YES Names First Announcers; Hindery Discusses Net's Startup

	Fred Hickman

The Yankees' pregame programs on the YES Network "will be 60 minutes long, double their length at MSG," according to Richard Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES. Meanwhile, Fred Hickman will be the lead studio host for Yankees and Nets pregame and postgame programs, and Suzyn Waldman will be play-by-play announcer for 35 Yankees games, and serve as pregame and postgame reporter for 115 games. YES also hired John Moore to direct Yankees games (N.Y. TIMES, 12/4). YES Chair Leo Hindery said that the key difference from YES and MSG's pre- and post-game presentations "will be the 'unparalleled access that Fred and Suzyn and their associates' have to the team." Meanwhile, NEWSDAY's Steve Zipay wonders, "Can YES coverage be as independent and critical when necessary as MSG was, which paid the Yankees for the rights to the coverage?" (NEWSDAY, 12/4). In N.Y., Adam Rubin reports YES "is expected to announce its other on-air talent within two weeks." Rubin adds the startup net "is still looking to cut deals with cable operators and could announce a radio home shortly" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 12/4). Hindery: "We're going to get all the game announcers set this month, and then we'll talk about carriage agreements next year. Right now, there is nothing to watch" (Matthew Futterman, STAR-LEDGER, 12/4).

NO BASIC FOR YES: The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Andy Bernstein reports Hindery "flatly refused" Time Warner Cable's proposal of putting YES on a premium programming tier. Time Warner, N.Y.'s second-largest cable operator, "is balking at the demand of" $50M a year to carry the net. Hindery: "We don't have any interest in being anywhere but basic [cable]. If we produce the quality I think we're capable of, I think we deserve to be on basic." Time Warner Exec VP Fred Dressler said of the negotiations between the cable operator and YES, "I can't say there's been any progress" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/3 issue).

Q&A: Hindery is featured in a Q&A with R. Thomas Umstead of MULTICHANNEL NEWS. Hindery, when asked if he is confident he can get the net up and running in time for the planned March launch: "Yes. ... [But] the time frame is really, really short — a 24-hour network in six months or less is a handful." Hindery, on whether he will propose a licensing fee of $2 or more: "I think that there's a range on (regional sports licensing fees) of 85 cents to $2.70. ... It's more costly for us to acquire the rights, and as a consequence it's more costly to the consumer. But one of the things people have to acknowledge is that the ratings on these RSN's are often tens of factors more than a lot of other networks on basic cable. (YES) will be priced appropriately and fairly." Hindery, on YES being criticized for selling just 20 Yankees games to WCBS-TV, as opposed to 50 that were on WNYW-Fox in '01: "For 82 percent of the market, I have, I think, done the right thing. You'd have to then ask yourself, each time, have you done right by the 18 percent of the market that doesn't take cable? And the answer is those people will get 12 through the national feed and 20 games over the air" (MULTICHANNEL NEWS, 12/3).