Laker, King, Lazer Games Will Be Shown on New Cable TV Channel, Buss Announces

At least 23 Laker home games and 37 home and road King games will be televised on a new multisports cable TV channel next season. That was jointly announced Wednesday by Jerry Buss, owner of the Lakers and Kings, and Tony Acone, a representative of Bill Daniels and Associates, at a press conference at Pickfair, Buss’ home.

Channel 9 will continue to carry Laker road games but will not carry any King games.

Buss said that the new channel, to be launched in October, will not cost cable subscribers any additional fee. The new sports channel will also offer approximately 25 home and away Lazer indoor soccer games, boxing and tennis from the Forum, and USC men’s and women’s basketball, swimming, track and field, volleyball and baseball. In all, some 175 to 200 events will be televised on the new channel, Buss said.

Buss also said that negotiations are under way with the Angels, Dodgers, UCLA, other area colleges, and high school organizations. However, since the Dodgers launched a new pay-per-view cable package, Dodgervision, this season, it is doubtful that they would be involved in this venture in the near future.

Cable operators will pay for the service, with hopes of attracting additional subscribers. Revenue will also be generated through the sale of commercial time. Buss said that Chevrolet and Stroh’s beer already are committed.

Acone said that cable operators representing 750,000 cable subscribers have agreed to take the service, with additional companies expected to sign up between now and October. There are approximately 1.4 million cable households in the Los Angeles market, which has about 4 million TV households overall.