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Fox Sports Sued By Veteran African-American Executive For Discrimination

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday April 5, 2013 @ 8:03pm PDTTags: Fox Sports, Hollywood diversity

Read the entire lawsuit here. The plaintiff Jerry Davis alleges in a lawsuit filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court that the Fox Sports Corporate Group currently employs 34 executives above the VP level – and not one of them is black. “Indeed, to the best of Mr. Davis’s knowledge, no Black person has ever held any position at or above vice president in that division’s entire 19-year existence. Representation of Black individuals in leadership positions in other sports divisions at FOX is, and always has been, similarly abysmal. During the course of its existence, Fox Sports, through its various divisions and entities, has intentionally maintained a practice of directly and indirectly favoring the hiring and/or promotion of non-Black and non-minority employees at senior levels without any legitimate reason. Mr. Davis is a direct victim of this discriminatory practice.”

Davis’ lawsuit describes himself as a 52-year-old African-American man, Berkeley grad, star athlete, and experienced music professional who was employed by Fox Sports for 15 1/2-years (from August 1997 to February 2013) as a director in the Fox Sports music department. During that time, the job over him, the Fox Sports VP Of Music position, became vacant four times. “However, despite his repeated and express interest in the position, his superior education, skills, and performance as well as strong support from senior-level colleagues of various Fox music departments and other FOX Sports departments, Mr. Davis was denied the promotion each and every time. Fox Sports denied Mr. Davis the promotion each time because, as a Black man, he did not fit neatly into the company’s corporate culture.” Davis maintains he did not receive a single promotion during his entire career at Fox Sports because of his race. He charges that recently Fox Sports reduced his responsibilities and eliminated his position while he was on disability leave. He is suing Fox Cable Network Services, Fox Sports Net, and Fox Networks Group in addition to Fox Sports. Before resorting to the courts, Davis filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

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Fox Sports’ Tim McCarver Says He’s Retiring

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday March 27, 2013 @ 12:37pm PDTTags: Fox Sports, Tim McCarver

The Fox Sports baseball analyst and announcer announced today that this October’s 2013 World Series will be his last. A former all-star MLB catcher, McCarver won two World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals before … Read More »

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Fox Sports 1 To Launch on August 17

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday March 5, 2013 @ 10:48am PSTTags: Fox Sports

News Corp has made it official. Its national cable sports channel will kick off this summer with “nearly 5,000 hours of live event, news ad original programming annually.” By taking over the Speed channel, it will reach about 90M homes which the company says makes it “the biggest sports cable network launch in history, and one of the largest network launches ever.” At the start the schedule will include college basketball and football, NASCAR, soccer and UFC. In 2014 it will add Major League Baseball with 26 regular season games on Saturdays, select League Championship Series and Division Series games, and a live game-in-progress look-in show. FS1 plans a morning newscast to begin in January. Regis Philbin will host Rush Hour (weeknights from 5-6:00 PM ET), which will include a panel of regulars and guests. It will be followed by Fox Football Daily (daily 6-7:00 PM ET), described as an “extension of Fox NFL Sunday.” The network will air Fox Football Daily with news, interviews and commentary about pro and collegiate football. It also will challenge ESPN at 11:00 PM ET with a nightly talk show. Sports events will include a “double box” commercial format matching ads with programming designed to keep viewers engaged. The company also will introduce Fox Sports GO, a digital platform that will offer news, stats and analysis — as well as more than 1,000 live games and events — on the Internet and to Apple and Android devices. The live games will be available to pay TV subscribers. Read More »

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Regis Philbin Promises “Major Announcement” With Fox Sports Next Week

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday February 27, 2013 @ 3:14pm PSTTags: Fox Sports, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports Media Group, Regis Philbin

What News Corp COO Chase Carey recently called the “world’s worst kept secret” – Fox’s still-unannounced plans to turn its Speed channel into a national general sports network called Fox Sports 1 — just became a little … Read More »

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News Corp Exec Calls Sports Network Plans “The World’s Worst Kept Secret”

