Comcast SportsNet

Comcast SportsNet
Comcast SportsNet logo
Launched	1997 (as Comcast SportsNet)
Owned by	Comcast
Country	United States
Language	American English
Broadcast area	Regional through several affiliates
Sister channel(s)	Fox Sports Net
Website	ComcastSportsNet.com

Comcast SportsNet (or CSN) is a group of regional sports networks in the United States primarily owned by the Comcast cable television company.

The channels, CSN Bay Area, CSN California (both serving Northern and Central California), CSN Chicago, CSN New England, CSN Northwest (serving Portland, OR/Seattle), CSN Philadelphia, CSN Mid-Atlantic (serving Baltimore/Washington) and SportsNet New York, have rights to carry some or all of the local professional teams in baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer. They also air nightly sports-news and talk shows, post-game shows, and other shoulder programming related to local National Football League (NFL) teams, and a variety of college sports programming.

In select markets (primarily those without an affiliate already), CSN stations also air national programming from FSN, notably including Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) men's and women's basketball on Sundays, Pac-12 basketball on various nights, plus Big 12 and Pac-12 football on Saturdays during their respective seasons.

As the result of the acquisition of a majority share in NBC Universal by Comcast in February 2011; the operations of CSN, along with sister national sports channels Versus and Golf Channel, were aligned into a merged NBC Sports division.^[1][2] While plans were made to transition the CSN channels to the NBC brand, the networks will instead keep their Comcast branding, but will soon adopt elements of the new NBC Sports imaging.^[3].

Networks

Name	Region served	Home to	Former Name	Notes
Bay Area	Northern and central California, northwestern Nevada (including the Lake Tahoe-Reno-Carson City region), and parts of southern Oregon.	San Francisco Giants (MLB), San Jose Sharks (NHL), Golden State Warriors (NBA), San Jose Earthquakes (MLS) and local coverage of the Pacific-12, West Coast, Mountain West, and Western Athletic conferences.	Pacific Sports Network (PSN), SportsChannel Bay Area, SportsChannel Pacific, FSN Bay Area	Comcast owns 45%, the Giants own 25%, and Fox owns 25% Due to NBA territorial restrictions, Warriors games are blacked out in the Sacramento area. Due to Comcast's majority ownership, the FSN Bay Area was replaced with CSN Bay Area on March 31, 2008.[4]
California	Northern and central California.	Oakland Athletics (MLB), Sacramento Kings (NBA), San Jose Sharks (NHL), San Jose Earthquakes (MLS), San Jose SaberCats (AFL), California Golden Bears (NCAA), other local sports coverage.	CSN West	Created in conjunction with Maloof Sports & Entertainment (owners of the Kings and Monarchs), after they did not renew their previous contract with FSN Bay Area. Renamed from CSN West on Sept. 4, 2008. Due to NBA territorial restrictions, Kings games are blacked out in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Chicago	Illinois, northwestern Indiana, Iowa, non-Milwaukee market areas of southern Wisconsin	Chicago Bulls (NBA), Chicago Cubs (MLB), Chicago White Sox (MLB), Chicago Blackhawks (NHL), Chicago Fire S.C. (Major League Soccer), coverage of local women's college basketball games, as well as softball (the Chicago Bandits), and arena football (mainly the Chicago Rush).		Effectively replaced FSN Chicago. The Bulls, Blackhawks, White Sox, and Cubs each own a 20% share in the network
Mid-Atlantic	Delaware, Maryland, South-Central Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia	Washington Capitals (NHL), Washington Wizards (NBA), Washington Mystics (WNBA), D.C. United (MLS) and local coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference and Colonial Athletic Association.	Home Team Sports	Carried the Baltimore Orioles through 2006. Online coverage is split into Comcast SportsNet Baltimore and Comcast SportsNet Washington.
New England	Connecticut (except southwestern areas), Maine Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont	Boston Celtics (NBA), Boston Cannons (MLL), New England Revolution (MLS)	FSN New England, SportsChannel New England	Renamed CSN New England in October 2007.[5] Does not air ACC programming as rights to ACC games are sold regionally within its area, these rights are owned by NESN
Northwest	Oregon, Washington	Portland Trail Blazers (NBA), Vancouver Canucks and other NHL games, Oregon Ducks and other college sports programming, assorted local sports		Created in conjunction with the Trail Blazers after they were unable to come to an agreement to stay on FSN Northwest (now known today as Root Sports Northwest). Currently available mostly to Comcast customers. Neither Dish Network nor DirecTV has picked up this channel. Canby Telcom has accused Comcast of being inflexible in its negotiations.[6] The Oregonian newspaper has reported that CSN Northwest is seeking $2 per month per subscriber, more than what is being paid to the well-established FSN Northwest.[7]
Philadelphia	Philadelphia, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware	Philadelphia Phillies (MLB), Philadelphia Flyers (NHL), Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), Philadelphia Union (MLS), Philadelphia Wings (NLL), and college sports.	PRISM & SportsChannel Philadelphia	Flagship of the Comcast regional sports networks. Originally a joint venture between Comcast, the Phillies, and Spectacor (owner of the Flyers and 76ers), controlling interest in Spectacor was acquired by Comcast in 1996. Not available on satellite.
Houston	Houston area	Will become exclusive home of the Houston Rockets starting in the 2012-13 NBA season and the Houston Astros starting in the 2013 MLB season.
Other Networks
SportsNet New York (SNY)	New York, Northern New Jersey, Connecticut, Northeast Pennsylvania	New York Mets (MLB), Big East, Sun Belt and other athletic conferences.		Owned jointly by the New York Mets, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast.
MountainWest Sports Network (The Mtn.)	Denver, Colorado	Air Force Falcons (NCAA), Boise State Broncos (NCAA), Colorado State Rams (NCAA), New Mexico Lobos (NCAA), SDSU Aztecs (NCAA), TCU Horned Frogs (NCAA), UNLV Rebels (NCAA), Wyoming Cowboys (NCAA).		Launched on September 1, 2006 as a joint-venture of the Mountain West Conference (MWC), CBS Sports (through the former CSTV) and Comcast.
Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast	Southeastern US	Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference games (NCAA), Atlanta Dream (WNBA)		Launched in lieu of a regional CSN affiliate, with ownership and the channel name split with Charter Communications Only available over terrestrial cable.
Comcast Sports Southwest	Houston area	select games from Sun Belt Conference, Southeastern Conference, and Conference USA, particularly those of the University of Houston and Rice University (all NCAA)

