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CBS and Atlanta-based Turner Sports are in discussions to create a joint bid for the NCAA tournament rights if the NCAA decides to opt out of its current CBS deal.

The broadcaster and cable network could share rights to the tournament if the NCAA decides to expand the field to 96 teams. In that scenario, the channel broadcasting the Final Four would pay 60 percent of the annual rights fee and the other network would pay 40 percent. The broadcast partners would alternate coverage of the Final Four each year.

Other networks, including ESPN and Fox, also are considering making bids for the tournament’s rights.

The broadcasters are basing their bids on an expanded tournament field, according to a request for proposal issued by the NCAA to potential bidders late last year. A copy of the RFP was obtained by SportsBusiness Journal.

The NCAA has its sights set on expanding from a 65-team tournament to either 68 or 96 teams if it opts out of the CBS contract, according to the 12-page RFP.

A 68-team field would add three “play-in” games to the current 65-team format, and a 96-team field would expand the tournament’s inventory by 31 games.

The NCAA also says it is looking for a 14-year term on its next media deal, with a “no-penalty, early termination right in favor of the NCAA,” according to the RFP.

The NCAA is considering whether to opt out of its 11-year, $6 billion contract with CBS after the Final Four in April. The deal has three years and $2.131 billion remaining.

Greg Shaheen, the NCAA’s senior vice president for basketball and business strategies, is leading the RFP process.

“There continues to be dialogue with a number of entities that are interested in submitting a proposal,” he said, but no time frame has been established. Shaheen has said that the NCAA is doing due diligence to explore alternative tournament formats, but it is not leaning in any direction.

However, industry sources indicated that the NCAA has until Aug. 31 to exercise its right, though it hopes to conclude the process much earlier.

The NCAA could keep its current deal; make a new deal with its longtime broadcast partner, CBS; make a new deal with a new partner; or create a split rights agreement. In the split-rights deal, two broadcasters would submit a joint proposal to share the media rights.

In the RFP, the NCAA outlines two 96-team split formats that have an over-the-air partner teaming with a cable partner.

In one scenario in which the over-the-air partner has the Final Four, it would carry 41 games while the cable partner carries 54. When the cable partner has the Final Four, 57 games would appear on cable and 38 on over-the-air.

In those split-rights scenarios, the two broadcast partners would alternate carriage of the Final Four. The broadcaster with the Final Four would pay 60 percent of the rights fee that year and the other broadcaster would pay 40 percent.

Also included in the RFP are the rights to the NCAA’s other championships, including the women’s basketball tournament, the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs and baseball; the corporate sponsorship program; and Internet and mobile rights.

Turner’s interest in acquiring the tournament has not been disclosed before. TNT has carried NBA games since 1988 but has never carried college basketball games.

“The NCAA tournament is a strong property that would fit our brands but, as with any sports rights, an acquisition must make economic sense for our company,” a Turner spokesman said.

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Cities in the so-called Sand States dominated the foreclosure rankings in 2009, with the 20 worst-hit metro areas residing in Nevada, Florida, California and Arizona.

Las Vegas had the largest number of foreclosure filings of any city last year, with 12% of its households receiving at least one during the year, according to RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed homes. That was more than five times the national average.

Cape Coral, Fla., was a close second with 11.9% of its households; Merced, Calif., was third with 10.1%.

The good news is that all top 20 cities recorded declines in foreclosure filings in the last three months of the year.

The bad news is that the foreclosure plague is spreading beyond these usual trouble spots, according to RealtyTrac’s CEO, James Saccacio. And, nationwide, foreclosures grew 21.2% during the year.

"Areas like Provo, Utah, Fayetteville, Ark., Portland, Ore., and Rockford, Ill., all posted foreclosure rates above the U.S. average in 2009," he said. "And markets like Honolulu, Minneapolis and Seattle saw foreclosure activity increase at more than twice the national pace over the past 12 months."

He added that the new foreclosure wave seems more grounded in traditional foreclosure causes, such as job losses, than those recorded in the Sand States, where they were much more "bubble related."

In cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami and Bakersfield, Calif., soaring home prices of the mid 2000s drove homebuyers to desperate measures, such as taking on hybrid adjustable rate mortgages, also called toxic ARMS. These products only remained affordable as long as home prices grew; once prices stopped rising, borrowers began to default.

New hotspots

Some cites that had escaped the worst of the default demon in prior years saw foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sales and bank repossessions — soar. The Gulfport area of Mississippi recorded a year-over-year spike of 784%. Houma, La., recorded a 379% gain, and Roanoke, Va., filings jumped 352%.

Despite the big increases, however, the foreclosure rates for those cities ranked in the bottom third of the nation. For example, Gulfport was number 180 out of 203 metro areas listed.

Filings in Boise, Idaho, on the other hand, grew 103% but that was enough to put it 24th among cites, the highest ranking of any place outside the Sand States.

In contrast to the boom areas, cities where home prices never soared have endured far fewer foreclosures. The lowest rate of filings for any of the cities covered in the RealtyTrac report were found in Burlington, Vt., and Utica, N.Y, each of which had a miniscule 0.05% filing rate.

The housing boom, with its annual double-digit price increases, mostly bypassed areas like those, enabling buyers to escape the necessity of stretching their incomes to cover high housing costs.

In Burlington, the median home price has stayed under $230,000, and median home prices in Utica have been very cheap, not more than $120,000 at any time.

For cities like that, few foreclosures are caused by mortgage related issues and, as long as the local economies don’t crash, defaults should remain well under national averages. 

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Hundreds of thousands of troubled homeowners who are making lower mortgage payments on a trial basis are at risk of being kicked out of President Obama’s foreclosure-prevention program.

Companies that service the mortgages have until Jan. 31 to review all trial modifications that have been underway for several months under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), according to a Treasury Department guideline issued late last month. The Treasury Dept. said it would issue new guidelines next week, but wouldn’t give details.

During the review period, servicers must determine whether borrowers have made all their payments and have handed in all the necessary paperwork. Those who haven’t will get letters giving them 30 days to comply.

The goal is to clear up the backlog of borrowers stuck in trial modifications, in which a homeowner’s monthly payments are lowered to no more than 31% of pre-tax income.

Some homeowners have spent seven or eight months waiting to hear if they qualify for a permanent adjustment to their mortgages.

This directive, however, has some bank regulators concerned.

"About 450,000 homeowners currently have HAMP trial modifications and have demonstrated a willingness and ability to make timely payments for at least three months," said Richard Neiman, superintendent of the New York State Banking Department.

"Now, unfortunately and very alarmingly, these same homeowners face the prospect of foreclosure strictly on account of documentation issues," he said.

Paperwork has proved a major stumbling block for the president’s foreclosure-prevention program. Homeowners complain that their servicers continuously lose the documents they send in, while financial institutions argue that borrowers have not been sending in their paperwork.

Aware of the problem, Treasury officials said they plan to issue new guidance to servicers next week that will help expedite the conversion of borrowers in the trial period to permanent modification online payday loans. It may also lighten the documentation requirements.

Converting to permanent modifications

Under fire for the low number of people receiving long-term help, the Treasury Department in late November ramped up pressure on servicers to convert borrowers to permanent modifications.

Some 66,500 people have received permanent adjustments, with another 787,200 homeowners in trial modifications.

Under the president’s plan, delinquent borrowers are put into trial modifications for several months to make sure they can handle the new payments and to give them time to submit their financial paperwork.

Once the modification becomes permanent, servicers, investors and homeowners are eligible to receive thousands of dollars in incentive payments.

Overall, about three-quarters of people are making their payments on time, according to the Treasury Department.

Treasury officials already lightened the documentation requirements in the fall in hopes of speeding up the conversion process. But more needs to be done, Neiman said.

