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Wikipedia

Regional sports network

In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region.

Historically, some RSNs originated as premium channels; since the 1990s, however, they have commonly been distributed through the expanded basic-programming tiers of cable and IPTV services, packaged alongside other national basic cable networks, and local broadcast stations and public, educational, and government access channels. Satellite providers often require subscribers to purchase a higher programming tier or a specialized sports tier to receive local and out-of-market regional sports networks.

Overview

The most important programming on a regional sports network (RSN) consists of live broadcasts of professional and collegiate sporting events, as those games generate an overwhelming percentage of an RSN's advertising income, in addition to viewership. During the rest of the day, these channels show other sports and recreation programming (such as news programs covering local and national sports; magazine and discussion programs relating to a team or collegiate conference; fishing and hunting programs; and in-studio video simulcasts of sports radio programs); rebroadcasts of sports events that aired as late as the day prior and paid programming may also be shown. These channels are often the source content for out-of-market sports packages. In the United States, DirecTV offers all regional sports networks to all subscribers across the country, however games and select programming is blacked out outside their home markets.

Regional sports networks are generally among the most expensive channels carried by cable television providers, due to the expense of rights to the local sports they carry; these higher subscriber fees received by television providers through retransmission consent carriage agreements coupled with percentages of other forms of revenue are used to pay local and regional teams for the right to broadcast their games. A typical RSN, as of 2012, carries a monthly retransmission fee of $2 to $3 per subscriber,[1] lower than the rates providers charge to carry ESPN and premium channels but higher than the rates for other cable networks. These high prices are supported by demand for the often-popular local sports teams they carry (particularly those that are member franchises of larger sports leagues such as Major League Baseball,[2] the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, as well as college teams that have large and loyal fanbases); carriage disputes between distributors and RSNs are often controversial and protracted. The expense of the per subscriber rate led some major providers such as Charter Spectrum and Verizon FiOS to begin incorporating a fixed "regional sports network fee" as a separate surcharge within its billing statements as early as 2013.[3][4]

Most regional sports networks in the United States are either affiliated with Bally Sports or the NBC Sports Regional Networks, which produce and distribute supplementary programming – including professional and college sports events involving out-of-market teams, and sports-centered reality and documentary series – for their individual owned-and-operated member networks and any RSNs not under common ownership that receive their "nationally" distributed programming through affiliation agreements. in the past, some RSNs also carried supplemental programming from networks such as America One, AMGTV or ESPNews, though vertical integration and the impact of streaming services removing game broadcasts from low-tier broadcast networks has effectively ended this practice.

In Canada, Sportsnet operates four regional sports networks, and the otherwise nationally distributed TSN also maintains some regional operations. This differs from the operational structure of RSNs in the United States, which are independently operated from national sports networks.

An increasing trend is for the teams whose games make up the lucrative programming to own the RSN themselves. This serves two purposes: first, the teams make more money operating an RSN than they would collecting a licensing fee from an individual network or a group, such as Bally Sports. Second, by owning their own RSN, teams that must share revenues with other members of their league can mask its broadcast-related profits. Under the old model, a team collects a large fee for licensing its games to the RSN. That fee would then be disclosed and shared with the other teams in the league. Under the new, team-owned RSN model, the team demands only a nominal fee, so the profits for local broadcasts stay with the team. The owned-and-operated RSN model generally works best in the largest markets where advertising and cable revenue is larger; in smaller or fringe markets, the sale of rights fees is more lucrative.

For example, the New York Rangers and New York Knicks have long co-owned their RSN, MSG; however, they also have purchased the rights to their rivals, the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils. MSG also owns the rights to the Buffalo Sabres, however the team and ownership controls game production and that has since evolved into a separate MSG sub-channel for the Sabres market called MSG Western New York which is dual-controlled and programmed by MSG and Pegula Sports and Entertainment, owners of the Sabres effectively making it an owned and operated RSN. The Sabres had moved to MSG after the closure of their former home, Empire Sports Network, in the wake of the financial collapse of its owner Adelphia Communications Corporation.[5][6]

History

The first regional sports network is considered to be the Madison Square Garden Network. An early unnamed version of that network started broadcasting Knicks and Rangers to a small number of subscribers in Manhattan in May 1969.[7] By the late 1970s another version of this network would launch and be made available to other cable systems in the metropolitan area and it would finally receive the name Madison Square Garden Television in 1980. Another early network considered by many to be an RSN is Philadelphia's PRISM which launched in 1976 offering coverage of three of the city's major sports teams and movies.

In 1976, Cablevision launched a new service providing coverage of Long Island sports (originally called Cablevision Sports 3). This channel would be renamed SportsChannel New York in 1979 and became the first channel to resemble a modern regional sports network. Other SportsChannels were launched in different cities and in 1988, they were formally organized into a group that shared programming and national TV rights.

United States

Bally Sports

For years, the default RSN for many markets was owned by Fox Sports. Fox Sports Networks, which launched on November 1, 1996, as Fox Sports Net,[8] was created through former parent News Corporation's October 1995 purchase of a 50% equity stake in Liberty Media-owned Prime Sports Networks, co-founded in 1988 by Bill Daniels and Liberty's then-sister company Tele-Communications Inc.[9] The group expanded further in June 1997, Fox/Liberty Networks, the joint venture company operated by News Corporation and Liberty Media, purchased a 40% interest in the Cablevision-owned SportsChannel group.[10][11]

As part of a rebranding effort, the collective branding of the networks – which eventually became "FSN (Region/City)" in 2004 – was extended to Fox Sports (Region/City) (also used from 1996 to 2000) with the start of the 2008 college football season. The FSN networks were acquired by Diamond Sports Group from The Walt Disney Company in 2019, as Disney was required to divest them by U.S. Department of Justice as a condition of their own acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The channel group was renamed Bally Sports on March 31, 2021, as part of a naming rights agreement with casino operator Bally's Corporation. The networks that currently maintain affiliations with or are owned by Bally Sports, and the major teams and athletic conferences the regional networks broadcast are as follows:

