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Fox Sports extends TV contract with Anaheim Ducks

Fox Sports has renewed a long-term TV rights deal that will keep the Anaheim Ducks on Fox Sports' Prime Ticket channel. Above, the Ducks play the Minnesota Wild this month at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Fox Sports’ regional cable networks scored an important goal -- renewing a long-term TV rights deal with the Anaheim Ducks hockey team.

Under the agreement, announced Monday, Fox Sports’ Prime Ticket will remain the television home for Ducks regular season hockey games for an additional 10 years. The channel will televise about 70 Ducks games a season.

Financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed.

The new contract is expected to generate about $13 million a year for the team in the early years of the agreement, according to a knowledgeable person who asked not to be identified. That is roughly in line with other local television contracts for National Hockey League teams.

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Two years ago, Fox Sports negotiated a somewhat larger, 12-year, $250-million agreement with the Los Angeles Kings hockey team. Kings games run on Fox Sports West, the sister channel to Prime Ticket.

Fox Sports now has stitched up long-term TV deals to broadcast the Kings, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball team and the Ducks.

The region’s wild card remains the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers were recently purchased by former Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. The Clippers’ TV contract with Fox Sports concludes at the end of the 2015-16 season.

Although the Ducks are coming off a strong season, the team’s TV options were somewhat limited.

Although the Los Angeles Dodgers launched their own channel to showcase the team, the channel is carried only by Time Warner Cable in Southern California. That means most TV viewers don’t have regular access to watch Dodger baseball games.

Another sports channel -- Time Warner Cable SportsNet -- has a full schedule with Los Angeles Lakers games.

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“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Prime Ticket and bring Ducks hockey into Southern California homes for the foreseeable future,” Ducks Chief Executive Michael Schulman said in a statement.

The Ducks have been a fixture on Fox’s regional sports networks for 20 years.

Steve Simpson, general manager of Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket, said his company was pleased to extend that partnership.

“It’s an exciting time for Ducks hockey on Prime Ticket, and we are proud to deliver even more coverage to Southern California sports fans for years to come,” Simpson said.

Play-by-play announcer John Ahlers and analyst Brian Hayward will continue to call the Ducks’ action. The pair, who just began their 13th season, have combined to broadcast more than 750 regular-season games.

Twitter: @MegJamesLAT

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