Philadelphia-based Comcast has completed a deal to
purchase Home Team Sports (HTS) and Midwest Sports Channel
(MSC) from Viacom for a sale price estimated by industry
sources to be about $300M, according to Leonard Shapiro of
the WASHINGTON POST. The sale, which "likely will be
announced this week and as early as today," is not expected
to have a "major effect" on HTS programming, which includes
Orioles, Wizards and Capitals games. An HTS source said
that HTS "likely will not undergo many changes either in
personnel or programming, though Comcast almost certainly
will increase the amount of local sports news on the
channel." The source added that a name change "probably
will occur to enhance the Comcast brand." Fox has a
"minority interest" in HTS, and sources "indicated much of
the Fox programming will also be retained after the sale"
(WASHINGTON POST, 7/11). In Philadelphia, Patricia Horn
writes that Comcast "is expected to pay for the networks not
with cash or stock, but by distributing Viacom programming
to its cable-TV systems." Horn notes Comcast's purchase
fits into the company's plans to "expand its ownership of
sports teams" and RSNs (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/11).