Current owned-and-operated outlets

Channel Region served
Bally Sports Arizona Arizona,
New Mexico,
Utah,
Southern Nevada
Bally Sports Detroit Michigan,
northwestern Ohio,
northeastern Indiana,
northeast Wisconsin
Bally Sports Florida Florida,
southern Alabama,
southern Georgia
Bally Sports Great Lakes Ohio,
eastern Indiana,
Kentucky,
northwestern Pennsylvania,
southwestern New York
Bally Sports Indiana central Indiana
Bally Sports Kansas City Kansas City metropolitan area,
western and central Missouri,
Kansas,
eastern Nebraska,
Iowa
Bally Sports Midwest Missouri,
central and southern Illinois,
southern Indiana,
eastern Nebraska,
eastern Kansas,
western Kentucky,
northern Arkansas
Bally Sports New Orleans Louisiana
Bally Sports North Minnesota,
Wisconsin,
Iowa,
North Dakota,
South Dakota
Bally Sports Ohio Ohio
Bally Sports Oklahoma Oklahoma
Bally Sports San Diego San Diego metropolitan area
Bally Sports SoCal southern California,
southern Nevada,
Hawaii
Bally Sports South Georgia,
Mississippi,
Alabama,
Kentucky
Bally Sports Southeast Georgia,
Tennessee,
Alabama,
Mississippi,
South Carolina,
North Carolina,
Elizabeth City micropolitan area,
Outer Banks
Bally Sports Southwest northern and eastern Texas,
northern Louisiana,
New Mexico,
Arkansas,
Oklahoma
Bally Sports Sun Florida
Bally Sports West southern California,
southern Nevada,
Hawaii
Bally Sports Wisconsin Wisconsin,
western Upper Peninsula of Michigan,
eastern Minnesota,
northwestern Illinois,
Iowa

Current affiliates

Channel Region served
AT&T SportsNet see below
Marquee Sports Network Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

parts of Wisconsin

MASN Maryland,
Washington, D.C.,
Virginia,
eastern and central North Carolina,
West Virginia,
south central Pennsylvania,
Delaware
NESN Massachusetts

eastern and central Connecticut

Maine

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

Vermont

YES Network New York metropolitan area,
northern New Jersey,
northeastern Pennsylvania,
southern Connecticut

NBC Sports Regional Networks

Seeing an opportunity to serve sports fans on a more local level and generate profits, cable conglomerate Comcast began creating their own RSN – Comcast SportsNet (CSN) – in the late 1990s. The groundwork of this group was laid as a result of Comcast's March 1996 purchase of 66% equity in Philadelphia-based event organizer Spectacor, automatically giving it ownership of its two professional team franchises;[12][13] this led to the creation of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, which launched on October 1, 1997.[14]

Ironically, CSN would purchase a small number of RSNs previously owned by Fox Sports Networks, and acquired the local rights to professional teams that FSN regional networks carried (in two markets, the latter situation resulted in Fox Sports shutting down their networks). The January 2011 Comcast merger with NBCUniversal allowed NBC Sports to take operational control of these networks and they are expected to become more integrated with their sister national sports network, NBCSN.

In April 2017, Comcast SportsNet's California and Bay Area networks were rebranded under the NBC Sports brand; NBC Sports Regional Networks adopted the "NBC Sports" moniker on its other regional channels on October 2, 2017.[15]

Channel Region served
NBC Sports Bay Area San Francisco Bay Area,
Northern California,
Central California,
Southern Oregon,
Nevada
NBC Sports California northern California,
central California,
Southern California,
parts of Oregon,
parts of Nevada
NBC Sports Chicago Chicago metropolitan area,
northern and central Illinois ,
Iowa,
northern Indiana,
Kenosha County, Wisconsin,
southwestern Michigan
NBC Sports Washington Maryland,
Virginia,
Washington, D.C.,
southern Pennsylvania,
eastern West Virginia,
southern Delaware,
Hampton Roads,
Outer Banks
NBC Sports Boston Massachusetts,
eastern and central Connecticut,
Vermont,
Maine,
New Hampshire,
Rhode Island
NBC Sports Philadelphia Philadelphia metropolitan area,
eastern Pennsylvania,
southern New Jersey
SportsNet New York New York metropolitan area,
New York State,
Connecticut,
northern New Jersey

AT&T Sports Networks

In May 2009, DirecTV Group Inc. announced that it would become a part of Liberty Media's entertainment unit, with some of the group's assets subsequently being spun off as a separate company under the DirecTV banner; the Fox Sports Networks outlets that became part of the Liberty Sports unit (which was renamed DirecTV Sports Networks on November 19, 2009) were rebranded under the new name "Root Sports" on April 1, 2011.[16][17]

DirecTV Sports Networks would be acquired by AT&T Inc. in 2015, as a byproduct of its acquisition of DirecTV. The renamed RSN unit, AT&T Sports Networks, would eventually announce on June 12, 2017, that it would rebrand most of its regional sports networks – with the exception of Root Sports Northwest, due to its ownership being majority controlled by the Seattle Mariners – under the AT&T SportsNet banner on July 14, 2017.[18] AT&T Sports Networks continues to broadcast various sports magazine and documentary programs and select sporting events broadcast by Fox Sports Networks through an affiliation agreement with its former parent group; with the exception of AT&T SportsNet Southwest, which does not carry these programs due to the presence of a Fox Sports-owned subfeed network in its home market, these channels largely continue to carry the same local teams and national Bally Sports programs as they did with the Fox Sports Networks under FSN ownership.

In September 2018, AT&TSN was transferred to the WarnerMedia News & Sports division.

Current owned-and-operated networks

Channel Region served
AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh Western, central and northeastern Pennsylvania,
West Virginia,
eastern and central Ohio,
western Maryland,
western New York state
AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain Colorado,
Nevada,
Utah,
Wyoming,
Southern Idaho,
northwestern Arizona,
western and central New Mexico,
northwestern Nebraska,
western South Dakota
parts of eastern California, including the Sierra Nevada region
AT&T SportsNet Southwest Texas,
Louisiana,
Arkansas,
Oklahoma,
eastern New Mexico
Root Sports Northwest Washington,
Oregon,
Alaska,
Montana,
western Idaho

Spectrum Sports

Spectrum Sports is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks that are primarily owned and operated by Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016.

