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Mike Reynolds
The battle between ESPN and Major League Baseball is heading to the ultimate umpire: a U.S. court of law.
ESPN sued MLB in federal court seeking injunctive relief and financial damages after the league tried to terminate ESPN's regular-season contract for the 2000-2002 seasons.
The league acted after failing to reach agreement with ESPN over the network's decision to move three September MLB games to ESPN2 to make room for ESPN's new early-season NFL package. Last year, baseball opted to return the games to their local market carriers, rather than have them air on ESPN2.
Should ESPN lose baseball, the total sports network would be without game coverage of two of America's most popular sports (baseball and basketball) and face a huge, high-profile programming gap following the end of the pro football season.
With a similar situation facing the parties this year and beyond, the problem persisted throughout the off-season, sans accord. ESPN avers that its contract gives it the right to shift 10 baseball games annually for "events of significant viewer interest," of which it believes highly rated NFL coverage qualifies since it is the "gold standard of viewer's interest," according to EVP of programming Dick Glover.
Baseball, meanwhile, contends that ESPN does not have the right to shift the games without its approval, and that it was never consulted by the network about potential conflicts when the network was negotiating its $4.8 billion NFL deal, which was finalized in January 1998.
A response is expected by MLB in the U.S. District Court in New York within three weeks.
ESPN officials assert that in January MLB asked for an additional $350 million for the remainder of current regular season contract (a separate $65 million annual post-season deal extends through 2000), plus an annual threefold increase for two additional years. Considering that ESPN's regular-season contract is estimated at some $40 million annually, these increases would have pushed an extended package total to some $750 million.
In defending its position, ESPN points out that between doubleheaders on Wednesday nights, the exclusive Sunday night game of the week, and news and information show Baseball Tonight, it devotes some 500 hours of programming to MLB annually.
Moreover, Glover said that ESPN offered to run additional games on the primary service on Tuesdays and Thursdays in September, as well as up to 10 special two-hour versions of Baseball Tonight as bargaining chips that MLB ultimately rejected.
If the matter isn't settled, MLB could head elsewhere. MLB says no conversations with other networks about the cable package have taken place. However, as one MSO veteran says: "This is a big step for baseball. I'm not sure they would have decided to make this move unless they were pretty sure about a Plan B."
Most in the sports and cable world point to Fox and Turner as the likely alternate players, with USA Network considered a long shot to step up to the plate.
Both Fox and Turner Sports are well rooted in the game. Fox holds a regular season and a myriad of broadcast post-season baseball rights under current contracts, while its owned and affiliated regional sports networks televise the games of 25 of MLB's 30 clubs. In addition, the RSNs offer a weekly national cablecast on Thursday nights, and FX carries a game on Saturday nights. All told, Fox will air nearly 2,000 ballgames in 1999.
Given Fox's commitment, it would be tricky for it to overcome scheduling and monetary conflicts attendant to the regionals shifting games to accommodate a national doubleheader on Wednesday or another weeknight. Such a deal would also place increased advertising inventory into Fox hands, a situation that hurt CBS when it was the sole broadcast carrier of MLB earlier this decade, amidst a then soft sports ad marketplace.
For its part, Turner Sports airs a highly profitable national package of 90 Atlanta Braves games on TBS Superstation. Despite some scheduling conflicts that might ensue with both TNT and TBS' coverage of the NBA in April and the pro hoops playoffs in May, the Turner networks may be better suited to handle additional ballgames.
However, Turner, the owner of the Braves, would also have to wrangle with the Sunday night package, since it often launches TNT's expanding slate of original and acquired films on that night.
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