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday February 6, 2013 @ 2:58pm PSTTags: Chase Carey, Fox Sports, News Corp

I don’t usually feel sorry for News Corp execs. But I came close to doing so this evening as COO Chase Carey on a conference call with analysts was forced to pretty much confirm the widely reported, although … Read More »

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EXCLUSIVE: Fox Closing In On Dodgers’ TV Rights; ‘We’re Out’ If Not Done By Nov. 30

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday November 24, 2012 @ 6:52pm PSTTags: Big Deals TV, Fox Sports, Los Angeles Dodgers

UPDATE: Not so fast. The deal didn’t get done and now Time Warner Cable is hot and heavy into the negotiating mix. Fox is pissed, to say the least.

EXCLUSIVE:  It seems strangely logical that the highest-priced sports team in the world is about to score the richest TV deal ever in pro sports history. Insiders tell me that Fox Sports is close to clinching the exclusive TV rights for the Los Angeles Dodgers by paying between $6 billion and $7 billion over 25 years to put the team on its regional sports network in Southern California and of course its national Fox Broadcasting Company. Fox already shows the games on its Prime Ticket local cable channel but also has Fox Sports West here.

The previous agreement expires at the end of next season, and saw Fox Sports paying only about $40 million per season for the Dodgers TV rights. There was speculation the final price would just go north of $150 million per season. This new deal soars to $280 million per season (the average for the life of the contract). The huge outlay by News Corp demonstrates the increasing value of sports to its bottom line, while the huge payday for Guggenheim offsets the record-setting $2.15 billion price paid for the Dodgers.

Related: Dodgers, Fox Sports Settle TV Rights Feud

But the sheer greed of Guggenheim’s ask on this new deal is staggering, especially when you consider it will all get passed down to the cable systems, advertisers, and ultimately consumers. The alternative for Guggenheim included higher ticket prices which would serve to only further alienate fans. Plus the new owners claim to need the money to bribe talented players to come to the mediocre Dodgers. And then there’s the sad fact that Major League Baseball teams are shifting from broadcast TV to cable networks – so fewer games will be available on free TV. Fox Sports expects to broadcast only one or two Major League Baseball games a week for the national audience next season.

Guggenheim and Fox Sports began preliminary talks in May. Then Fox Sports Media Group Co-President/COO Randy Freer enjoyed a 45-day exclusive negotiating window with Guggenheim Baseball Management’s Todd Boehly, the president of private equity firm Guggenheim Partners who was negotiating solo for the Dodgers owners. (Those owners also include former Los Angeles Lakers star turned mega-investor Magic Johnson, former Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals president Stan Kasten and Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber.) Those talks began October 15th and are set to expire on November 30th. My insiders think, barring any unforeseen obstacles, the Fox-Dodgers deal could clinch by Tuesday. If it doesn’t get done by the 30th deadline, Boehly will have blown the negotiations bigtime.

Related: Magic Johnson’s Group Wins Bidding To Buy Dodgers

I’m told a deal came “very close” to being done about a week ago “and then it went a little bit south”. To rattle Guggenheim’s cages, Fox Sports delivered an ultimatum that a deal had to be done by the end of this month or else it would stop negotiating. (Terms like “It’s dead” and “We’re out” were used.) The Fox Sports gambit worked. Because it would have left Guggenheim in a terrible situation without multiple bidders and with little leverage for next-in-line Time Warner Cable since CBS, Comcast/NBC, ABC/ESPN and even the MSG Network (controlled by the owners of Cablevision) never materialized. Of course, Guggenheim could have opted for the Dodgers to start its own network, as the Mets and Yankees have done. But big rewards come with big risks.

Also, in the middle of the run-up to negotiations in early October, Guggenheim’s Boehly bought Dick Clark Productions and put on the table a “programming element” involving Fox Broadcasting Network and DCP. Specifically, it called for DCP to have “more inventory” i.e. more shows airing on Fox Networks, sources tell me. I’m told the provision has been “in and out and in” the deal over recent weeks but appears to be ‘in’ right now.