Independent regional sports networks

The following is a list of regional sports channels that are not part of a larger national network:

Channel Owner Region served
Altitude Sports and Entertainment Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Colorado,
Idaho,
Utah,
Kansas,
Montana,
Nebraska,
New Mexico,
Nevada,
South Dakota,
Wyoming
Buckeye Cable Sports Network Block Communications Toledo, Ohio
Comcast Television/Comcast Television 2 Comcast Michigan
Cox Sports Television Cox Communications Louisiana,
Texas,
Florida,
Arkansas
Image Sports Network Erie, Pennsylvania
Midco Sports Network Midcontinent Communications South Dakota,
North Dakota,
western Minnesota
MSG Network The Madison Square Garden Company New York metropolitan area,
New York State
MSG Western New York The Madison Square Garden Company / Pegula Sports and Entertainment Western New York
MSG Plus The Madison Square Garden Company New York metropolitan area,
New York State
SWX Right Now Cowles Publishing Company
(The KHQ Television Group)
Inland Northwest
Service Electric Network Service Electric Cable TV and Communications / Service Electric Lehigh Valley and other portions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey
YurView California Cox Communications Southern California

College networks

Channel Owner Notes
ACC Network (ACCN) ESPN Inc.
(The Walt Disney Company, 80%; Hearst Corporation, 20%)
Dedicated to sports events and other programming relating to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Big Ten Network (BTN) Big Ten Conference (39%)
Fox Corporation (61%)
Dedicated to sports events and other programming relating to the Big Ten Conference. It operates four overflow feeds for overlapping football telecasts.
BYU TV Brigham Young University BYU TV airs sporting events involving the schools of Brigham Young University, including the Brigham Young University Cougars (the school's football team is an FBS independent and sold the television rights for its games to ESPN. BYU TV exclusively airs one game per-season, as well as shoulder programming and encores), BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii. It otherwise airs a mix of entertainment and lifestyle programming, including programming relating to the university and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Pac-12 Networks Pac-12 Conference Dedicated to sanctioned sporting events and other programming involving the Pac-12 Conference. It consists of a national feed (Pac-12 Network), as well as six regional networks, including Pac-12 Los Angeles (dedicated to the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California), Pac-12 Washington (dedicated to University of Washington and Washington State University), Pac-12 Oregon (dedicated to University of Oregon and Oregon State University), Pac-12 Bay Area (dedicated to the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University), Pac-12 Arizona (dedicated to the University of Arizona and Arizona State University), and Pac-12 Mountain (dedicated to the University of Colorado and the University of Utah).[19] The national network was available in at least 48 million homes at time of launch,[20] while the regional networks are available throughout their respective region within the Pac-12's designated territory.[21] The Pac-12 Networks are the first owned fully by a conference without support from outside groups (Big Ten Network is a joint venture with Fox Sports, and MountainWest Sports Network was owned in conjunction with CBS Corporation and Comcast).
Longhorn Network University of Texas at Austin
ESPN
IMG College
The network is dedicated to sports events and other programming relating to the Texas Longhorns. The arrangement has caused controversy among other members of the Big 12 Conference and by Texas A&M University, alleging the network could give UT-Austin a perceived recruiting advantage, and lead to ESPN placing a bias on the team in its coverage. Proposals to air University Interscholastic League high school football games on the network were shelved due to these factors.
SEC Network ESPN Inc.
(The Walt Disney Company, 80%; Hearst Corporation, 20%)
The Southeastern Conference first explored starting its own 24-hour cable network in 2007,[22] however a content deal between the University of Florida and Fox-owned Sun Sports,[23] and a long-term deal between the SEC and ESPN Inc.[24] suspended the proposal. ESPN later reached an agreement with the SEC to broadcast conference football and basketball games via the syndicated SEC TV package (initially named SEC Network), under an arrangement basically identical to that of past SEC rightsholder Raycom Sports. As part of a 20-year broadcast agreement reached between the SEC and ESPN in May 2013, ESPN launched the SEC Network, as a cable/satellite network devoted to Southeastern Conference sports, on August 14, 2014.[25]

Defunct networks

Channel Region served
Arizona Sports Programming Network/"Cox 9" Phoenix, Arizona
BlazerVision Portland, Oregon
Carolinas Sports Entertainment Television (C-SET) Charlotte, North Carolina
Columbus Sports Network (CSN) Columbus, Ohio
Comcast Local (CL) Michigan
Indiana
Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia
Empire Sports Network Upstate New York
parts of northern Pennsylvania
parts of eastern Ohio
Fox Sports Carolinas Carolinas
Fox Sports Houston Texas
FSN Chicago Chicago, IL
Fox Sports Tennessee Tennessee
Hawkvision Chicago metropolitan area
Hometown Sports Indiana Indianapolis, Indiana
NBC Sports Northwest Washington,
Oregon
Pro-Am Sports System (PASS Sports) Detroit, Michigan
Prime Sports Upper Midwest Iowa

Minnesota

North Dakota

South Dakota

Wisconsin

PRISM Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Royals Sports Television Network Kansas City metropolitan area
western Missouri
Kansas
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Iowa
Spectrum Community Maine,
New Hampshire
Spectrum Sports Tampa Bay metropolitan area and Greater Orlando
Spectrum Sports Upstate New York
Spectrum Sports North Carolina
South Carolina
Spectrum Sports Texas
SportsChannel Los Angeles Southern California
SportsChannel Philadelphia
Sports Time Midwestern United States
Sports View southeastern Wisconsin
Sportsvision Chicago metropolitan area
TW3 Capital District of New York,
Saratoga County,
south Adirondack County,
Mohawk Valley,
most of Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Victory Sports One Minneapolis-Saint Paul

Canada

Sportsnet

Sportsnet (formerly known as CTV Sportsnet and Rogers Sportsnet) is owned by the Rogers Media division of Toronto-based Rogers Communications. Sportsnet carries all of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball games. Although it is considered a national channel with multiple feeds for regulatory purposes, in practice its four main channels act as a set of RSNs, albeit with a significant portion of common national programming. The four channels are:

Channel Description and programming Broadcast Area
Sportsnet Pacific Regional feed for British Columbia and Yukon; airs regional Vancouver Canucks games.

