FSN Keeps Rockies in House with New Deal

In an effort to keep Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies from hitting ratings home runs for a competing network, Fox Sports Net Thursday purchased a minority interest in the club while extending its cable-rights deal through 2012.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources said FSN will pay the Rockies $20 million per year beginning next season through 2014 for the rights to telecast up to 150 Rockies games through its FSN Rocky Mountain regional sports network.

In addition, Fox Sports Baseball Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Fox Cable Networks Group, purchased a 10% nonvoting interest in the team for approximately $20 million. The equity-interest agreement comes seven months after Fox sold its interest in MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, which it acquired in 1999.

The deal also effectively keeps the Rockies from migrating to Kroenke Sports Enterprises LLC-owned Altitude Sports Network, which will launch this September.

Earlier this year, FSN lost the rights to the Kroenke-owned Denver Nuggets National Basketball Association and Colorado Avalanche National Hockey League teams to Altitude. The network, though, has yet to secure distribution deals with any major MSOs within the market.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.