After several weeks of negotiations, Viewer's Choice
said last week that it reached an agreement with TVKO to distribute its Sept. 18 Oscar De
La Hoya-Felix Trinidad welterweight-unification fight.
Viewer's Choice affiliates will work with a
marketing-incentive rate card for the much-anticipated fight, senior vice president of
programming Michael Klein said. He would not reveal specific figures.
The two sides had struggled, but with marketing deadlines
fast approaching, they were able to reach a last-minute deal. "It was important to
get [operators] to focus on this event now," Klein said.
TVKO was unable to accomplish its goal of reaching a
multifight De La Hoya agreement with Viewer's Choice, although Klein did say that the
network would have "future discussions" about such a deal.
Nevertheless, TVKO, the pay-per-view arm of Home Box
Office, was satisfied with the De La Hoya-Trinidad deal.
"There are a number of complex issues that are
attached to a multifight deal, so in order to maximize the promotion for [De La
Hoya-Trinidad], we have an agreement in principle for a single-fight deal," TVKO vice
president and general manager Dan York said.
"The deal -- like recent mega-fight deals -- provides
marketing and performance-split incentives for PPV retailers and takes into consideration
the varying geographic performance factors that are unique to De La Hoya fights,"
York added.