 

Sportsnet West Regional feed for the Prairies, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut; airs regional Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers games except in the Winnipeg Jets region.
Sportsnet Ontario Regional feed for most of Ontario; airs regional Toronto Maple Leafs games.
Sportsnet East Regional feed for eastern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Through the separate Sportsnet One licence, Rogers also operates three part-time regional "companion channels", which provide coverage of additional regional NHL broadcasts which are not able to air on Sportsnet's main regional channels: Sportsnet Flames, Sportsnet Oilers, and Sportsnet Vancouver Hockey.

Rogers is also a shareholder in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), which owns Leafs Nation Network, a channel devoted entirely to the Toronto Maple Leafs and its farm team, the Toronto Marlies (and is restricted to the Leafs' broadcast territory). MLSE also operates NBA TV Canada, which is distributed nationally but focuses much of its programming on the MLSE-owned Toronto Raptors and farm team Raptors 905.

TSN/RDS

On August 25, 2014, The Sports Network (TSN), another Canadian sports channel, split its singular national feed into four regional feeds in a manner similar to Sportsnet. These feeds are primarily used to broadcast regional NHL games,[26] but may also be used to provide alternative and common national programming.[27]

While each region has a primary TSN channel, due to overlaps in NHL territories it is possible in some parts of Ontario to access additional regional games from one non-primary channel. These situations are noted as they occur below.[28]

Channel Description and regional programming
TSN1 The primary TSN feed for viewers in British Columbia, Alberta and Yukon.
TSN2 A national secondary channel launched in 2008 prior to the launch of the other regional feeds.
TSN3 The primary TSN feed for viewers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and northwestern Ontario.
TSN4 The primary TSN feed for viewers in most of Ontario.
TSN5 The primary TSN feed for viewers in eastern Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.

Prior to the launch of these channels, regional NHL games whose rights were held by TSN (which, at that point, consisted solely of the Jets and Canadiens) were broadcast on special part-time channels exclusive to the team's television region.[30]

Bell Media also owns Réseau des sports (RDS) and RDS2, French-language sports networks that are licensed to serve all of Canada, but in practice focus on the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec (as there are relatively few francophones outside that province). Prior to the 2014–15 season, RDS could air Canadiens games on a national basis, as it was also the national French-language rightsholder of the National Hockey League in Canada. With Rogers' acquisition of the exclusive national media rights to the NHL, and its decision to sub-license French rights to Quebecor Media's TVA Sports, RDS and RDS2's coverage of the Canadiens and Senators are now restricted to parts of Eastern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.[31]

High definition

Nearly all regional sports networks broadcast all content in high definition as of 2016, with only the lowest-cost programming or high school sporting events produced locally for regional broadcast now only available in standard definition. Bally Sports and the NBC Sports Regional Networks owned-and-operated networks and affiliates maintain dedicated HD channels, which are used to broadcast both local and national HD programming, mainly game telecasts. All Bally Sports affiliates transmit HD programming in their native 720p resolution format; all NBC Sports Regional affiliates and independent channels transmit in 1080i.

Regional syndicators

Some telecasts (especially in U.S. college sports) are broadcast by ad-hoc syndicated packages, which can be picked up on a network of broadcasters that may consist of either individual over-the-air stations, regional sports networks, or a mixture of both.

Jefferson-Pilot Communications and Raycom Sports were well-known as syndicators of college sports on broadcast television, having previously held agreements with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and Southeastern Conference (SEC). By the late-2000's. both packages began to wind down after ESPN acquired the media rights to both conferences; ESPN initially maintained a syndicated package known as "SEC Network", while Raycom was given a sub-license to continue its syndication package (subsequently renamed "ACC Network").[32][33] Both packages ended when ESPN launched dedicated cable channels for both conferences.

ESPN was originally intended to focus on sports in Connecticut, but chose to broadcast nationally when it debuted in 1979 when it was discovered by the network's founders that it would be less expensive to broadcast nationwide on satellite as opposed to regionally through microwave transmission.[34] ESPN formerly served as a college sports syndicator via ESPN Regional Television—formerly branded on-air as ESPN Plus, but later using conference-oriented brands such as SEC Network (not to be confused with the SEC Network cable channel which served as its de facto replacement), and Big East Network. The SEC Network package was a successor to the previous Raycom Sports-produced SEC package.

In 2014, television station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group established its own sports syndicator known as the American Sports Network (ASN), primarily syndicating broadcasts of college football and basketball from mid-major conferences (some of which were previously associated with ESPN Plus) to stations that it owns and operates.[35][36] In 2015, Sinclair also acquired regional rights to Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake, with ASN handling production and distribution of team telecasts within its designated market.[37] ASN later began to operate a dedicated channel (which, in contrast to other sports channels, was distributed free-to-air via digital subchannels, and eventually subsumed its syndication of individual telecasts), and In 2017, was replaced by Stadium as part of a joint venture with Silver Chalice—which carries a larger focus on streaming distribution alongside digital subchannels.

