【案例】媒体竞争
News Corp. Said to Weigh a Channel to Rival ESPN 2012-3-29 13:30| |原作者: By BILL CARTER|
摘要: Published: March 28, 2012 RECOMMEND TWITTER LINKEDIN SIGN IN TO E-MAIL PRINT REPRINTS SHARE News Corporationis in discussions to create a cable sports network that would compete with the industr ...
Published: March 28, 2012
News Corporation
is in discussions to create a cable sports network that would compete with the industry leader,
ESPN.
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Executives who have been involved in planning the channel confirmed several details that were
first reported Wednesday
by Bloomberg News. The news service reported that News Corporation had begun an ambitious effort to create a sports-only cable network, possibly by converting one of the existing channels it owns. Lou D’Ermilio, a spokesman for Fox Sports, said the company would have no comment on the report. But News Corporation executives, who asked not to be identified because no decision had been made, said the company had held extensive discussions about creating a national cable sports channel. “Will it happen?” one senior executive said. “Maybe. But maybe not.” The executives denied that the channel could begin as early as the end of this year. “That’s not going to happen,” the senior executive said. “There is no final timetable.” News Corporation could try to re-brand one of the cable channels it already owns, like Fuel, which specializes in
“thrill-seeking sports”
like Ultimate Fighting Championship matches, into a general sports channel. But that network is only seen in only 36 million homes. A more likely candidate, the senior executive acknowledged, would be the Speed Channel, a network based on car racing that is now seen in about 80 million homes. If the plans come to fruition, it could set up a ferocious competition among several corporate parties. Comcast is trying to push its own channel, NBC Sports Network, toward competitive status with ESPN. CBS has its own entity, the CBS Sports Network, and Turner Entertainment has been a heavy bidder for top sports rights, like N.B.A. and N.C.A.A. basketball. All those companies would like to cut in on ESPN’s dominance in the most lucrative area of cable — subscription fees, the financial underpinning of the cable television business. Cable systems pay channels a per-subscriber fee based on their programming and audience size. Sports rights have lifted ESPN’s fees to the top of the business, by far. The channel receives $5.06 a month per subscriber this year. Most channels receive less than a dollar. But to extract that kind of value from cable systems, a sports channel would need a roster of highly desirable events. News Corporation owns rights to packages like Big Ten and Pac 12 football, some Major League Baseball and Nascar racing events. The company also won the rights to World Cup soccer, starting in 2018. However, News Corporation may also be looking to position itself as a bidder for sports rights that could put a new network on the map as a legitimate competitor to ESPN — for both viewers and fees. The cable television rights to Major League Baseball are expected to be renegotiated sometime in the next year. More significant, the N.F.L., by far the most attractive sports rights holder, is expected to test the waters on a new cable television package of games in the 2014 season.
A version of this article appeared in print on March 29, 2012, on page
B3
of the
New York edition
with the headline: News Corp. Said to Weigh A Channel to Rival ESPN.
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楼主: 刘海明
发表于 2013-8-21 15:59:12
