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YES, DIrecTV Connect on Renewal Pact

NEW YORK — Roughly a week after their original
contract was set to expire, YES Network, the
regional sports network home of the New York Yankees
and New Jersey Nets, inked a new multiyear
deal with DirecTV.

The pact, financial terms of which were not
disclosed, follows days of ongoing carriage negotiations
between the parties, whose contract
was scheduled to end at midnight on April 2. The
regional sports network, though, granted the top
satellite-TV provider an extension of their agreement
until April 7 and the companies reached
renewal terms that evening. There was never any
disruption in service — DirecTV subscribers were
able to watch Bronx Bombers ballgames during
the opening of the 2011 Major League Baseball
season, as well as Nets’ contests as the National
Basketball Association’s regular season
nears its end.

SNL Kagan pegs the RSN’s license fee at somewhere
from $2.60 to $2.82 per subscriber, per
month.

Neither party offered a comment about price by
press time.

— Mike Reynolds

‘Pajanimals’ Head to Sprout

CHERRY HILL, N.J. — Pre-schooler channel Sprout is
headed into co-production of puppet series Pajanimals
with The Jim Henson Co. and Northern Irelandbased
producer Sixteen South.

The series, about four cuddly musical puppets,
will premiere on Sprout as a U.S. exclusive this fall
and is being shopped at MIP-TV in Cannes, France,
for international television, digital and DVD distribution.
Plans are to produce 26 half-hour episodes (or
52 11-minute episodes).

The characters were designed and built by Jim
Henson’s Creature Shop from original concepts by
Los Angeles-based toy and clothing designer, artist
Jeff Muncy (Pet Alien).

TWC’s Hobbs Gets $30M Severance Deal

NEW YORK — Former Time Warner Cable chief
operating officer Landel Hobbs, who resigned in
December after about 15 years in various roles at
the company, received a severance deal valued at
almost $30 million, according to a proxy statement
filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission
Wednesday.

Hobbs left Time Warner Cable abruptly on
Dec. 14 and was
immediately replaced
as COO by
chief financial officer
Rob Marcus. TWC
said in its proxy
statement the move
was “part of its longterm
succession
planning strategy.”

Because he was
terminated without
cause, his employment
agreement
entitled him to about
$29.7 million in
salary, stock and
bonus. Time Warner
Cable chairman and CEO Glenn Britt received a
9.4% bump in 2010 total compensation, to $17.4
million. Britt received a base salary of $1.25 million,
$3.1 million in stock awards, $4.4 million in
option awards and $8.3 million in non-equity compensation,
according to the proxy.

Britt’s total compensation was about in the
middle of other top MSO executives: Comcast
chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $31.1
million in total compensation in 2010 and Charter
Communications CEO Mike Lovett received $10.9
million, according to their respective proxy filings.

— Mike Farrell

MTV Green-Lights Snooki, DJ Pauly D Pilots

NEW YORK — Snooki and Jwoww are getting a reality
series all their own. MTV said it will develop
two Jersey Shore spinoff reality series featuring
popular reality stars Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Jenni
“Jwoww” Farley and Paul “DJ Pauly D” Delvecchio
to air in 2012.

The 12-episode untitled Snooki and JWoww
series will follow the two friends as they deal with
life and love away from the shore, according to
network officials. The untitled DJ Pauly D project
will follow the colorful reality series star’s life on
the road as a DJ, said the network.

The announcement comes less than a month
after Jersey Shore fi nished up its third season as
the most watched MTV series of all time. Season
three of Jersey Shore averaged 7.9 million total
viewers, according to the network.

— R. Thomas Umstead