The cable industry, having put together its franchises city by city, contends that the phone companies should face the same hurdles for video delivery.
At American Airlines Arena on Thursday night, news media outlets were present from the Middle East to the Far East, but only from about a quarter of the N.B.A.'s franchise cities.
In a survey carried out in franchise cities for the Economic Times, more than one-tenth of respondents said that they had cut back on going to see films or eating out (the main alternatives in Indian cities to a night in front of the television) in order to watch the IPL.
That kind of fairytale wouldn't happen in an eight-franchise city-based tournament, but it happened on Saturday, so let's enjoy it while we can.
Cal Ripken, 19 years in Baltimore and counting, is a throwback, and Patrick Ewing, in his own weird way, is a throwback in New York, even though he has the most tepid relationship with his franchise city that you are ever likely to see.
Starting in earnest in the 1950s, baseball club owners became free agents themselves, moving their franchises from city to city for "cash considerations".
So we get thirty franchises, in cities such as Atlanta, where there aren't enough fans to sustain them.
The all-powerful league awards franchises to cities to create football teams, which cannot then be dropped from the competition.
Mr. Peralta said that if he failed to acquire the Angels, he would look for another team, focusing on franchises in cities with large Hispanic populations.
Yum China, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell franchises in cities across China, has publicly backed the central government's pronouncement.
