ESPN "is responsible for delaying the deal" for CanWest
Global Corp. to buy NetStar Communications, according to
Brenda Dalglish of the FINANCIAL POST, who cites a source
"familiar with the negotiations." NetStar CEO Gordon Craig
said that the deal for CanWest to buy NetStar is for "more
than" C$900M. ESPN owns 32% of NetStar, which owns Canadian
sports net TSN. The source told Dalglish that when NetStar
was founded, ESPN "negotiated a shareholders' agreement
giving it considerably more influence than would normally be
granted to an owner with only a one-third stake." The
source: "ESPN has the right, if they don't like a new
purchaser, to nominate another. That's the kind of control
they've got here." Dalglish writes that CanWest is "said to
be trying to persuade ESPN to agree to give up that right in
return for the benefits an association with a major
broadcasting company such as CanWest would bring to TSN."
CanWest has until September 4 to complete due diligence on
the deal, but Dalglish's source said the deal "might take
longer than that to complete" (FINANCIAL POST, 8/27).
INT'L AFFAIRS: ESPN Int'l will televise the NFL's
primetime schedule of 35 regular-season games each year
through 2000. The deal gives ESPN Int'l exclusive cable TV
rights to air Sunday and Monday night games to more than 110
territories around the globe. This year, ESPN will air the
games in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, South
America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand (ESPN Int'l).