See also

References

  1. ^ Dave Warner (April 17, 2013). "The High Cost Of Regional Sports Networks". What You Pay For Sports. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  2. ^ Lucia, Joe (April 6, 2021). "Which RSN has the best MLB scorebug?". Awful Announcing.
  3. ^ Mike Farrell (December 22, 2014). "Time Warner Cable to Initiate Sports Fee in January". Multichannel News. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  4. ^ David Lazarus (May 2, 2014). "Trapped into paying extra for cable TV sports". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  5. ^ Pergament, Alan (June 21, 2016). . The Buffalo News. Berkshire Hathaway. Archived from the original on June 22, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  6. ^ Alan Pergament (May 3, 2003). "DEAL WITH TIME WARNER HITS EMPIRE WHERE IT HURTS". The Buffalo News. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  7. ^ Eskenazi, Gerald (21 May 1969). "GARDEN, CABLE TV SIGN 1-YEAR PACT; Knick, Ranger Home Games in 125-Event Package". The New York Times. ProQuest 118734201.
  8. ^ R. Thomas Umstead (July 8, 1996). . Multichannel News. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  9. ^ "FOX AND LIBERTY OUTLINE PLANS FOR NEW CABLE VENTURE". Sports Business Journal. November 1, 1995. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  10. ^ . Chicago Sun-Times. June 24, 1997. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  11. ^ John M. Higgins (June 30, 1997). . Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  12. ^ Michael Sokolove; Jayson Stark and Michael L. Rozansky (March 20, 1996). "Comcast Buying 76ers And Flyers Phils Also May Get Involved With Firm". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  13. ^ Bill Fleischman (July 22, 1997). "New Sportsnet Reels In Sixers". Philadelphia Daily News. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
  14. ^ Rose DeWolf (August 25, 1997). "Starz On The Horizon Goodbye Prism & Sports Channel; What's Next Depends On Where You Hang The Clicker". Philadelphia Daily News. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  15. ^ "CSN Mid-Atlantic is rebranding as NBC Sports Washington". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  16. ^ Mike Reynolds (November 20, 2009). "Liberty Sports Rebrands As DirecTV Sports Networks". Multichannel News. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  17. ^ "'Root Sports' new name for sports networks". Denver Business Journal. December 17, 2010.
  18. ^ Ken Fang (June 12, 2017). "AT&T SPORTS NETWORKS WILL REBRAND ROOT SPORTS IN SUMMER 2017". Root Sports (Pittsburgh Region). AT&T Sports Networks. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  19. ^ Ted Miller (27 July 2011). "Pac-12 Announces deal for national, regional networks". ESPN. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  20. ^ Jon Wilner (August 10, 2012). "Pac-12 Networks: News and notes from the Stevenson teleconference". San Jose Mercury News.
  21. ^ Dirk Facer (July 28, 2011). "Pac-12 creates its own network". Deseret News.
  22. ^ Glenn Guilbeau (June 9, 2007). "SEC explores launching its own TV Network". USA Today. Gannett News Service.
  23. ^ John Ourand; Michael Smith (July 14, 2008). "Florida rights deal may rule out SEC channel". Sports Business Journal.
  24. ^ Mike Reynolds (August 25, 2008). "ESPN Scores 15-Year SEC Deal". Multichannel News.
  25. ^ Richard Sandomir (May 3, 2013). "SEC Will Start TV Network in 2014". The New York Times. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  26. ^ a b c "Sens, Lets, and Leafs featured regionally on TSN's feeds". TSN.ca. Bell Media. Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  27. ^ Sean Fitz-Gerald (May 6, 2014). "TSN counters Rogers NHL deal with three new channels filled with alternative sports content". National Post. Archived from the original on May 8, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  28. ^ "TSN Frequently Asked Questions". TSN.ca. October 8, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  29. ^ "TSN's regional NHL coverage features 191 games". TSN. 2017-09-15. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  30. ^ a b "Jets game broadcasts moving to TSN3". Winnipeg Free Press. August 18, 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  31. ^ Steve Faguy (August 18, 2014). "NHL broadcast schedule 2014-15: Who owns rights to what games". Fagstein. Retrieved August 23, 2014. Bell's TSN Habs channel has been shut down.
  32. ^ Smith, Michael; Ourand, John (October 5, 2010). "History with ACC secures future for Raycom". Washington Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  33. ^ Smith, Michael (October 4, 2010). (PDF). Sports and Business Journal. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 9, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  34. ^ Miller & Shales, pp. 7–8
  35. ^ Ryan Sharrow (July 17, 2014). "Sinclair Broadcast Group to launch American Sports Network". Baltimore Business Journal. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  36. ^ Deborah McAdams (July 17, 2014). . TV Technology. Archived from the original on July 21, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  37. ^ "KMYU/KUTV: The New Home Of Real Salt Lake; All 26 non-National MLS Regular Season Games Available on Free, Over-the-Air TV". Real Salt Lake. January 23, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2015.

External links

  • Kaiser's Blog – Info on RSN history and some regions.

