(FROM MLBTR:)
D-Backs Agree To New Television Contract
By Steve Adams [February 18, 2015 at 9:32pm CST]
The Diamondbacks and FOX Sports Arizona have agreed to a new television contract that is believed to be worth more than one billion dollars in total, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.
Arizona’s current television contract, which expires at season’s end, has an average annual vaue of about $31MM per year, Piecoro notes. He adds that the new contract is believed to at least triple that amount. It’s unclear how much the total value of the contract is, because the length of the deal isn’t currently known, but club officials have recently said they were discussing lengths in the 15- to 20-year range. Piecoro reports that there are indications that the new deal is indeed in line with those previously discussed parameters, which would suggest the total value is at least $1.4 billion.
Piecoro writes that the impact on the team’s payroll isn’t immediately known, though as he points out, the increased revenue won’t vault the D-Backs into the division-rival Dodgers’ financial stratosphere. The Dodgers’ TV deal averages out to roughly $334MM annually, according to a Forbes report from March 2014, trailing only the Yankees, whose annual revenue from the YES Network averages out to about $385MM.
Recent examples of this type of mega-contract include the Rangers, Mariners and Phillies, each of whom have AAVs in excess of $140MM, per Forbes. Piecoro notes that since the Rangers signed their 20-year, $1.7 billion deal in 2010, nearly a third of the teams in the league have inked similar contracts. Per Forbes, the previous top 10 television revenues belonged to the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, Rangers, Angels, Mariners, Mets, Red Sox, Giants and Padres.
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Originally Posted by dak
