Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer "has turned down" a $60M-a-year offer from FS Prime Ticket for local-TV rights and is instead "forging ahead with a plan to start his own over-the-top streaming network," according to Claire Atkinson of the N.Y. POST. Sources said that if he "follows through on the plan, Ballmer ... would be the first owner of a major US sports team to deliver games direct-to-consumer via a Web-based service and not through traditional cable or satellite companies." Prime Ticket, whose deal with the Clippers runs through the '15-16 season, currently pays the team a rights fee of $25M a year -- and offered a 140% increase to $60M, but Ballmer "turned it aside." A source said that the RSN’s exclusive negotiating window "closed in June." Experts said that Ballmer "may find it hard" to earn more than $60M in revenue a year from a single-sport streaming RSN. Experts added that the Clippers "would have to sign up" around 10% of LA’s 5 million homes and "get a pretty high price for the service." A source: "If it costs $12 per month, multiply that by 12 months in 500,000 homes, it would add up to $72 million -- but then you’d have to produce the games and market the product" (N.Y. POST, 8/28). A source close to Fox said it was the RSN who rejected an offer from Ballmer, not the other way around. The source says talks hit a snag after the Clippers told the RSN that it was seeking a deal that would pay the team well north of $100M per season -- a deal Fox Sports execs rejected (John Ourand, Staff Writer).