For instance, Treasury should accelerate its implementation of a standardized documentation form and the creation of a Web portal that will allow homeowners to track the receipt of the paperwork, he said. Also, it should allow servicers more flexibility in accepting alternative documents.

If this isn’t done, a lot of homeowners could soon face foreclosure, he said.

"This is a real concern to borrowers, particularly borrowers who’ve continued to make payments for three, four, five, even seven months," Neiman said. 

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The economies of many cities will begin to rebound in 2010, but a full recovery is far off, especially for the labor market, said a metro area outlook report released Wednesday.

The report, from United States Conference of Mayors, forecasts the economies of 363 metro areas. It said the jobless rate was up more than 50% over the year in almost one-third of cities as of November.

"The recession … was truly widespread and a tremendous burden in many metropolitan areas across the nation," the report said, calling metro areas "the nation’s economic engines."

It noted cities make up 86% of U.S. employment and 90% of output, "so it comes as no surprise that the nation’s economic centers were very badly damaged by persistent job cuts and surging unemployment through 2009."

The report predicted the nation’s unemployment rate will peak in the first quarter of the year, averaging 10.2% between January and March compared with 4.9% in 2008.

Regional difficulties: The West, Southeast and Upper Midwest regions of the country have been particularly hard hit, the report said online cash advance.

Four states contain 22 of the 25 cities with the highest unemployment rates: 11 in California, seven in Michigan and two each in Illinois and Florida.

"Unemployment has skyrocketed in these areas, because they have been hit particularly hard by the correction in the real estate market and/or are heavily dependent on the manufacturing sector," the report said.

On the other side, the Plains and Mountain regions have been somewhat "insulated" from the worst of the recession because the housing bubble did not hit these areas as hard as others.

Outlook: The report said some economic indicators have improved, including data on exports, consumer spending and income. But the labor market will take longer to recover.

Because cities contain a large percentage of the U.S. population and comprise much of the economic activity, the report said states should be investing more of their stimulus money in metro areas in order to bolster the overall economy. 

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Treasury 10-year yields were near the lowest level in four weeks before a government report today that economists said will show international demand for U.S. securities increased in November.

Yields will fall as global economic growth slows, according to Mike Zelouf, London-based director of international business at Western Asset Management Co. Net buying of long-term notes, bonds and stocks by investors outside the U.S. rose to $27.5 billion from $20.7 billion in October, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Foreign investors have added to their Treasury holdings for six straight months.

“I expect they bought more,” said Peter Jolly, the Sydney-based head of market research for the investment-banking unit of National Australia Bank Ltd., the nation’s largest lender as measured by assets. “The U.S. government deficit is so large. They are increasingly reliant on foreigners to take on that debt.”

The 10-year note yielded 3.68 percent as of 1:06 p.m. in Tokyo, according to BGCantor Market data. The price of the 3.375 percent security due in November 2019 was unchanged at 97 1/2.

Yields declined to 3.66 percent on Jan. 15, the lowest level since Dec. 21. The Treasury market was closed yesterday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

President Barack Obama is depending on investors outside the U.S., who hold about half of the nation’s record $7.27 trillion in marketable debt, as he borrows record amounts to fund government deficits and economic-stimulus plans.

Rescue Plan

The government’s $787 billion economic rescue plan contributed to the record $1.4 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2009, which ended in September.

“Western Asset does not expect a long period of recovery,” Zelouf, who helps oversee $506.4 billion, wrote in a press release today. Long-term yields will fall faster than those on shorter maturities, he wrote.

The opposite has been true this year. Ten-year notes yielded 2.80 percentage points more than two-year Treasuries, after the spread widened to a record 2.90 percentage points on Jan. 11.

Two-year rates tend to track the Fed’s target for overnight lending because of their shorter maturity. Yields on longer-term bonds are more influenced by inflation and by the size of the government’s debt.

Short Positions

Hedge-fund managers and other speculators in the futures market increased bets to the highest level since 2005 that bonds will decline.

Speculative short positions outnumbered longs by 190,708 contracts in the period ended Jan. 12, the Washington-based Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Jan. 15.

