Lakers to launch TV networks

No more Fox Sports or KCAL - the Lakers and Time Warner Cable are forming two regional networks (one English, one Spanish) that will carry all locally available Lakers games, beginning in the 2012-13 season. The new networks will offer pregame and postgame programming; the Spanish-language broadcasts will be separate productions, rather than sharing video with a SAP feed. From SB Nation:

The deal is for 20 years, and will certainly send shockwaves through the L.A. cable market. On a national level, it remains to be seen whether the NBA will institute a deeper revenue sharing program that spreads the wealth for local T.V. deals like this one to teams in markets that wouldn't support such a serious investment. In other words, the Lakers are going to make a ton of money on this deal. Will teams like the Kings, Thunder and Hornets ever get a piece of the pie?

The move, which has been talked about for some time, will be a killer for KCAL, which has used the Lakers as an anchor to its sports programming - as well as its evening block of news.

From Pro Basketball Talk:

This kind of deal however is the kind of thing that NBA owners need to hash out amongst themselves in conjunction with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Currently, NBA teams get to keep all of their local television revenue. So the Grizzlies have to compete with what they can get out of the Memphis market, the Bucks out of the Milwaukee market, and the Lakers keep all the bank from the Los Angeles market deal. And you wonder why the Lakers can afford a $91 million payroll? For there to be any real sense of competitive balance in the NBA Jerry Buss is going to have to cough up some of that money to the smaller markets.