Freer really knows this business – he ran the Fox regional sports networks for nearly half a decade - and knows not to overpay. He’s not when you consider that the Dodgers will play 162 games when the season starts in April. And yet TV rights to the Lakers who play 82 games just sold to Time Warner Cable for $3B over 20 years. And Fox just paid $3B for 49% of the YES Network which owns TV rights to the New York Yankees for 20 years. Read More »

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Fox Sports, LA Dodgers Discussing Potential $4B Cable Deal: Report

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Monday August 27, 2012 @ 6:39am PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Fox Sports, Los Angeles Dodgers, Time Warner Cable

They can’t formally begin talks until Oct. 15, but Fox Sports and the Los Angeles Dodgers are said to have started preliminary discussions on a new cable pact. Last year, Fox and former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt struck a 20-year, $3B deal that included a provision giving the Dodgers 30% of the Fox Sports channel. But, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig did not allow that pact to proceed. Citing a source familiar with the current talks, Reuters reports the renewal being discussed since May would “almost certainly exceed” the kiboshed deal and include joint ownership of English and Spanish language channels. According to the Reuters source, no financials have been discussed, but sports consultant Marc Ganis said the new deal could cost $4B or more. Fox and the Dodgers’ current deal expires at the end of next year. Read More »

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Sportscaster Erin Andrews Shifts To Fox

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday July 1, 2012 @ 4:42pm PDTTags: Erin Andrews, ESPN, Fox Sports

Fox SportsSportscaster Erin Andrews, who exited ESPN last week as co-host of College GameDay, has joined Fox Sports as speculated, where she’ll host the network’s new primetime college football pregame show as well as have a … Read More »

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Co-Host Erin Andrews Leaving ESPN

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday June 29, 2012 @ 3:49pm PDTTags: Dancing With The Stars, Erin Andrews, ESPN, Fox Sports

After being with the sports network for eight years, Erin Andrews is leaving ESPN. The sports network’s VP of Communications Josh Krulewitz tweet this afternoon that “Erin Andrews leaving ESPN. She did great work for … Read More »

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Magic Johnson’s Group Wins Bidding To Buy Dodgers For Record $2B

By PATRICK HIPES, Managing Editor | Tuesday March 27, 2012 @ 9:01pm PDTTags: Fox Sports, Los Angeles Dodgers, Magic Johnson

The bidding group is the last one standing after many Dodgers suitors came and went during the monthslong process, and the $2 billion deal is the richest ever for a U.S. sports franchise. The new owners — who emerged after … Read More »

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Dodgers, Fox Sports Settle TV Rights Feud, Clearing Path For Sale Of Team

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday January 10, 2012 @ 10:59pm PSTTags: Fox Sports, Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Fox Sports late Tuesday settled their legal feud over the sale of the bankrupt team’s broadcast rights after the 2013 season. The Dodgers agreed to abide by their current contract with Fox and won’t attempt … Read More »

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Fox Sports Wins Round Against The Dodgers

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday December 23, 2011 @ 2:30pm PSTTags: Fox Sports, Los Angeles Dodgers

Fox Sports has won a temporary stay that bars the Los Angeles Dodgers from shopping broadcasting rights to new bidders until a judge considers the network’s appeal of the federal bankruptcy court ruling in favor of the team. Federal … Read More »

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Dodgers Win Approval For Early TV Rights Bidding; Bloomberg Reports Fox To Appeal

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday December 8, 2011 @ 9:18pm PSTTags: Fox Sports, Los Angeles Dodgers, Time Warner Cable

The Los Angeles Dodgers received bankruptcy court permission Thursday to try to sell future TV rights to its baseball games months before their existing contract with Fox Sports allows, Bloomberg reported. The federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware overruled … Read More »

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Sports Fees Vex Cable Execs: UBS Confab

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday December 5, 2011 @ 8:43pm PSTTags: ESPN, Fox Sports, NFL, SNL Kagan, Sports

The per-household subscription fees ESPN charges cable systems amounts to “a tax on every American household,” Liberty Media Corp. CEO Greg Maffei said Monday at an investor conference sponsored by UBS AG in New York City. ESPN charges are the highest … Read More »

