Fox Sports Southwest, the broadcast home for most Stars, Mavs and Rangers games, is among 21 regional sports networks being bought by television station powerhouse Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.
Sinclair's deal to buy the networks from Walt Disney Co. will accelerate the Maryland company's push into major television markets, according to a person familiar with the deal. Besides Dallas, other regional networks are in major sports markets like Los Angeles, Phoenix, Miami and Detroit.
Disney acquired the sports channels in March as part of its $71 billion takeover of much of Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox. But the Burbank entertainment giant wasn't allowed to keep them. Last summer, the U.S. Justice Department demanded that Disney sell the regional sports networks as a condition of its takeover of Fox.
Antitrust regulators were concerned that Disney, which already owns sports juggernaut ESPN, would have too much sway in the TV sports market. The government gave Disney 90 days to unload the channels after it acquired them. The clock started ticking at the close of the Disney-Fox transaction.
Fox Business Network first reported that Sinclair had won the auction for the channels. The channels also drew interest from Liberty Media Corp. and Big3, an upstart basketball league run by the rapper-actor Ice Cube and Hollywood businessman Jeff Kwatinetz.
The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday that Sinclair had reached a deal valued at more than $10 billion for the channels. A person familiar with the auction but not authorized to comment confirmed that Disney and Sinclair had agreed to the sale.
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/sports-business/2019/05/03/fox-sports-southwest-among-21-stations-sold-sinclair-broadcast-group
2019-05-03 15:53:00Z
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