It was the highest margin of net shorts, or bets that prices will fall, since there were 196,675 contracts on April 19, 2005. Yields were unchanged at 4.25 percent in the week ended April 22, 2005.

“Worries about large bond issuance were probably the main factor behind those short positions,” said Kazuaki Oh’e, a bond salesman in Tokyo at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the nation’s fifth-largest lender. “The positions are unlikely to expand in the near term and we may see a short-covering early this week.” In short-covering, investors end bets that an asset will decline.

Each Friday the CFTC publishes aggregate numbers for long and short positions for speculators such as hedge funds and institutional investors, as well as commercial companies that buy or sell futures to protect against price moves. Analysts and investors follow changes in speculators’ positions because such transactions can reflect an expectation of a change in prices.

European Borrowing

European governments are also increasing the amounts they borrow, and the deluge that left investors with the lowest relative returns since 1995 will continue for seven years, say officials from Frankfurt to Dublin to Helsinki.

A Bloomberg survey of 11 euro-area finance officials showed that eight forecast it will take at least until 2015 to bring the region’s debt sales down to the levels before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008. Four said it may require as much as a decade. The average prediction was that bond sales won’t return to those levels until 2017.

“Bond issuance in the region might start to come down from 2011, but to drop to pre-crisis levels may take a while,” said Carl Heinz Daube, head of Germany’s Federal Finance Agency in Frankfurt. “There might be some risks of economic dips down the road. Revenue is probably not going to rise substantially, but expenditures will stay high.”

The forecasts suggest European bonds may lag behind corporate securities for at least another year as public debt swells to 85 percent of gross domestic product this year, from 65 percent before the financial crisis began in 2007, according to Citigroup Inc. estimates.

Bonds returned less than 2 percent in 2009 as sales increased 36 percent to 870 billion euros ($1.25 trillion). They’ll jump another 15 percent to a record 1 trillion euros this year, according to HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank by market value.

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`Tis the season to contribute to registered retirement savings plans, but some banks are bracing for a tough sell this year.

Stock markets have recovered since hitting bottom last March, but the economy remains feeble. Of particular concern, the unemployment rate has risen dramatically over the past year and remains stubbornly high at 8.5 per cent.

As a result, many Canadians may not have the money to make an RRSP contribution before the March 1 deadline. Among those that do, there is lingering nervousness about jumping back into the market or locking up cash in registered accounts.

Banks, though, have a lot riding on this RRSP season after contributions fell in 2008.

They have poured millions into beefing up their wealth management businesses in recent years and retirement planning remains the bread and butter of those operations. That’s prompted some to use novel strategies this year to ensure their RRSP sales don’t fall flat.

"The big consumer insight to understand is there’s an internal conflict that people are going through right now," said Caroline Dabu, head of marketing for Bank of Montreal’s wealth management group.

"If you’ve lost 10, 20, 30 per cent of your portfolio, you’re conflicted and you’re divided about whether you should hang back and be cautious about your money, or get back into the market and be bold to make up those losses."

Even younger clients are skittish because the economic recovery is not robust, she said.

Consequently, investors are sitting on large sums of cash. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce estimates that Canadians have a whopping $120 billion sitting on the sidelines.

There is also "an astonishing amount" of unused RRSP contribution room.

In 2007, $34 billion of RSP contributions were made compared with $560 billion of unused RRSP carry forward room.

Accordingly, banks spend months strategizing their RRSP campaigns.

"By 2016, 70 per cent of the wealth in Canada is going to be in the hands of people who are 55 years of age and up. Most of those folks have investments, so it is a huge focus for the banks," Dabu said.

In order to whet the appetite of clients, BMO is using a different approach this year.

While a multimedia advertising blitz begins Jan. 18, BMO has launched a new microsite (bmo.com/profile) on investing. It allows customers to determine their investor profile, while accessing customized information small personal loans. The Bank of Nova Scotia is also taking a "new and unique" approach this year by using a $10,000 RRSP giveaway to entice interest. In order to qualify, clients must go into a branch and have a no-obligation chat with a sales officer. Two weekly winners will be named from Jan. 18 to March 1.

