LOS ANGELES -- If the Sacramento Kings are successfully able to move to Anaheim, the Los Angeles Lakers' lucrative 20-year television deal with Time Warner Cable won't be as lucrative as it once was, multiple Lakers sources confirmed to ESPNLosAngeles.com.
Last month the Lakers agreed to an unprecedented 20-year television agreement with Time Warner Cable to distribute Lakers games and original programming across two regional sports networks in HD that will include the nation's first Spanish-language regional sports network. Although finances of the deal were not released, some reports at the time pegged the value of the pact at $3 billion, a figure Time Warner Cable and the Lakers have since refuted.
If a third NBA team moves into the market, however, the Lakers' television deal will decrease by about just under 10 percent, sources said without giving a breakdown of the numbers affected.
The Lakers' agreement, which begins with the 2012-13 season and covers all preseason, regular-season and postseason games not nationally telecast, was viewed as a major blow for current rights holders Fox Sports West and KCAL-TV. The Kings, however, could lessen that blow and create competition for viewers and fans in Orange County if they filled the void left by the Lakers on both outlets....
10 percent of a 3 billion deal is no joke.