The Angels are close to a 10-year deal with Fox Sports Network that could be worth as much as $500 million, would increase the number of FSN West telecasts to roughly 150 games a season and would shelve for at least a decade any talk of the Angels starting a cable television network.
Angel owner Arte Moreno, fresh off his victory over the city of Anaheim in the name-change trial, would not discuss specifics of the deal, but in an interview with Times columnist T.J. Simers on 570 radio Sunday, Moreno confirmed the team is "close to a 10-year agreement" to air Angel games exclusively on FSN West.
The deal could double the Angels' average annual local television revenue -- the team made about $24 million from FSN and Channel 9 in 2005 -- and was expected to surpass the 10-year, $340-million FSN offer the Angels turned down last October.
The new package, which will supersede an existing deal for FSN to televise 50 Angel games a year through 2008, also is expected to be worth more in total dollars than the 10-year, $320-million deal FSN awarded the Dodgers in 2004. But the Dodger pact calls for FSN to televise 100 games a year.
The Angels had been searching for an over-the-air network to replace Channel 9, which had dropped the Angels in favor of the Dodgers this season, but the new FSN deal, once the final details are hammered out over the next week or so, would go into effect this season.
The package ensures that virtually all of the Angels' 162 games will be televised, with national broadcasts by Fox and ESPN filling out the rest of the schedule.
"I am optimistic there will be a positive outcome to their television situation," Randy Freer, FSN's chief operating officer, said of the Angels.
"Everyone involved would like to get it resolved as soon as possible."
The new television deal would seem to affirm Moreno's assertions that changing the team name from the Anaheim Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, a move that was upheld by an Orange County Superior Court jury last week, would give the team increased stature in the nation's second-largest media market and help increase revenues.
But Freer said there would be no correlation between a new television package and the Angels' court victory, which allows them to keep the name permanently.
"We've always looked at the Angels as a Southern California team and distributed them to the widest possible territory, including Las Vegas and Hawaii," Freer said.