regional, sports, network, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, this, article, require, cleanup, meet, wikipedia, quality, standards, specific, problem, deta. This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia s quality standards The specific problem is too detailed and some information may be out of date college rights in particular Please help improve this article if you can April 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience Please help by spinning off or relocating any relevant information and removing excessive detail that may be against Wikipedia s inclusion policy April 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message In the United States and Canada a regional sports network RSN is a cable television channel many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region Historically some RSNs originated as premium channels since the 1990s however they have commonly been distributed through the expanded basic programming tiers of cable and IPTV services packaged alongside other national basic cable networks and local broadcast stations and public educational and government access channels Satellite providers often require subscribers to purchase a higher programming tier or a specialized sports tier to receive local and out of market regional sports networks Contents 1 Overview 2 History 3 United States 3 1 Bally Sports 3 1 1 Current owned and operated outlets 3 1 2 Current affiliates 3 2 NBC Sports Regional Networks 3 3 AT amp T Sports Networks 3 3 1 Current owned and operated networks 3 4 Spectrum Sports 3 5 Independent regional sports networks 3 6 College networks 3 7 Defunct networks 4 Canada 4 1 Sportsnet 4 2 TSN RDS 5 High definition 6 Regional syndicators 7 See also 8 References 9 External linksOverview EditThe most important programming on a regional sports network RSN consists of live broadcasts of professional and collegiate sporting events as those games generate an overwhelming percentage of an RSN s advertising income in addition to viewership During the rest of the day these channels show other sports and recreation programming such as news programs covering local and national sports magazine and discussion programs relating to a team or collegiate conference fishing and hunting programs and in studio video simulcasts of sports radio programs rebroadcasts of sports events that aired as late as the day prior and paid programming may also be shown These channels are often the source content for out of market sports packages In the United States DirecTV offers all regional sports networks to all subscribers across the country however games and select programming is blacked out outside their home markets Regional sports networks are generally among the most expensive channels carried by cable television providers due to the expense of rights to the local sports they carry these higher subscriber fees received by television providers through retransmission consent carriage agreements coupled with percentages of other forms of revenue are used to pay local and regional teams for the right to broadcast their games A typical RSN as of 2012 update carries a monthly retransmission fee of 2 to 3 per subscriber 1 lower than the rates providers charge to carry ESPN and premium channels but higher than the rates for other cable networks These high prices are supported by demand for the often popular local sports teams they carry particularly those that are member franchises of larger sports leagues such as Major League Baseball 2 the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League as well as college teams that have large and loyal fanbases carriage disputes between distributors and RSNs are often controversial and protracted The expense of the per subscriber rate led some major providers such as Charter Spectrum and Verizon FiOS to begin incorporating a fixed regional sports network fee as a separate surcharge within its billing statements as early as 2013 3 4 Most regional sports networks in the United States are either affiliated with Bally Sports or the NBC Sports Regional Networks which produce and distribute supplementary programming including professional and college sports events involving out of market teams and sports centered reality and documentary series for their individual owned and operated member networks and any RSNs not under common ownership that receive their nationally distributed programming through affiliation agreements in the past some RSNs also carried supplemental programming from networks such as America One AMGTV or ESPNews though vertical integration and the impact of streaming services removing game broadcasts from low tier broadcast networks has effectively ended this practice In Canada Sportsnet operates four regional sports networks and the otherwise nationally distributed TSN also maintains some regional operations This differs from the operational structure of RSNs in the United States which are independently operated from national sports networks An increasing trend is for the teams whose games make up the lucrative programming to own the RSN themselves This serves two purposes first the teams make more money operating an RSN than they would collecting a licensing fee from an individual network or a group such as Bally Sports Second by owning their own RSN teams that must share revenues with other members of their league can mask its broadcast related profits Under the old model a team collects a large fee for licensing its games to the RSN That fee would then be disclosed and shared with the other teams in the league Under the new team owned RSN model the team demands only a nominal fee so the profits for local broadcasts stay with the team The owned and operated RSN model generally works best in the largest markets where advertising and cable revenue is larger in smaller or fringe markets the sale of rights fees is more lucrative For example the New York Rangers and New York Knicks have long co owned their RSN MSG however they also have purchased the rights to their rivals the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils MSG also owns the rights to the Buffalo Sabres however the team and ownership controls game production and that has since evolved into a separate MSG sub channel for the Sabres market called MSG Western New York which is dual controlled and programmed by MSG and Pegula Sports and Entertainment owners of the Sabres effectively making it an owned and operated RSN The Sabres had moved to MSG after the closure of their former home Empire Sports Network in the wake of the financial collapse of its owner Adelphia Communications Corporation 5 6 History EditThis section needs expansion You can help by adding to it June 2021 The first regional sports network is considered to be the Madison Square Garden Network An early unnamed version of that network started broadcasting Knicks and Rangers to a small number of subscribers in Manhattan in May 1969 7 By the late 1970s another version of this network would launch and be made available to other cable systems in the metropolitan area and it would finally receive the name Madison Square Garden Television in 1980 Another early network considered by many to be an RSN is Philadelphia s PRISM which launched in 1976 offering coverage of three of the city s major sports teams and movies In 1976 Cablevision launched a new service providing coverage of Long Island sports originally called Cablevision Sports 3 This channel would be renamed SportsChannel New York in 1979 and became the first channel to resemble a modern regional sports network Other SportsChannels were launched in different cities and in 1988 they were formally organized into a group that shared programming and national TV rights United States EditBally Sports Edit Main article Bally Sports For years the default RSN for many markets was owned by Fox Sports Fox Sports Networks which launched on November 1 1996 as Fox Sports Net 8 was created through former parent News Corporation s October 1995 purchase of a 50 equity stake in Liberty Media owned Prime Sports Networks co founded in 1988 by Bill Daniels and Liberty s then sister company Tele Communications Inc 9 The group expanded further in June 1997 Fox Liberty Networks the joint venture company operated by News Corporation and Liberty Media purchased a 40 interest in the Cablevision owned SportsChannel group 10 11 As part of a rebranding effort the collective branding of the networks which