Upset at Sports Net
Several pro teams won't reup, will go own way
News Corp.'s DirecTV will announce next week that it has tapped Dan Fawcett as its general counsel. Fawcett was general counsel of DirecTV's sibling Fox Cable Networks, which includes all of the Fox Sports regional channels.
Fawcett's appointment comes within a few days of Neal Tiles' shift from exec VP of marketing for the Fox Sports Network to a similar post with DirecTV.
A Fox spokesman said it's just a coincidence that these execs are ankling Fox Cable and Fox Sports the same week that the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League and the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Assn. announced they won't renew their deals with Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain after this season.
But "the regional-sports-network business is changing, and Fox Sports Net should be concerned about it," said Jim Martin, a former Fox Sports exec who has just taken over as CEO of the still-unnamed network featuring games of the Avalanche and the Nuggets, which will open for business in the fall.
At least Fox Sports Rocky Mountain still has four more years on its contract with baseball's Colorado Rockies. In Chicago, Fox Sports' partner Rainbow Media has lost all four of its pro teams (the basketball Bulls, the hockey Black Hawks and baseball's White Sox and Cubs) to Comcast Sports Net Chicago, which kicks off in October.
The Houston Rockets team of the NBA is working on its own regional network after failing to come to terms with Fox Sports Net Southwest.
The Minnesota Twins baseball team has created the Victory Network in the Twin Cities, and three NBA teams -- the Sacramento Kings, the Memphis Grizzlies and the new Charlotte Bobcats -- have publicly proclaimed their desire to shun Fox and Rainbow in favor of their own nets.
The Fox spokesman said that, despite the loss of a few pro teams in the last year or two, Fox Sports Net still has deals with 67 of the 80 U.S.-based pro teams.