Other channels

Comcast is part owner (with St. Louis, Missouri-based Charter Communications) of CSS (Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast), a regional network serving the southeastern portion of the nation, based in Atlanta. CSS carries primarily collegiate and high school sports in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Although not branded as Comcast SportsNet, CSS is treated as a sister network to the CSN networks, and Comcast's stake in the network is through Comcast Sports Group, the division of NBCUniversal that operates the CSN networks.

On September 1, 2009, Comcast launched Comcast Sports SouthWest (also referred to as CSS) in the Houston area. The network is home to the Houston Cougars and Rice Owls and also covers Houston-area high school sports.^[8]

Comcast also co-owns (with Fox Entertainment Group) the Sun Sports cable television network based in Orlando, Florida (Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida are operated and programmed together by Fox, the latter channel being entirely Fox-owned). In April 2007, Comcast bought 60 percent of FSN Bay Area and 50 percent of FSN New England from Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings LLC subsidiary (which had partnered with Fox to create FSN). As a result, Comcast took over control of what is now CSN New England.,^[9] and Comcast has announced plans to increase the amount of local programming on the channel.^[10] Also, with Comcast having assumed full management control, FSN Bay Area was renamed CSN Bay Area on March 31, 2008 (though Fox still owns a 25% stake in the network) and is being run alongside the already-launched CSN West.

Comcast also helped form MountainWest Sports Network (the mtn.), with CSTV (now CBS College Sports Network) and The Mountain West Conference. This was the first regional sports network dedicated strictly to a single NCAA Division 1 conference.^[11]

Similarly, Comcast owns local channels, branded Comcast Network, based in the Philadelphia and Baltimore/Washington metropolitan areas. The network, formerly called CN8, is aired on most Comcast cable systems along the East Coast Philadelphia to Richmond, Virginia, and is sometimes carried on other cable operators. The channels served as primarily local news/information channels, but carry some regional sports programming, including Eastern League baseball, CAA football, and some Phillies games within the Phillies' designated market. Originally expanded into the Boston market, the New England operations ceased in 2009. (While Comcast Sports Group now operates New England Cable News (NECN) in the Boston market, that network also serves primarily as a news channel, and sports programming on NECN largely consists of sports news coverage produced by CSN New England.)

Comcast also owned a local sports network in Detroit and available across Michigan and central Indiana, Comcast Local (CL). CL carried collegiate and high school sports from their area, as well as minor league sports throughout its broadcast area. CL ceased operations at the end of February 2008 as every major pro or college team in the region had its programming tied to FSN Detroit and/or the Big Ten Network.^{[citation needed]}

Comcast holds a minority stake in the MLB Network, along with DirecTV, Time Warner, Cox Communications and Major League Baseball, which holds controlling interest.

Comcast SportsNet HD

Comcast SportsNet HD is a high definition simulcast of select programs from Comcast SportsNet including live sports & series. Each regional channel has its own separate HD feed (many also have an alternate HD feed as well) and decides what will be broadcast in HD.

Comcast SportsNet HD is not available in the Seattle or Houston areas.

See also

• Broadcasting of sports events

References and footnotes

1. ^ Goetzl, David (May 4, 2011). "NBC Sports Brand Going Local". MediaPost Publications. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=149913&nid=126425. Retrieved May 6, 2011. 
2. ^ Friedman, Wayne (May 9, 2011). "NBC Steps Up Branding For Comcast Sports Nets". MediaPost Publications. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=150158. Retrieved May 10, 2011. 
3. ^ Ourand, John. "SBJ: Exit Versus, enter the NBC Sports Network". The Sporting News. http://aol.sportingnews.com/nhl/story/2011-08-01/sbj-exit-versus-enter-the-nbc-sports-network. Retrieved 2 August 2011. 
4. ^ FitzGerald, Tom (August 20, 2010). "Same channel, but new name for local telecasts / Comcast SportsNet BA replaces FSNBA". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/26/SPQGVQ5UD.DTL. 
5. ^ http://www.telegram.com/article/20070920/COLUMN08/709200699/1009/SPORTS September 20, 2007 news articles from Worcester Telegram & Gazette Bill Doyle (Must scroll down about half a page for citation)
6. ^ Comcast Sportsnet and NFL Network (Canby Telcom)^{[dead link]}
7. ^ Comcast's sports channels fuel bidding war - OregonLive.com: Silicon Forest
8. ^ Comcast adds more Houston-area sports programming
9. ^ Worcester Telegram & Gazette Bill Doyle
10. ^ Reed, Keith (June 6, 2007). "Comcast plans to beef up Fox Sports New England". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/06/06/comcast_plans_to_beef_up_fox_sports_new_england/. 
11. ^ http://themtn.cstv.com/about/

External links

• CSN Bay Area
• CSN California
• CSN Chicago
• CSN New England
• CSN Northwest
• CSN Philadelphia
• CSN Washington
• CSS (Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast)
• Comcast Network (Chicago)
• Comcast Network Philadelphia
• SportsNet New York