Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals will enter the
regional-sports-network ballpark next year, with Time Warner Cable as its
leadoff affiliate.
Team officials announced Wednesday night that 100 regular-season Royals games
will be presented in 2003 on a new channel, Royals Television Network, to be
distributed among cable operators in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma
and Arkansas.
Time Warner, under a five-year agreement, will launch the network among its
systems in the Kansas City area, as well as Lincoln, Neb., and other markets.
Financial terms of the deal were not released.
The network will also seek satellite clearances.
Royals president Dan Glass will double as the network's CEO. Mark Gorris was
named president.
"Our strategy is to offer a robust package of high-quality telecasts to as
many parts of our TV territory as possible, thus achieving our family's goal of
expanding the regional presence of the Royals," Glass said in a prepared
statement.
Two spring-training games from Arizona will also be carried on the network.
Other features, as well as game announcers and cablecast times, will be
announced later.