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Dodgers Update: TV Rights Hearing Set For Dec. 7; Larry King Part Of Group Seeking To Buy Team

By PATRICK HIPES, Managing Editor | Wednesday November 30, 2011 @ 3:32pm PSTTags: Bud Selig, Fox Sports, Frank McCourt, Larry King, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, TV Rights

A U.S. Bankruptcy judge today set December 7 to kick off a two-day hearing about whether the Los Angeles Dodgers can begin marketing the team’s lucrative future local TV rights, which Fox Sports holds through the end of the 2013 baseball season. Fox already has sued the Dodgers to block any early rights sale. The network claims its regional network has an exclusive window to renegotiate a new deal as part of its current contract, and that that team is using bankruptcy protection to break that agreement. (As part of that lawsuit, Fox will ask Judge Kevin Gross to dismiss the team’s bankruptcy altogether in a hearing set for December 27.) How valuable are those TV rights? Soon-to-be-ex-Dodgers owner Frank McCourt at one time had a $3 billion deal with Fox in place before it was rejected by Major League Baseball and commissioner Bud Selig, forcing McCourt to seek bankruptcy for the team and eventually agree to sell the franchise outright. Read More »

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Fox Sports Asks Court To Dismiss Dodgers From Bankruptcy

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday November 18, 2011 @ 8:48pm PSTTags: Bankruptcy, Dodgers, Fox Sports, Frank McCourt

Fox Sports has asked a federal bankruptcy court to dismiss the Dodgers from bankruptcy as the networks said it would earlier this week, the LA Times reported late Friday. Fox Sports said it is not necessary for … Read More »

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Dodgers Sue Fox Sports, Which Responds That It Will Ask Court To Dismiss Team From Bankruptcy

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday November 16, 2011 @ 11:45pm PSTTags: Bankruptcy, Fox Sports, Frank McCourt, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Prime Ticket

The Los Angeles Dodgers sued Fox Sports on Wednesday, accusing the News Corp-owned network of attempting to ”interfere with the sale of the Dodgers and their assets in bankruptcy.” The Dodgers’ goal is to sell the team and its valuable TV rights through separate court-sanctioned auctions to maximize returns. In a sharply worded court response filed Wednesday night Fox said it would ask that the Dodgers be dismissed from bankruptcy, according to the LA Times. Fox slammed Major League Baseball as “Prime Ticket’s former ally” and asserted the only reason Frank McCourt wants to auction the team’s TV rights now is to put “value rightfully belonging to Prime Ticket,in his own pocket” — referring to Fox Sports’ package of programming. The Dodgers’ suit was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, where Fox already has a suit pending against the team for alleged breach of contract in the continuing squabble over TV rights. Responding to the latest development, the Dodgers called Fox “obviously desperate” to prevent an auction that would reveal the “enormous value” of those rights and “lead to a record-smashing sale price for the team and benefit not just the Dodgers but all of baseball.” Read More »

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Los Angeles Dodgers Will Have New Owner After Frank McCourt Makes Deal To Sell

By PATRICK HIPES, Managing Editor | Tuesday November 1, 2011 @ 11:12pm PDTTags: Bankruptcy, DirecTV, Dish Network, Fox Sports, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Time Warner Cable, TV Rights

If Frank McCourt’s fight to remain owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers seemed long and arduous, it was — after all, he had to fight his ex-wife Jamie with one hand and baseball commissioner Bud Selig with the other. If … Read More »

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UPDATE: Fox Steals World Cup TV Rights From ESPN & Telemundo Scores Too; Total Deal Could Exceed $1B

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday October 21, 2011 @ 9:40am PDTTags: ESPN, Fox Sports, Telemundo, TV Rights, Univision, World Cup

UPDATE: 12:45 PM: The Sports Business Daily is reporting that Fox will pay $450 million-$500 million for rights to the next two World Cups, and Telemundo will pay $600 million. If true, those are massive markups from … Read More »

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