Fox Sports Protests L.A. Dodgers' Media-Rights Sale Plan

News Corp.'s Fox Sports is protesting the Los Angeles Dodgers' request to hire Blackstone Group to market the team's media rights, setting up a potential battle with the broadcaster that, until recently, had been one of embattled owner Frank McCourt's biggest supporters.

The baseball team's primary television partner, Fox Sports' Prime Ticket, said in court papers that Blackstone's proposed marketing plan treads on the current agreement to broadcast Dodgers games through the 2013 season and violates a provision that gives Fox Sports exclusive negotiation rights through November 2012. The Dodgers' move to hire Blackstone to market its broadcast rights is key to the team's plan to emerge from bankruptcy with Mr. McCourt's ownership stake fully intact. The tactic, however, threatens to anger Fox, which until the bankruptcy had been a supporter and lender to the team. Fox Sports has already advanced to Mr. McCourt's team all of the fees for the Dodgers' 2011 television rights. Furthermore, the network had consented to a 17-year, $2.7 billion extension to the current broadcast deal that would have allowed the team to avoid a bankruptcy filing. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, however, rejected that proposal because a portion of a $385 million loan that came with the renewed contract would have gone to a divorce settlement with Mr. McCourt's former wife, Jamie.