NHL Lockout --- Mike (slow)
>> today marks the 78th day of the national hockey league players lockout. the union is holding a meeting next weak and hopes to end the lockout by presenting a new proposal to gary bettman. we now go to “money & sports” segment where we’re joined by bloomberg news reporter mike buteau from our atlanta newsroom. is there any chance there will be a solution to the nhl lockout?
>> for the record, i, for one, have been counting. chances of next week’s meeting producing a solution are not very good. when you listen to both sides of the argument, here. the fact that they’re sitting down for the first time in three months is positive. the players, the few players that seem to think this will give them a starting block and the league may accept this proposal. the league itself says, probably not, this might give us something to discuss but i don’t think there’s anybody out there that thinks the union will say, here’s our proposal and gary bettman of the nhl will say, great idea, let the games begin. i don’t think that’s going to happen and not many people do.
>> loyal viewers of this “money & sports” segment have seen you in the past come on and talk about lousy hockey ratings on television. i remember you’re saying at some point they were lower than televised bowling tv ratings. seems like a weak negotiating position for the players to negotiate a better deal. no?
>> absolutely. the players don’t exactly have the fans in their court. this isn’t like baseball where people were up in arms and complained they couldn’t see their teams. there aren’t many people, unless you go up to canada, but in the u.s. where 24 of the 30 teams are based, this isn’t the subject that leads the evening news and front page of the newspapers so the players really are in a tough spot here and the owners kind of―and the league has it where they want and they want to get the system right. they want to fix it for a language time.
>> this next story meets the title of our segment, “money & sports,” about gambling on sports. the dallas mavericks’ owner says he wants to venture into the hedge fund industry based on gambling and i thought, aren’t they all? but that’s just a little joke. tell me, how will this work?
>> details, as you might suspect, are not all that clear right now. he says he wants to start a hedge fund based on gambling because he figures that a hedge fund where you’re betting on games is just as safe and just as likely to produce results as the equity markets which he says, right now―this is mark cuban speaking, according to the regulatory system right now, betting on a sporting event is no different than betting on a stock.
>> instead of picking a guy who can pick the best stock, in this case you’ll pick a guy whom you think will pick the winning team.
>> right. he’s not looking for sports geeks but people who analyze statistics and numbers and can crunch things like that, not just somebody who likes the dallas mavericks to beat the miami heat and shaquille o’neal one night but he wants someone who can tell you why they’re going to win and how many points they’ll win by.
>> the last one i want to get to is that espn2 will carry a high school basketball game.
>> next week, 16-year-old center, seven-foot-tall 16-year-old center, a high school junior, will be on espn2. this is a game that espn2 looked at a couple of years ago. it’s a similar situation where lebron james was on except lebron james was a senior at the time. this is the first time they’ve highlighted a high school junior. the lebron james show had the highest ratings on espn2 ever. next thursday this game will be on if you’re interested in seeing a high school junior.
>> we may see a 16-year-old with endorsement deals. thank you. when we come back, palestine palestine―plil plil is looking forward to the holiday season.
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Listen Satellite radio
>> satellite radio may not have expanded its audience into as many homes and cars as broadcasters want them, but their shares look likely to be included in a benchmark index soon.
>> x.m. satellite radio and sirius satellite radio are among the 100 biggest non-financial companies on the nasdaq stock market this year. x.m. has climbed 42% and shares of sirius have more than doubled. that might not have happened without the recruitment of mel karmazin. there are doubters, such as karmazin’s former boss, sumner redstone, who said karmazin formerly thought little of pay radio’s chances for success.
>> as for satellite radio, all i know is, when mel was with it, he denigrated it all the time. he has the right to change his mind. maybe it will work. from our standpoint, the economic model, right now does to the work. but maybe it will.
>> viacom owns the cbs radio network as well as 185 radio stations through infinity broadcasting. sirius has also hired another big name from viacom, radio shock jock howard stern, the contract starting in 2006. that move is expected to boost subscribers.this week, sirius announced it has acquired the rights to the ncaa college basketball tournaments and british premiere soccer championships. sirius expects to have a million subscribers by year’s end, x.m. forecasting more than three million. neither is expected to turn an annual profit until 2008 at the earliest. they are backed by fund managers, including the calamos growth fund. meighan harahan says funds that track the nasdaq 100 would have to buy these stocks. analysts at several wall street firms say x.m. and sirius are among the leading candidates for inclusion. the changes are expected to be announced within a couple of weeks.
>> speaking with the media, abc is gaining ground in the ratings battle for younger viewers. two new shows helped the network climb to the number two spot among the 18 to 49-year-old audience. abc was the only network to gain viewers in november thanks to “desperate housewives” and “lost.” cbs had the highest ratings among households, followed by nbc, abc and fox. disney shares down 1% on the day. general electric share, owner of nbc, down .31% on the day
