Fox offers Dodgers $6 bn to retain TV rights

MUMBAI: Close on the heels of buying a 49 per cent stake in New York Yankees cable channel, News Corp-owned Fox Sports is believed to be close to signing a 25-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers worth $6-7 billion to retain the television rights till 2038.

The baseball team could see its broadcast rights contract jump from $40 million that Fox pays it annually to an average $280 million a year, which would make it one of the richest broadcast contract in sports history.

Fox Sports holds the broadcast rights for Dodgers games till 2013 season.

The offer is three times what Dodgers got from its new owners to come out of bankruptcy. The MB team was bought by a consortium led by legendary Laker Magic Johnson?s bidding group for the Dodgers and Dodger Stadium for $2.15 billion, making it one of the costliest purchases ever paid for a North American sports franchise.

"The Dodgers and Fox have been long-time partners and we?re in discussions now to extend that relationship well into the future," Fox said in a statement. "We?re working hard to reach an agreement that achieves the goals of Dodgers ownership and also makes sense for our business. The discussions are private and ongoing so, out of respect for the process, we?re not going to comment further."

The broadcast rights fee has jumped due to intense competition for local sports programming in Southern California which saw Fox Sports vying with Time Warner Cable (TWC) for the right.

Earlier, Fox had acquired a 49 per cent stake in Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (Yes), the cable network channel owned by baseball team New York Yankees and its partners. The Yes Network also announced a media rights agreement that will keep Yankees baseball on the Yes Network through 2042.

The News Corp-owned Fox Sports is planning to launch a national cable sports channel to rival ESPN. With Yankees rights already in its pocket, a deal with Dodgers would give Fox the perfect launch pad for the new channel.