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It seems that the long-term sale of the former regional sports networks of the Fox is finally over, but without further rebound. Last Friday, Charles Gasparino of Fox Business report Disney had reached a "bargaining agreement" to sell the RSNs to Sinclair for "up to $ 10 billion", but this report included the caveat that the transaction could be canceled if another bidder (likely to Liberty Media-MLB offer, but possibly the BIG3 (a high-value offer "for culture") made a better offer.Well, it seems that the RSN still go to Sinclair, with Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal reporting Thursday that they have now "reached an agreement":
Channel giant Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. has signed a deal worth more than $ 10 billion to acquire 21 regional sports networks from Walt Disney Co., according to people close to the case.
The agreement should be announced as early as Friday, the population announced.
… Sinclair Broadcast has partnered separately with the New York Yankees to acquire the YES network, another network formerly controlled by Fox, as part of a transaction valued at $ 3.45 billion, announced people close to this transaction. This sale, which has not been finalized yet, also includes Amazon.com Inc. as a partner.
It seems that Sinclair may be paying a little more than what was originally announced ("over $ 10 billion" versus "up to $ 10 billion"), which could signal an additional offer from D & C Another company that they then matched or upgraded, a change of terms or something else. But no matter what happened there, it's still a lot less than the $ 20 to $ 22 billion initially projected by networks (including YES). Of course, it has been projected for months that they would be sold for much less than that, so it's not necessarily surprising, but it's still remarkable to see that the final low price is reached.
An upcoming question could be regulatory approval. Disney sells these RSNs as part of an agreement with the Department of Justice authorizing the global sale of Fox-Disney, the GM citing antitrust concerns if Disney owned both the ESPN national networks and these regional networks. It will be interesting to see whether the DOJ or the FCC have concerns about Sinclair (the largest owner of American TV channels) adding so many regional sports networks to his portfolio, which would probably give them a lot of weight in the negotiations. particularly in markets where they have a broadcasting network and an RSN). And the FCC has already helped stop the proposed merger between Sinclair and Tribune last year. But the regulator can not intervene here too; Unlike Sinclair-Tribune, this is a concentration on different areas (local broadcast networks and RSNs) rather than a combination of local broadcast networks, and Disney is already divesting them quickly and at a loss, because of the antitrust concerns of the regulators.
If agreement is reached, Sinclair has just become a much bigger player on the American sports scene. In addition to their local broadcast networks, they also control Tennis Channel and Stadium and now have 21 RSNs (22 if you count their minority stake in YES) to add to this mix. And they have another new RSN to launch next year, "Marquee" (based on the Chicago Cubs). We will see how this happens with the transport rights and negotiations agreements and if they can make these NSRs work for them, but their presence in American sports will certainly be much more important.
[[[[The Wall Street Journal]
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