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John Ourand
Staff writer John Ourand covers television and media.
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ESPN near deal to keep Little League06 / 17 / 13ESPN is closing in on an eight-year extension with Little League Baseball that will continue a 50-year relationship that the youth sports organization began with ABC in 1963. The deal is not complete, but both sides have reached broad agreement on most terms that will see ESPN pick up all TV and ... Tags: Media |
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IFL sells global series rights, adds vet execs
Just two weeks before its broadcast network debut, the International Fight League has sold the international rights to its “IFL Battleground” series to Alfred Haber Distribution and hired three industry veterans to oversee its television ventures. “IFL Battleground” is scheduled to debut Ma ...
Tags: This Week's News
SCP to buy GolTV for $200M
SCP Worldwide, the company controlled by Dave Checketts, has agreed in principle to buy 80 percent of international soccer channel GolTV for $200 million, market sources said. GolTV is paying in the high seven figures for the U.S. rights to Spanish soccer, sources say ...
Tags: This Week's News
ESPNews in HD, Deportes coming to DirecTV
ESPN is planning to launch its third high-definition channel — an HD version of ESPNews — around the end of the year, and it has worked out a deal to have DirecTV carry the new service. The deal, which was signed last week after several months of negotiations, also includes a DirecTV agreem ...
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NBA League Pass should remain on cable, Stern says
No sooner had word leaked that Major League Baseball was close to selling its out-of-market rights exclusively to DirecTV, than NBA Commissioner David Stern was on the phone with some of the cable industry’s most powerful dealmakers from Comcast and Time Warner Cable. “David made it clear t ...
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ESPN near deal for stake in MLL
ESPN is close to a deal that will see the network take an equity stake in Major League Lacrosse, a six-year-old league that has 10 teams. While specific details of the size and value of the investment were not available, the move furthers ESPN’s strategy of shunning straight rights deals fo ...
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XM-Sirius merger could cost leagues
The proposed merger of the country’s two satellite radio companies could potentially cost sports leagues and media networks hundreds of millions of dollars in lost rights fees and advertising revenue over the next decade. The problem isn’t with the contracts the leagues have signed with X ...
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Conferences explore TV options
Officials from the major college conferences have stark choices in front of them as their TV rights deals come due. The mtn., launched by the Mountain West Conference, has struggled to find distribution. They can go for the easy money and sell their rights to ES ...
Tags: In-Depth
Bornstein calm in NFL Net storm
Sitting on a couch in Miami’s Marriott Biscayne Bay, Steve Bornstein presented the picture of relaxed confidence. Just three days before Super Bowl XLI, the NFL Network president known for his hard-driving personality was calm and cool, shedding his coat and tie in favor of a white dress shirt ...
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MLB, clubs near resolution on video-on-demand rights; settlement ...
Major League Baseball and its individual clubs are nearing a resolution on video-on-demand rights, an issue that has steadily simmered for nearly six months and angered TV rights holders eager to deploy the advanced services. Los Angeles Dodgers President and Vice Chairma ...
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Fox’s ad lineup nearly full for Daytona
Fox’s Daytona 500 ad sales are pacing ahead of 2005, the last time it carried the race, with only a “single-digit” number of ad spots left, network executives said last week. Daytona 500 spots are selling for close to $500,000. The network has been selling in- ...
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