MALONE IN PLAY
Liberty mogul’s strategy flies in face of MLB
Billionaire media mogul John Malone is cobbling together a team to bid for the Fox-owned regional sports networks being sold by Disney — and his roster will be going head-to-head against Major League Baseball, The Post has learned.
Malone’s Liberty Media, which in addition to big stakes in cable giant Charter and Sirius XM owns the Atlanta Braves — is matching the Braves with owners of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons and the Minnesota Twins, sources said.
Malone is expected to woo other teams as well in the consolidated offer, a move that is at loggerheads with an MLB bid announced by Commissioner Rob Manfred in November.
The Liberty mogul’s strategy, according to sources, includes a promise to team owners that he will continue to sell games to local broadcasters, where cable television is chiefly how fans follow their favorite teams.
Manfred, by contrast, wants to secure central control of media rights so the league can package games and sell them to different streaming and terrestrial networks, much as the NFL does.
“MLB is more an adversary with the cable companies than a friend,” said a source close to the process.
Other owners who could potentially join Malone’s consolidated bid include Ken Kendrick of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Mark Attanasio of the Milwaukee Brewers and Jimmy and Dee Haslam of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, sources said.
“It’s almost like [Malone is] enlisting owners of certain teams whose games are televised by Fox RSNs,” a close follower of the auction said. “You might even be able to look at the owners of the NBA, MLB and NHL teams in Fox RSN markets and guess who else could come on board.”
Malone’s belated interest in the RSNs, which Disney must sell in order to gain regulatory approval of its $71 billion deal for Fox’s entertainment assets, is seen to be opportunistic.
Liberty will benefit from the RSN business, which sells sports programing to distributors, because “the cash flow characteristics are much better than most think,” FBN analyst Robert Routh told The Post.
In 1994, Malone organized a group of RSNs as “Prime Sports,” which were relaunched in 1996 as the “Fox Sports Net,” a year after Fox acquired a 50 percent stake in the group.
Liberty’s 23 percent stake in Charter — the country’s second-largest cable operator — could make Malone’s bid synergistic as well.
Charter already co-owns Spectrum SportsNet LA with the Los Angeles Dodgers — an arrangement that gives the cable company exclusive local broadcast rights to Dodger games.
Meanwhile, a source close to the auction told The Post that a spinout of the RSNs is still an option if Disney finds the bids unsatisfactory.
Liberty, Platinum and the Twins didn’t respond to requests for comment.