Latest in YES Network

A major change may finally be coming to the streaming sports landscape, New York Yankees president Randy Levine hinted Thursday after the $3.5 billion sale of the YES Network formally closed. YES, which will now be owned by the Yankees, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Amazon and three private equity partners. The new…

The sale of the YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, to a consortium including the Amazon, the Yankees and Sinclair Broadcast Group, was finalized Thursday. At $3.47 billion, the transaction is the largest piece of turf in the larger landscape of the formerly…

The latest battlefront in the intensifying pay-TV carriage war is sports, with the YES Network and the regional sports networks formerly operated by Fox going dark on Dish Network on Friday. Disney ended up with the RSNs as a result of the 21st Century Fox deal, only to divest them to a group led by Sinclair Broadcast…

The YES Network, the most prominent of the 22 regional sports networks being unloaded by Disney as a condition of closing its 21st Century Fox acquisition, has been sold for $3.5 billion, according to multiple media reports. The buyers of the 80% of YES controlled by Fox are said to be a group that includes the New…

The New York Yankees, owners of 20% of regional sports network YES, are in talks with Amazon and Sinclair Broadcast Group about a bid for the remaining 80% of it, according to the Wall Street Journal. Disney is reviewing bids for the 22 RSNs owned by 21st Century Fox. As it moves toward the closing of its $71.3…

Amazon has joined the bidding for the 22 regional sports networks currently owned by 21st Century Fox that regulators are requiring Disney to sell off as part of its pending Fox acquisition, CNBC has reported. The digital giant, which already has a foothold in sports via NFL Thursday Night Football rights as well as…

The benches haven’t cleared yet. But there’s a lot of yelling from the dugouts at the Fox-controlled YES Network, which carries the New York Yankees, and Comcast a little more than three weeks before the baseball season begins. YES has been dark on Comcast since November 18. They aren’t in serious talks to change…

It’s been a big week for the New York Yankees. First the team won a bidding war for Japanese pitching phenom Masahiro Tanaka. Then, today, Fox announced that it will raise its stake in the team’s YES regional sports network to 80% from 49%. When the deal closes, expected by the end of March, YES Network will be…

Looks like News Corp’s trying to boost the Deputy COO’s profile on Wall Street: James Murdoch’s appearance today at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference was his second high-profile presentation to investors this month. (He was also on News Corp’s latest earnings call.) Rupert’s son, who last…

It sure looks that way. If the current arrangement breaks apart, giving way to a system where consumers can buy just the programming that they want, then high-priced channels such as the YES Network could lose their slugging power faster than, well, New York Yankees’ aging star Alex Rodriguez. That doesn’t seem to…

YES Network has local media rights to the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets and becomes the newest regional sports network for News Corp. The network commands almost $3 per subscriber per month in fees, according to SNL Kagan, making it among the most lucrative RSNs in the country. (Time Warner Cable’s new LA…

News Corp’s impending purchase of up to a 49% stake in the New York Yankees’ YES Network values the regional sports service at $3 billion, the New York Times reports. That’s lower than the $4 billion sellers had suggested YES was worth. News Corp prefers 100% ownership of its regional networks but even a minority…