run from $.60 to $1.20 per subscriber,
while ESPN, which is upping its fee by 20% to help pay for
its NFL contract, will cost cable operators "an average
$1.07 per subscriber" (ELECTRONIC MEDIA, 6/22 issue).
TIME IS ON ITS SIDE? In Sunday's BOSTON GLOBE, Howard
Manly reviewed FSN's "Fox Sports News," and wrote that it
gives viewers "a credible show an hour earlier than" ESPN's
"SportsCenter" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/21).