Gillian Riley, managing director and head of retail deposits, sees tremendous growth prospects given that only 40 per cent of adults have an RSP. "I still think there is some nervousness around, but we see that as an opportunity."

Specifically, it is a chance to boost pre-authorized contributions. Said Riley: "About 30 per cent of Canadians have a PAC with an average amount of about $120 a month. We think there is a huge opportunity to grow that."

Royal Bank of Canada is also highlighting the merits of regular contributions this year.

"It is difficult to find the lump sum and make the effort to go in and make a good investment decision.

Sometimes you’re rushed when February comes along," said Lee Anne Davies, head of retirement strategies.

Those worried about tying up emergency funds are also being urged to consider a tax-free savings account as part of their financial plan.

For its part, Toronto-Dominion Bank recorded a 20 per cent year-over-year increase in TFSA deposits in December.

Dennis Collins, vice-president of retirement strategies at TD Wealth Management, is "cautiously optimistic" about garnering RRSP sales. TD is targeting boomers aged 55 and older along with younger investors. "We’re increasing our online and digital media spend more so than we ever have."

Not all banks, however, are predicting an uphill battle. CIBC senior economist Benjamin Tal believes this will be a "relatively strong" RRSP season – not just compared with last year but also in absolute terms.

Citing an increase in long-term mutual fund sales in December, he argues that trend will accelerate. Tal concedes, however, that redistributed cash could fuel much of the increase. That includes a "significant flow" from money market mutual funds into equity and fixed-income funds.

"You don’t have to be an economist to predict that this year will better. Clearly a lot has changed since last year," he said.

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KV Pharmaceutical Co. said Monday that it altered the agreement that gave it the rights to Gestiva, a drug intended to prevent premature birth.

In 2008, KV agreed to buy Gestiva from Hologic Inc. in a deal worth $82 million. It paid $7.5 million to Hologic, but the Gestiva assets were not transferred to KV.

KV would have been able to terminate the agreement in mid-February.

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Monsanto Co., which faces a steady barrage of criticism and an inquiry from antitrust regulators, continued to make its case this week that the U.S. seed market is competitive and that its biotech seed innovations are benefitting farmers, not hurting them.

The company this week released a copy of its statements to the departments of Justice and Agriculture, which are conducting a series of workshops this year about competition in agribusiness.

Monsanto’s statements are part of a 21-page paper titled "Observations on Competition in the U.S. Seed Industry." In it, the company argues that no seed company owns a dominant market share, and that many choices of biotech and conventional seed exist within a wide band of prices.

"It is important to distinguish what products farmers actually choose from whether or not they have robust, meaningful choices," Monsanto said. "In other words, the fact that farmers purchase high performing products that may cost more does not mean that they were forced to make those decisions."

Monsanto also contends that its biotech traits, which are licensed to competitors, have helped reduce prices for conventional seed.

The Creve Coeur-based company has faced anti-competitive claims in the past, most recently surrounding its Delta Pine & Land Co. acquisition. In recent months, however, the company’s position in the biotech corn and soybean seed business has riled critics and competitors, including chief rival Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc cash advance payday loans.

Pioneer, a DuPont subsidiary, alleged anti-competitive behavior in a lawsuit against Monsanto in June. The claim was a response to a lawsuit initiated by Monsanto, in which it said Pioneer violated intellectual property rights. Both lawsuits are still pending in federal court in St. Louis.

In August, the Justice Department and USDA announced the workshops on competition in agriculture.

More recently, Monsanto acknowledged that the Justice Department has informally sought information concerning the company’s genetically modified seed business.

Monsanto spokesman Lee Quarles on Thursday said the company has continued to have discussions with the department and other agribusiness interests concerning the subject of competition. He declined to be more specific.

