John Malone is becoming a force in the world of sports.
As part of an asset swap with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. is acquiring three regional sports networks that reach 8.8 million cable and satellite-TV subscribers in 15 states.
The networks – based in Denver, Seattle and Pittsburgh – are home to several professional sports franchises, including Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies, Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Separately, Douglas County-based Liberty is negotiating to acquire MLB’s Atlanta Braves as part of an asset swap with Braves owner Time Warner.
Questions abound about what Malone, Liberty’s founder and chairman, will do with the sports assets.
Will he roll up additional networks and launch a national sports-programming venture to compete against ESPN? That’s what Murdoch did by acquiring 15 regional programming networks that reach more than 80 million subscribers.
Or will he divest the networks to sports-team owners such as Paul Allen, owner of the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks, and Stan Kroenke, owner of the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets?
“Everybody’s kind of curious” about Malone’s plans, said Denver-based sports-business expert Dave Smrek. “It’s a pretty major move within the industry.”
For its part, Liberty said no changes are imminent.
“We have no plans to change how they are run today, and the networks will continue to have access to the programming they currently show,” said Liberty spokesman John Orr.
Orr said Liberty doesn’t yet have plans to change the name of the networks, “though that certainly could change in the future.”
Liberty is acquiring Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain, FSN Northwest and FSN Pittsburgh.
The trend in recent years has been for sports-team owners to create their own sports network rather than sell broadcast rights to a third party such as FSN.
The owners of MLB’s Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians each recently launched their own networks, Smrek said.
Two years ago, Kroenke launched Altitude Sports & Entertainment to compete against FSN Rocky Mountain.
Altitude chief executive Jim Martin has told The Post that the company would be interested in partnering with Liberty.
Smrek, a principal at sports-business consulting firm Adrenalin, said it might make sense for Liberty to keep the three networks together, allowing the company to cut national advertising and cable and satellite-TV carriage deals.
“They are some really strong assets that are probably stronger collectively than they are on their own,” Smrek said. “You’ve kind of got a running head start when you have three of them and you have the Braves also.”
Orr said Liberty continues to negotiate with Time Warner.
That deal would likely involve a swap of Liberty’s 4 percent stake in Time Warner for the Braves and cash.
As part of the deal with News Corp., Liberty also received a 38.5 percent stake in DirecTV, the nation’s largest satellite-TV company, and $550 million in cash. News Corp. received Liberty’s 16.3 percent stake in News Corp. The deal is expected to close in mid-2007.
Liberty has a wide array of media holdings, such as QVC home-shopping network and Starz cable-TV network.
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
Sports mogul in the making?
John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. is acquiring three regional sports networks as part of an asset swap with News Corp.
FSN ROCKY MOUNTAIN
Subscriber reach: 2.8 million
Coverage territory: Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, southern Idaho, western Nebraska, western Kansas and northeastern Nevada
Marquee programming: Colorado Rockies and Big 12 football games
FSN NORTHWEST
Subscriber reach: 3.4 million
Coverage territory: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska
Marquee programming: Seattle Mariners, Seattle SuperSonics, Portland Trail Blazers
FSN PITTSBURGH
Subscriber reach: 2.6 million
Coverage territory: Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland
Marquee programming: Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Pirates
Source: Fox Sports Net
