The Red Sox have "all but ended their search" for a new
TV partner and are close to a deal with WFXT-Fox to air "at
least" 65 games next season, with the rest remaining on
NESN, according to Howard Manly of the BOSTON GLOBE.
Sources close to the talks told Manly that a deal will be
"announced soon, perhaps today." Red Sox officials have
been seeking a new TV partner since it dropped JCS New
England TV Network, which "could not come up with about
half" of the agreed-upon $10M rights fee. Manly writes that
in the past, the Red Sox "have opted for the most unlikely"
of TV partners to solve "short-term needs," which has made
it difficult to "increase ratings on a sustained basis." In
making a deal with WFXT, the Red Sox "are trusting the
station and its [Fox] network to steadily increase ratings
so they can make even more money in future" TV deals. NESN
has the exclusive cable rights to the team, but "that could
change in the near future to allow" Fox Sports New England
to carry the games (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/24). In Boston, Jim
Baker puts the WFXT deal at three years through 2002, which
would "carry the games through the end of NESN's charter."
WFXT "must work out conflicts" such as NFL games on Sundays
in September, but the network would give the Sox "promotion
on a major-network station" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/24).
