Fox launches new network to cover all L.A. sports teams

Thursday, January 23, 1997

TELEVISION:

Westwood residents to lose access to UCLA sports coverageBy
Melissa Anderson

Daily Bruin Staff

According to the marketing department at Fox Sports West, Los
Angeles has too many home teams for one network to cover. So in
order to give each team its due, Fox Television has decided to
launch Fox Sports West 2, beginning Jan. 27.

The catch? Westwood residents subscribing to Century Cable and
those living in UCLA residence halls will not have access to the
new channel, which will carry, among other things, UCLA and USC
athletics.

Headlining the lineup on the new channel are the Los Angeles
Dodgers, who are expected to draw in customers and ratings for
L.A.’s fourth all-sports network. The Clippers, Mighty Ducks, live
horse racing, high school sports and other college programming will
make the switch as well.

Currently, Fox Sports West 2 is planning to carry 40 Dodger
games as well as the UCLA-USC men’s basketball game on Feb. 19 and
UCLA-Oregon State on Feb. 27, in addition to various other UCLA
athletic events.

"We’ve put together a product that, to a UCLA extent is going to
have tremendous programming and will showcase more UCLA sports
which people want to see," Fox Sports Vice President of media
relations Vince Wladika said. "We’re somewhat baffled as to why any
MSO (multi-system operator) would have a problem carrying a station
like this."

But with the impending sale of the Dodgers and the slight
possibility that they will move out of L.A., several cable
companies are holding back, including Century and its affiliate,
Continental.

Customer service representatives at Century Cable told customers
calling to inquire about the availability of Fox Sports West 2 that
the channel would not be added to their lineup anytime soon, though
negotiations are continuing with Fox. Representatives also reported
that until the situation with the Dodgers is clarified, Century
will not enter into a contract to broadcast Fox Sports West 2. They
added that they will pass on consumer requests for the station to
officials.

"This is a channel that is a strong, local-oriented channel
which serves the viewers of the MSOs who are not picking it up,"
Wladika said. "For them to say it’s because of the Dodgers, that is
some of the biggest malarchy I’ve ever heard.

"I don’t foresee the Dodgers leaving L.A."

Meanwhile, when officials at Century Cable spoke with a
reporter, they claimed that it is a lack of channel availability
and not the situation with the Dodgers which is keeping Fox Sports
West 2 off the air.

"Currently, we do not have any channel availability," Century
Cable regional consumer/government affairs manager Rick Neylan
said. "It’s hard to say ‘let’s drop this or that (and replace it
with Fox Sports West 2)’ because different people like different
things.

"This is a market with a lot of sports-oriented people and we’d
love to carry it. We just don’t have the channel availability at
this time."

Dorm residents are faced with a different problem ­ money.
When Fox bought Prime Sports at the end of last year and launched
Fox Sports West in its place, the price of the station stayed the
same. Now that it’s splitting into two stations, the price is too
much for UCLA to incur.

Cable in the residence halls is independently run through the
Student Technology Center and UCLA telecom. According to STC
manager Richard Kroom, UCLA has a cap on the amount of money it can
spend on cable programming and the addition of Fox Sports West 2
would push STC over the limit. He added, however, that they do
intend to carry the station and are currently "negotiating with Fox
to get the price down."

Although Century and Fox may come to a resolution on their own
in the near future, Wladika added that the viewers themselves may
have the biggest impact.

"The best way to get an MSO to add a channel is to call the
cable company and demand it," he said.