eventually became FSN Region City in 2004 was extended to Fox Sports Region City also used from 1996 to 2000 with the start of the 2008 college football season The FSN networks were acquired by Diamond Sports Group from The Walt Disney Company in 2019 as Disney was required to divest them by U S Department of Justice as a condition of their own acquisition of 21st Century Fox The channel group was renamed Bally Sports on March 31 2021 as part of a naming rights agreement with casino operator Bally s Corporation The networks that currently maintain affiliations with or are owned by Bally Sports and the major teams and athletic conferences the regional networks broadcast are as follows Current owned and operated outlets Edit Channel Region servedBally Sports Arizona Arizona New Mexico Utah Southern NevadaBally Sports Detroit Michigan northwestern Ohio northeastern Indiana northeast WisconsinBally Sports Florida Florida southern Alabama southern GeorgiaBally Sports Great Lakes Ohio eastern Indiana Kentucky northwestern Pennsylvania southwestern New YorkBally Sports Indiana central IndianaBally Sports Kansas City Kansas City metropolitan area western and central Missouri Kansas eastern Nebraska IowaBally Sports Midwest Missouri central and southern Illinois southern Indiana eastern Nebraska eastern Kansas western Kentucky northern ArkansasBally Sports New Orleans LouisianaBally Sports North Minnesota Wisconsin Iowa North Dakota South DakotaBally Sports Ohio OhioBally Sports Oklahoma OklahomaBally Sports San Diego San Diego metropolitan areaBally Sports SoCal southern California southern Nevada HawaiiBally Sports South Georgia Mississippi Alabama KentuckyBally Sports Southeast Georgia Tennessee Alabama Mississippi South Carolina North Carolina Elizabeth City micropolitan area Outer BanksBally Sports Southwest northern and eastern Texas northern Louisiana New Mexico Arkansas OklahomaBally Sports Sun FloridaBally Sports West southern California southern Nevada HawaiiBally Sports Wisconsin Wisconsin western Upper Peninsula of Michigan eastern Minnesota northwestern Illinois IowaCurrent affiliates Edit Channel Region servedAT amp T SportsNet see belowMarquee Sports Network Illinois IndianaIowaparts of WisconsinMASN Maryland Washington D C Virginia eastern and central North Carolina West Virginia south central Pennsylvania DelawareNESN Massachusetts eastern and central ConnecticutMaineNew HampshireRhode IslandVermontYES Network New York metropolitan area northern New Jersey northeastern Pennsylvania southern ConnecticutNBC Sports Regional Networks Edit Main article NBC Sports Regional Networks Seeing an opportunity to serve sports fans on a more local level and generate profits cable conglomerate Comcast began creating their own RSN Comcast SportsNet CSN in the late 1990s The groundwork of this group was laid as a result of Comcast s March 1996 purchase of 66 equity in Philadelphia based event organizer Spectacor automatically giving it ownership of its two professional team franchises 12 13 this led to the creation of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia which launched on October 1 1997 14 Ironically CSN would purchase a small number of RSNs previously owned by Fox Sports Networks and acquired the local rights to professional teams that FSN regional networks carried in two markets the latter situation resulted in Fox Sports shutting down their networks The January 2011 Comcast merger with NBCUniversal allowed NBC Sports to take operational control of these networks and they are expected to become more integrated with their sister national sports network NBCSN In April 2017 Comcast SportsNet s California and Bay Area networks were rebranded under the NBC Sports brand NBC Sports Regional Networks adopted the NBC Sports moniker on its other regional channels on October 2 2017 15 Channel Region servedNBC Sports Bay Area San Francisco Bay Area Northern California Central California Southern Oregon NevadaNBC Sports California northern California central California Southern California parts of Oregon parts of NevadaNBC Sports Chicago Chicago metropolitan area northern and central Illinois Iowa northern Indiana Kenosha County Wisconsin southwestern MichiganNBC Sports Washington Maryland Virginia Washington D C southern Pennsylvania eastern West Virginia southern Delaware Hampton Roads Outer BanksNBC Sports Boston Massachusetts eastern and central Connecticut Vermont Maine New Hampshire Rhode IslandNBC Sports Philadelphia Philadelphia metropolitan area eastern Pennsylvania southern New JerseySportsNet New York New York metropolitan area New York State Connecticut northern New JerseyAT amp T Sports Networks Edit Main article AT amp T SportsNet In May 2009 DirecTV Group Inc announced that it would become a part of Liberty Media s entertainment unit with some of the group s assets subsequently being spun off as a separate company under the DirecTV banner the Fox Sports Networks outlets that became part of the Liberty Sports unit which was renamed DirecTV Sports Networks on November 19 2009 were rebranded under the new name Root Sports on April 1 2011 16 17 DirecTV Sports Networks would be acquired by AT amp T Inc in 2015 as a byproduct of its acquisition of DirecTV The renamed RSN unit AT amp T Sports Networks would eventually announce on June 12 2017 that it would rebrand most of its regional sports networks with the exception of Root Sports Northwest due to its ownership being majority controlled by the Seattle Mariners under the AT amp T SportsNet banner on July 14 2017 18 AT amp T Sports Networks continues to broadcast various sports magazine and documentary programs and select sporting events broadcast by Fox Sports Networks through an affiliation agreement with its former parent group with the exception of AT amp T SportsNet Southwest which does not carry these programs due to the presence of a Fox Sports owned subfeed network in its home market these channels largely continue to carry the same local teams and national Bally Sports programs as they did with the Fox Sports Networks under FSN ownership In September 2018 AT amp TSN was transferred to the WarnerMedia News amp Sports division Current owned and operated networks Edit Channel Region servedAT amp T SportsNet Pittsburgh Western central and northeastern Pennsylvania West Virginia eastern and central Ohio western Maryland western New York stateAT amp T SportsNet Rocky Mountain Colorado Nevada Utah Wyoming Southern Idaho northwestern Arizona western and central New Mexico northwestern Nebraska western South Dakotaparts of eastern California including the Sierra Nevada regionAT amp T SportsNet Southwest Texas Louisiana Arkansas Oklahoma eastern New MexicoRoot Sports Northwest Washington Oregon Alaska Montana western IdahoSpectrum Sports Edit Main article Spectrum Sports Spectrum Sports is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks that are primarily owned and operated by Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016 Channel Region servedSpectrum Sports Kansas City metropolitan area Lincoln NebraskaSpectrum SportsNet Southern California Central California Las Vegas Valley HawaiiSpectrum SportsNet LA Greater Los Angeles Area Coachella Valley HawaiiSpectrum OC16 HawaiiIndependent regional sports networks Edit The following is a list of regional sports channels that are not part of a larger national network Channel Owner Region servedAltitude Sports and Entertainment Kroenke Sports amp Entertainment Colorado Idaho Utah Kansas Montana Nebraska New Mexico Nevada South Dakota WyomingBuckeye Cable Sports Network Block Communications Toledo OhioComcast Television Comcast Television 2 Comcast MichiganCox Sports Television Cox Communications Louisiana Texas Florida ArkansasImage Sports Network Erie PennsylvaniaMidco Sports Network Midcontinent Communications South Dakota North Dakota western MinnesotaMSG Network The Madison Square Garden Company New York metropolitan area New York StateMSG Western New York The Madison Square Garden Company Pegula Sports and Entertainment Western New YorkMSG Plus The Madison Square Garden Company New York metropolitan area New York StateSWX Right Now Cowles Publishing Company The KHQ Television Group Inland NorthwestService Electric Network Service Electric Cable TV and Communications Service Electric Lehigh Valley and other portions of Pennsylvania and New JerseyYurView California Cox Communications Southern CaliforniaCollege networks Edit Channel Owner NotesACC Network