YankeeNets made a new offer to MSG Network (MSGN)
Friday "in an attempt to break a legal deadlock" over who
will broadcast Yankees games, according to James McKinley of
the N.Y. TIMES. In a letter to "top officials," YankeeNets
asked MSGN, "in essence, to pay slightly more than" $1B for
the broadcast rights to Yankees games for the next ten
years. YankeeNets officials said that if MSGN "balks at the
price, the Yankees will go ahead with plans to set up their
own cable network." Under terms of the new offer,
YankeeNets has withdrawn its previous proposal, rendering
MSGN's lawsuit against the organization "moot" (see THE
DAILY, 8/23). The new offer also calls for YankeeNets to
take the Nets and Devils TV rights "off the table, leaving
[MSGN] with only the Yankees rights to bid on." In an
effort to follow the guidelines from a recent court ruling,
the Yankees "hired several investment bankers, among them
Morgan Stanley, to come up with a present-day value for
those rights, a figure exceeding $1 billion." A YankeeNets
official said that if MSGN agrees to pay the $1B, the group
will "drop plans for a new network." MSGN has seven days to
respond to the offer (N.Y. TIMES, 9/9). In Newark, Matthew
Futterman wrote that "most" TV execs "close to the
negotiations continue to believe the two sides will reach a
deal for the new network within the month" (Newark STAR-
LEDGER, 9/9). NEWSDAY's Steve Zipay wrote that MSGN would
have to pay a "staggering" $1.4B over the next ten years to
keep the Yankees' TV rights. The figure "would be the
highest figure ever paid for any sports team's rights, and
is nearly three times" the $486M that MSGN paid for the
rights for the last years starting in '88 (NEWSDAY, 9/9).
