Dorms to receive Fox Sports West 2
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 3, 1997 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday, February 4, 1997
TELEVISION:
On-campus UCLA students will soon be able to receive full sports
coverageBy Kristina Wilcox
Daily Bruin Contributor
According to a Fox Sports spokesperson, a verbal commitment has
been made with Lamont Communications so the UCLA dorms will receive
Fox Sports West 2 again some time soon.
There is a two-week window in the negotiations, with the
possibility that the dorms will be hooked up for the channel early
this week.
Many of UCLA’s sports should be broadcast on the network,
including the Feb. 19 men’s basketball game vs. USC. According to
Fox Sports, students in the dorms should be able to watch that game
from their rooms.
Fox Sports management did not return phone calls placed by The
Bruin Monday afternoon.
Details between Fox Sports and Lamont Communications were worked
out during a Monday afternoon meeting. As of Friday, there were
still several legal hurdles to overcome before the channel could
come online in the dorms.
Fox Sports West decided last year to launch a new network to
give better coverage to all of the Los Angeles-based sports teams.
Fourteen of the roughly 100 West Coast cable companies picked up
the option.
The lack of interest is primarily due to the new station’s
coverage base. Fox Sports will not be covering any new teams with
the channel but will still charge cable viewers a premium.
Dorm students, under an agreement with the Student Technology
Center (STC), will likely not have to pay extra for Fox Sports
 but they may have to make some sacrifices to receive the new
channel.
The STC is still in the process of carrying on negotiations of
their own with Fox Sports and will be getting input from dorm
students soon.
"We will be releasing a survey to our main subscribers later
this month to see if they are willing to drop any channels to pick
this one up," said STC Manager Richard Kroon.
"Fox Sports West 2 is an expensive channel. It is the cost
equivalent of three or four channels. Fox Sports itself is
equivalent to six or seven. Combined they are equivalent to 10
channels, which is quite a bit," he added.
At this point, the STC is hesitant to carry such a heavy
financial burden.
"Carrying this new channel requires a significant increase in
funding," Kroon said.
He noted that Fox Sports has made an offer that if STC carries
both channels, Fox Sports will give them a two-cent discount per
viewer every month. STC officials, however, remain "very hopeful"
that negotiations will result in a final deal.
