Fox Probably Won’t Make Dodgers Blue

When Rupert Murdoch’s Fox network made its big-splash entry into sports television, wresting the NFL away from CBS for $1.58 billion four years ago, the skeptics started in.

Will Fox put Bart Simpson and Al Bundy in the broadcast booth? Will Aaron Spelling be put in charge and turn the NFL into some syrupy serial and call it “NFL Place�? Will Tori Spelling host the pregame show? Or Jason Priestley?

It didn’t turn out that way. Fox got the best football announcers in the business, John Madden and Pat Summerall, and gave Madden an unheard-of salary of $7.5 million a year.

David Hill was brought in from England to head Fox Sports, and executive producer Ed Goren was brought over from CBS to work under Hill. These two went out

and hired the best people they could find, who initially were mostly CBS people with NFL experience.

Fox then got major league baseball and the NHL and continued to make good hires.

Fox also came up with such technological innovations as the score-all-the-time graphic on football, which was first copied by ESPN and which ABC will now use on “Monday Night Football� and college football.

We’re not saying everything Fox does is great. Whoever came up with the idea of superimposing sponsors’ logos on a tennis court, as Fox Sports Net did during last weekend’s women’s tennis tournament at La Costa, should be sentenced to a life of watching irritating commercials.

What we’re saying is Fox Sports and cable offshoot Fox Sports Net, the parent network of Fox Sports West and West 2, have done pretty well. The effort has been there, the money has been there and the results generally have been favorable.

We bring this up as Murdoch is on the verge of buying the Dodgers. Again, the skeptics are having their say. The New York Times’ George Vecsey the other day wrote: “If this sale goes through to the cynical entertainment titan, my response is: There goes the neighborhood.�

Let’s not be so quick to judge.

For one thing, Murdoch is not directly involved in this transaction. Sure, as the chairman of News Corp., Fox’s parent company, he will be the one who signs off on the deal. But Peter Chernin and Chase Carey, co-chief executive officers of News Corp., are the real kingpins.

The good news is both are baseball men. Chernin grew up in Brooklyn and has been a lifetime Dodger fan. Carey carries a baseball beeper wherever he goes, giving him updated scores and other data on command.

Currently, all parties involved are going through a process called “due diligence,� in which the numbers people inspect the books. Sometime around the end of the month, expect an agreement in principle to be announced with the sale price of about $350 million. Then baseball’s owners must approve. It takes a two-thirds majority of National League owners and a simple majority of American League owners.

Getting approval from the owners isn’t a slam dunk, but it’s expected to happen.

After that, we’ll see if the Dodgers will be run much the way Fox Sports has been. That might not be such a bad thing.

BATTLE OF THE CENTURY

Just when it appeared the splitting headache surrounding the creation of Fox Sports West 2 was about to subside, Century Cable this week said no, it is not going to give in to what it calls “gun-to-the-head� tactics and carry Fox Sports West 2.

“We don’t feel the terms are fair to the majority of our customers,� said Carter Bland, vice president of programming, from Century’s corporate headquarters in New Canaan, Conn.

Fox Sports West in turn has declared war and will begin an all-out media blitz that includes newspaper ads that encourage Century subscribers to call and complain.

Seven of Southern California’s 10 major cable operators, representing two-thirds of the cable market, are now either carrying Fox Sports West 2 or have made an agreement to do so.

Century, Time Warner and Comcast are the holdouts. But headway is being made with Comcast and even Time Warner. It has helped that Time Warner Cable and Fox’s parent corporations are making their peace. The first step came three weeks ago when Time Warner Cable agreed to start carrying the Fox News Channel. Another step was made last week when an accord was reached that allows TBS, a Time Warner property formerly owned by Time Warner vice chairman Ted Turner, to continue televising Atlanta Brave games even though Fox and ESPN own national cable rights.

Century, which has about 330,000 subscribers in the Southland, may end up the lone holdout. The main hang-up is the price of about 50 cents per subscriber per month.

Here’s something for the folks at Century to consider. Philadelphia’s new Comcast-Spectacor regional cable sports network, to launch Oct. 31, will charge cable operators $1.50 per month per subscriber, which is more than the combined fee for Fox Sports West and Fox Sports West 2.

Fox Sports West and Fox Sports West 2, between them, have six major league teams plus UCLA and USC football and basketball. Comcast-Spectacor will televise only three major league teams--the Phillies, Flyers and 76ers. And some may argue the Phillies and 76ers don’t qualify as major league.

SHORT WAVES

The USA network has hired Pam Shriver as a commentator for its U.S. Open coverage beginning Aug. 25. . . . DirecTV begins carrying ESPNEWS Sunday on Channel 208. CNN/SI is available on DirecTV via SportsChannel Florida, which is part of the service’s Platinum sports package. . . . Channel 9 begins its exhibition Raider coverage with tonight’s game at 7 against Green Bay. Charlie Jones and Jim Plunkett call the action. . . . The game will also be on XTRA 1150, as will all Raider games this season.

XTRA 1150, continuing to beef up its inventory, will use Golfer’s Guide editor Dave Mills as a correspondent next week on the PGA Championship. KNX will offer CBS’s radio coverage at 16 minutes past the hour, beginning at 10:16 a.m. on Thursday and Friday and at 11:16 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. . . . Boxing expert Johnny Ortiz joins Fred Wallin on XTRA 1150 on Saturday, noon-1 p.m. . . . XTRA 1150 is close to naming a UCLA commentator. Former Bruin tight end Tim Wrightman is a possibility. . . . Pat Healy, widow of Jim Healy, died at Cedars Sinai Hospital last Friday, about a month after a malignant tumor was found in a lung. She was 73. . . . Sound bites from her late husband’s one-of-kind radio show are now available on request at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs Aug. 2-3.

SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Baseball: Dodgers at Chicago 11 5.8 17 Track and field: World Championships 4 3.9 13 Auto racing: NASCAR Brickyard 400 7 2.9 8 Wide World of Sports: IROC at Fontana 7 2.3 6 WNBA basketball: Phoenix at New York 4 1.9 6 Senior tennis: The Challenge 11 1.4 4 Golf: Sprint International (rain-delayed) 2 1.3 4

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SUNDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Pro football: Carolina at Jacksonville 4 8.3 23 Track and field: World Championships 4 5.3 15 Golf: Sprint International 2 2.7 7 MLS soccer: San Jose at New England 34 1.7 5 Golf: Sports Stars Shootout 7 1.7 4 Senior tennis: The Challenge 11 1.5 4

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Note: Each rating point represents 49,424 L.A. households.