Fox Group, Disney Strike Deal

The Fox Group scored a major victory over Disney in their battle for sports supremacy in Southern California, as Disney has scrapped plans to launch ESPN West.

It was announced Monday that the Disney-owned Angels and Mighty Ducks have entered into a 10-year television agreement with Fox Sports West and Fox Sports West 2 and that agreement signals a retreat for Disney in its effort to expand into the regional sports network business, a Fox domain.

Fox owns or is affiliated with 22 regional sports networks, including Fox Sports West and West 2; Disney owns ESPN and its offshoots, which are distributed nationally.

ESPN West would have been Disney’s first regional sports network.

ESPN West was to have carried the Ducks, beginning in October, and shared in coverage of the Angels with Fox Sports West in 1999 before becoming the Angels’ exclusive cable carrier after that.

But now, Fox Sports West 2 will continue to televise 40 Duck games a season, and Fox Sports West will continue to carry 50 Angel games a season.

The new agreement was announced jointly by Tim Mead, vice president of communications for Anaheim Sports, the division of Disney that operates the Angels and Ducks, and Kitty Cohen, vice president and general manager of Fox Sports West and West 2.

“With this long-term relationship, hockey and baseball fans will have the opportunity to view our teams on these two networks for the next decade,” Mead said.

“This is a case where two business giants, two competitors, set everything aside to make a business decision that is beneficial to everyone, and most importantly the fans.

“This agreement ensures that both companies will be working toward a common goal in the years ahead.”

In a statement issued from its headquarters in Bristol, Conn., ESPN said, “We support Anaheim Sports’ decision to extend their distribution agreement with Fox Sports West.

“We are certain ESPN West would have been a top quality service, but we respect the teams’ interest in having immediate access to the largest possible distribution, for their benefit and that of their fans.

“As with any new service, the time line for ESPN West’s development did not allow for that immediacy.”

Cohen said officials from Anaheim Sports called Fox executives a couple of weeks ago expressing an interest in doing a new deal.

“It came as a total surprise,” she said.

Cohen obviously was pleased with Disney’s decision.

“I’ve always said that, in a perfect world, the best situation would be for us to have all of the local sports teams. It makes us a much stronger and more solid network.

“My feeling was when ESPN announced its plans to launch ESPN West, it was a business decision and there was nothing we could do about it.”

With ESPN West dropping out of the picture, Cohen said she expects Fox Sports West 2 to soon have 100% distribution among cable companies in its target area.

Comcast is the lone major holdout in Southern California, although a few smaller cable companies are still not carrying Fox Sports West 2. Prime Cable in Las Vegas is another holdout.

Fox Sports West reaches 4.8 million homes in Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii, and the addition of current holdouts should increase Fox Sports West 2’s distribution from 2.8 million to possibly 3.8 million.

Fox Sports West 2 is not distributed in San Diego because Dodger telecasts would have to be blacked out there because of the existence of the Padres.

Cohen said per-subscriber rates for West 2 are already in place and no further increases are foreseen, despite the new agreement with Anaheim Sports.

Fox met resistance in getting operators to take West 2, even with the Dodgers, and ESPN, already hitting operators with rate increases because of its new $600-million-a-year deal with the NFL, would have faced even greater resistance.

Mead said ESPN’s decision regarding ESPN West came from Bristol, not Anaheim.

Whatever, it appears ESPN has all but conceded the regional sports network business to Fox.

“While we will continue to consider regional opportunities if they make good business sense, ESPN’s success has been built on national distribution,” the company said in its statement.

*

Times staff writer Bill Shaikin contributed to this story.

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Cable Combatants

A comparison of holdings after Monday’s announcemenbt that Fox had secured TV rights to the Angels and Mighty Ducks, whose parent company, Disney, shelved plans to enter the regional sports programming market:

Disney Holdings

* Anaheim Angels

* Mighty Ducks of Anaheim

* ESPN (74 million homes)

* ESPN2 (58 million homes)

* ESPNEWS (10 million homes)

* ESPN Classic Sports, formerly Classic Sports Network (15 million homes)

*

Fox Holdings

* Los Angeles Dodgers

* Fox Network (nationwide)

* Fox Sports Net (60 million homes)*

* Fox Sports Net now has rights to 70 teams, including the Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Mighty Ducks, USC and UCLA.

*--Fox Sports Net includes Fox Sports West, Fox Sports West 2 and 20 other regional sports networks.