News Corporation’s Bid for a Stake in YES Would Value Channel at $3 Billion

YankeeFan · Nov 18, 2012

Worth more than the team:

News Corporation is on the verge of acquiring up to 49 percent of the YES Network from the Yankees and their partners, according to three people familiar with the negotiations. The purchase price for the noncontrolling stake is based on a valuation of the channel at slightly more than $3 billion.

Even a minority stake in YES would be a prize for News Corporation, whose Fox Sports division owns 19 regional sports networks around the country. YES is the most valuable regional sports network, having built its appeal on televising Yankee games, pre- and postgame shows and the “Yankeeography” series to a large, rabid fan base.

YES, which also televises Nets basketball games, has served as a model for other team, league and college-conference-owned channels.

Although News Corporation prefers to have 100 percent ownership of its regional networks, it would be able to share in the profits of YES. And according to the people familiar with the discussions, who spoke late last week, the deal would provide News Corporation a route to eventual control of YES — an option would exist in three to five years for the company to increase its investment to as much as 80 percent. But at that point, the price would be based on a valuation of at least $3.5 billion.

The people who spoke of the deal were not authorized to speak publicly because negotiations were continuing. News Corporation and Yankee officials declined to comment.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/news-corporations-bid-for-a-stake-in-yes-would-value-channel-at-3-billion/
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Starman · Nov 18, 2012

Hopefully Murdoch Younger and Elder will be behind bars soon in the phone-hacking cases.

LongTimeListener · Nov 19, 2012

OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS, OF ALL THE DRAMATICS THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN, MEGYN KELLY STANDING RIGHT IN THE DATA ROOM!

Baron Scicluna · Nov 19, 2012

The Boston Red Sox are about to get lumped in with the liberal media.

YankeeFan · Nov 23, 2012

The Yankees & FOX engaged in propaganda?

Fear not, Yankees fans: the YES Network’s Yankees propaganda will continue even if News Corporation increases its ownership stake in the channel from 49 percent, which it agreed to purchase Tuesday, to as much as 80 percent in three years.

The deal cedes the Yankees continued control of pinstripe content even if the team owns as little as 20 percent.

And why would Fox Sports, the division of News Corporation that owns 19 regional sports networks, want to alter YES’s Yankees propaganda formula? It has served YES so well that it will be valued at $3.8 billion if News Corporation buys majority control. Carrying the Nets did not make YES valuable. It’s about Yankees games; the pre- and postgame shows; the “Yankeeography” series and replays of games; and the “Yankee Classics,” in which the Yankees never lose. (They have lost classic games, but YES does not show them.)

Earlier this year, when YES was celebrating its 10th anniversary, I talked to Randy Levine, the Yankees’ president, and Tracy Dolgin, who runs YES, about the unashamedly pro-Yankees slant of the network’s announcers and the absence of a news operation like the one on SNY. “We tell our people if you want to be bipartisan and fair, don’t work for YES,” Levine said.

As for carrying a nightly news show, like SNY’s “SportsNite,” Dolgin said: “News is a loser. If you want news, watch ESPN.”

Fox will, of course, bring some of its programming to YES. That was one reason to make the deal. It needs a New York outpost, especially as it starts a national sports network that is, for now, called Fox Sports 1. But tinker with the propaganda? Never.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/sports/baseball/change-in-yes-ownership-unlikely-to-alter-yankees-heavy-format.html?ref=sports
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Football_Bat · Nov 24, 2012

I think Fox got its fill of ownership with the Dodgers. Don't know how keen they'll be to re-enter that market.

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News Corporation’s Bid for a Stake in YES Would Value Channel at $3 Billion

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