Dan Turner, a DuPont spokesman, declined to comment on Monsanto’s submission to the Justice Department. DuPont planned to make its comments on the topic of competition in agriculture public on Friday, he said.

The first competition workshop will be March 12 in Ankeny, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines, and will cover issues that concern row crop farmers.

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Cablevision Systems, a New York-area cable provider, said Friday it was no longer carrying The Food Channel and HGTV, two channels operated by Scripps Networks Interactive, in a dispute over distribution rights fees.

"We are sorry that Scripps’ current financial difficulties are making it impossible for them to continue our relationship on terms that are reasonable for Cablevision and our customers," Cablevision (CVC, Fortune 500) said in a statement. "We wish Scripps well and have no expectation of carrying their programming again, given the dramatic changes in their approach to working with distributors to reach television viewers."

"Viewers love our talent and our shows, which is why Food Network and HGTV rank among the top networks in cable," said Kenneth W. Lowe, chairman of Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI), in a statement. "But our valuable networks simply are not being compensated like top ten networks by Cablevision business cards."

Scripps says it has launched viewer Web campaigns aimed at getting the two networks back on Cablevision.

Cablevision says it serves 4.7 million households and 600,000 businesses in the New York area.

The dispute has been overshadowed by one involving the carrying of several News Corp. (NWSA) networks, including Fox Network, by Time Warner Cable (TWC) systems in several major cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Negotiations in that dispute extended past a midnight ET deadline. News Corp. has said it will stop Time Warner Cable from carrying Fox, six other national networks and some regional sports networks if a distribution rights agreement isn’t reached. 

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OTTAWA–Canadians are the most optimistic about the country’s economic prospects since 2007, according to a poll by Nanos Research, adding to evidence the economy is rebounding from its first recession since 1992.

The proportion of Canadians who predict the economy will strengthen in the next six months rose to 49 per cent, according to Nanos’s quarterly economic survey, compared with 12 per cent who say the economy will weaken.

The 49 per cent figure is the highest since the fourth quarter of 2007.

The results are consistent with recent data that suggest the economy has emerged from its recession, including October’s 0.2 per cent expansion in gross domestic product and a faster-than-expected increase in manufacturing sales.

The Bank of Canada predicted in October the economy will grow 3 per cent in 2010, with consumer spending accounting for more than half of the expansion, following a 2.4 per cent contraction this year.

"It’s pretty clear that Canadians think the economy is going to get stronger in the next six months,” said Nik Nanos, president and CEO of the Ottawa-based firm.

Confidence is strongest in Ontario and western Canada, and weakest in Quebec, according to a regional breakdown of the data.

The poll also found that Canadians are six times more likely to say the value of real estate in their neighbourhood will gain in the next six months than say it will fall, with 46 per cent of respondents saying they expect prices to increase. Home resales and prices have risen to records this year.

“Perceptions related to real estate continue to climb – they’re the highest that we’ve seen in over 18 months – and we know that real estate tends to be a key driver in the economy in general,” Nanos said.

The poll of 1,003 Canadians was taken between Dec. 10 and Dec. 13, and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

Canada’s recession began in the fourth quarter of 2008, coinciding with a Nanos poll that showed the proportion expecting the economy to weaken topped 50 per cent.

Since that time, the figure has fallen steadily, and in the prior quarterly survey taken by Nanos, only 18 per cent of Canadians said they expected the economy to worsen, compared with 45 per cent who said they thought it would improve.

Thirty-one per cent of Canadians said their personal finances are worse than they were a year ago, compared with 16 per cent who said their finances have improved. Those figures are little changed from the previous quarter.

A recent survey of employers is adding optimism that Canada’s year-long period of job losses has ended and may soon reverse.

Internet job site CareerBuilder.ca says its survey of 255 private-sector hiring officials, conducted online between Nov. 5 and Nov. 23 and released Wednesday, found more expected to add full-time employees than reduce staff in 2010.

Twenty-nine per cent of the employers surveyed last month said they planned to hire next year. Only 9 per cent expected to cut staff.

From the Star’s wire services

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