Major League Baseball announced it signed 8-year licensing agreements with Fox and Turner Broadcasting. Taken together with baseball's recent ESPN pact (CD Aug. 29 p8), the agreements will more than double the amount of annual rights fees the league takes in. The deal gives Turner interactive TV rights, which includes the rights to create companion and ancillary products related to the TBS broadcasts of regular and Postseason games. Fox will keep the World Series and All Star Games. The two networks will share the League Championship Series and Division Series along with the MLB Network. 'Both deals also include 'TV Everywhere' rights to stream televised games and other MLB-related programming online and through mobile devices.

Steven Cohen, a shareholder of The New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc. (New York Mets), has to reportedly sell his stake in the New York Mets to acquire a stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc., according to two people familiar with the transaction but not authorized to discuss it. No charges have been filed against Cohen or his company, which has said it is cooperating with the government probe. Cohen has reportedly cleared the Major League Baseball (MLB) investigation which could bode well for his chances in the Dodgers sweepstakes. The league is more stringent in investigating majority owners than minority owners, but for now MLB has not found any grounds to disqualify Cohen from ownership.

Bud Selig, Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB), said he was counting on Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc. to be sold by April 30, 2012. Terms of the settlement between MLB and Frank McCourt filed in December 2011 stated that McCourt must sell the Dodgers and the stadium within that time frame. "I'm confident it will be completed by then. We have five or six terrific bidders, maybe even more. Media rights are important in any franchise sale," Selig said. The pending sale of the storied baseball team is heating up with initial bids expected by January 23.