ESPN Networks recently completed new affiliate agreements with Adelphia Communications. Adelphia, the nation’s fifth-largest cable operator with about 5.3 million homes, is the fourth major operator to agree to the “new” ESPN deal after Cox and Charter Communications set the benchmark last year.
Adelphia is still operating under bankruptcy protection and poised to be sold in parcels to other cable operators.
ESPN officials would not comment on the new deal other than to confirm that it has been completed, and that it includes the launch of additional ESPN channels such as ESPN2 HD.
Cablevision Systems Corp. and the National Cable Television Cooperative also have the new ESPN deal, which cuts annual increases from 20 percent to 13 percent and then to 9 percent.
The lone major holdouts are Time Warner Cable and Comcast Corp. Not coincidentally, they are the two largest cable operators.
DirecTV, the largest direct broadcast satellite company, also agreed to the new ESPN contract, although rival EchoStar has not yet.
LOCAL SUPER BOWL SALES: The Fox Broadcasting affiliate in Philadelphia is charging $300,000 for a 30-second in-game unit during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast, while the one in Boston is looking for up to $200,000, agency sources said.
Local affiliates get 11 units in Super Bowl broadcasts. The network sells 59.
Philadelphia’s WTXF was selling spots for $165,000 until the Eagles — three-time losers in the NFC championship game — advanced to the Super Bowl. The price then went up to $300,000. As of early last week only two spots were left.
WFXT in Boston is selling units for between $180,000 and $200,000, and has warned buyers that the last one left will sell for $250,000.
A year ago, units sold for about $200,000 on Boston’s CBS affiliate, WBZ-TV, when the Patriots advanced to the big game.
Both WTXF and WFXT are owned and operated by Fox Broadcasting.
FUTURE UNCERTAIN: The fate of two fledgling 24-hour sports networks, Rush HD and WorldSport HD, are up in the air following Cablevision’s decision to sell off the assets of its Voom satellite service.
Cablevision’s board of directors voted to sell Voom after CEO James Dolan won out in a power struggle against his father, Charles, the cable television innovator who has long been more highly regarded on Wall Street than his son.
Charles Dolan had championed Voom, a satellite service that aimed to compete with DirecTV and Dish Network by offering more high-definition channels and several exclusive ones, including Rush and WorldSport.
Cablevision dumped more than $500 million into the venture, to the dismay of Wall Street. After a year it attained only 26,000 subscribers.
Eventually Cablevision’s board, concerned with legal issues regarding its alleged lack of independence from the Dolan family, voted to sell Voom. Just days later, Voom’s satellite was sold to Dish Network parent EchoStar for $200 million.
What becomes of the rest of Voom, including its original programming networks and its valuable satellite spectrum space, remains unknown.
There is a chance that Charles Dolan will buy some of the assets himself, as he indicated in a letter to Voom employees before selling the satellite to EchoStar. In that case, the HD channels could be syndicated to cable or satellite services, possibly EchoStar. Or, they could cease to exist as linear networks but act simply as high-definition production firms, selling original programming to networks.
WorldSport has rights to the European basketball league, Spanish Premier League soccer and the hockey World Junior Championships. Rush’s shows mostly original action-sports-oriented short films and feature programming.
Andy Bernstein can be reached at abernstein@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