ACCN ESPN Inc The Walt Disney Company 80 Hearst Corporation 20 Dedicated to sports events and other programming relating to the Atlantic Coast Conference Big Ten Network BTN Big Ten Conference 39 Fox Corporation 61 Dedicated to sports events and other programming relating to the Big Ten Conference It operates four overflow feeds for overlapping football telecasts BYU TV Brigham Young University BYU TV airs sporting events involving the schools of Brigham Young University including the Brigham Young University Cougars the school s football team is an FBS independent and sold the television rights for its games to ESPN BYU TV exclusively airs one game per season as well as shoulder programming and encores BYU Idaho and BYU Hawaii It otherwise airs a mix of entertainment and lifestyle programming including programming relating to the university and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints Pac 12 Networks Pac 12 Conference Dedicated to sanctioned sporting events and other programming involving the Pac 12 Conference It consists of a national feed Pac 12 Network as well as six regional networks including Pac 12 Los Angeles dedicated to the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Southern California Pac 12 Washington dedicated to University of Washington and Washington State University Pac 12 Oregon dedicated to University of Oregon and Oregon State University Pac 12 Bay Area dedicated to the University of California Berkeley and Stanford University Pac 12 Arizona dedicated to the University of Arizona and Arizona State University and Pac 12 Mountain dedicated to the University of Colorado and the University of Utah 19 The national network was available in at least 48 million homes at time of launch 20 while the regional networks are available throughout their respective region within the Pac 12 s designated territory 21 The Pac 12 Networks are the first owned fully by a conference without support from outside groups Big Ten Network is a joint venture with Fox Sports and MountainWest Sports Network was owned in conjunction with CBS Corporation and Comcast Longhorn Network University of Texas at AustinESPNIMG College The network is dedicated to sports events and other programming relating to the Texas Longhorns The arrangement has caused controversy among other members of the Big 12 Conference and by Texas A amp M University alleging the network could give UT Austin a perceived recruiting advantage and lead to ESPN placing a bias on the team in its coverage Proposals to air University Interscholastic League high school football games on the network were shelved due to these factors SEC Network ESPN Inc The Walt Disney Company 80 Hearst Corporation 20 The Southeastern Conference first explored starting its own 24 hour cable network in 2007 22 however a content deal between the University of Florida and Fox owned Sun Sports 23 and a long term deal between the SEC and ESPN Inc 24 suspended the proposal ESPN later reached an agreement with the SEC to broadcast conference football and basketball games via the syndicated SEC TV package initially named SEC Network under an arrangement basically identical to that of past SEC rightsholder Raycom Sports As part of a 20 year broadcast agreement reached between the SEC and ESPN in May 2013 ESPN launched the SEC Network as a cable satellite network devoted to Southeastern Conference sports on August 14 2014 25 Defunct networks Edit Channel Region servedArizona Sports Programming Network Cox 9 Phoenix ArizonaBlazerVision Portland OregonCarolinas Sports Entertainment Television C SET Charlotte North CarolinaColumbus Sports Network CSN Columbus OhioComcast Local CL MichiganIndianaComcast Charter Sports Southeast CSS AlabamaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaKentuckyLouisianaMississippiNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaWest VirginiaEmpire Sports Network Upstate New Yorkparts of northern Pennsylvaniaparts of eastern OhioFox Sports Carolinas CarolinasFox Sports Houston TexasFSN Chicago Chicago ILFox Sports Tennessee TennesseeHawkvision Chicago metropolitan areaHometown Sports Indiana Indianapolis IndianaNBC Sports Northwest Washington OregonPro Am Sports System PASS Sports Detroit MichiganPrime Sports Upper Midwest Iowa MinnesotaNorth DakotaSouth DakotaWisconsinPRISM Philadelphia PennsylvaniaRoyals Sports Television Network Kansas City metropolitan areawestern MissouriKansasNebraskaOklahomaIowaSpectrum Community Maine New HampshireSpectrum Sports Tampa Bay metropolitan area and Greater OrlandoSpectrum Sports Upstate New YorkSpectrum Sports North Carolina South CarolinaSpectrum Sports TexasSportsChannel Los Angeles Southern CaliforniaSportsChannel PhiladelphiaSports Time Midwestern United StatesSports View southeastern WisconsinSportsvision Chicago metropolitan areaTW3 Capital District of New York Saratoga County south Adirondack County Mohawk Valley most of Berkshire County MassachusettsVictory Sports One Minneapolis Saint PaulCanada EditSportsnet Edit Main article Sportsnet Sportsnet formerly known as CTV Sportsnet and Rogers Sportsnet is owned by the Rogers Media division of Toronto based Rogers Communications Sportsnet carries all of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball games Although it is considered a national channel with multiple feeds for regulatory purposes in practice its four main channels act as a set of RSNs albeit with a significant portion of common national programming The four channels are Channel Description and programming Broadcast AreaSportsnet Pacific Regional feed for British Columbia and Yukon airs regional Vancouver Canucks games Sportsnet West Regional feed for the Prairies the Northwest Territories and Nunavut airs regional Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers games except in the Winnipeg Jets region Sportsnet Ontario Regional feed for most of Ontario airs regional Toronto Maple Leafs games Sportsnet East Regional feed for eastern Ontario Quebec and Atlantic Canada Through the separate Sportsnet One licence Rogers also operates three part time regional companion channels which provide coverage of additional regional NHL broadcasts which are not able to air on Sportsnet s main regional channels Sportsnet Flames Sportsnet Oilers and Sportsnet Vancouver Hockey Rogers is also a shareholder in Maple Leaf Sports amp Entertainment MLSE which owns Leafs Nation Network a channel devoted entirely to the Toronto Maple Leafs and its farm team the Toronto Marlies and is restricted to the Leafs broadcast territory MLSE also operates NBA TV Canada which is distributed nationally but focuses much of its programming on the MLSE owned Toronto Raptors and farm team Raptors 905 TSN RDS Edit Main articles The Sports Network Channels and Reseau des sports On August 25 2014 The Sports Network TSN another Canadian sports channel split its singular national feed into four regional feeds in a manner similar to Sportsnet These feeds are primarily used to broadcast regional NHL games 26 but may also be used to provide alternative and common national programming 27 While each region has a primary TSN channel due to overlaps in NHL territories it is possible in some parts of Ontario to access additional regional games from one non primary channel These situations are noted as they occur below 28 Channel Description and regional programmingTSN1 The primary TSN feed for viewers in British Columbia Alberta and Yukon The primary channel for Vancouver Whitecaps FC broadcasts TSN2 A national secondary channel launched in 2008 prior to the launch of the other regional feeds Carries regional Montreal Canadiens broadcasts limited to the same primary territory as TSN5 29 TSN3 The primary TSN feed for viewers in Manitoba Saskatchewan the Northwest Territories Nunavut and northwestern Ontario Carries regional Winnipeg Jets broadcasts 30 TSN4 The primary TSN feed for viewers in most of Ontario Carries regional Toronto Maple Leafs broadcasts 26 The primary channel for Toronto FC and Toronto Raptors broadcasts if not aired nationally Simulcasts CHUM s Leafs Lunch and Overdrive TSN5 The primary TSN feed for viewers in eastern Ontario Quebec and Atlantic Canada Carries regional Ottawa Senators broadcasts 26 Prior to the launch of these channels regional NHL games whose rights were held by TSN which at that point consisted solely of the Jets and Canadiens were broadcast on special part time channels exclusive to the team s television region 30 Bell Media also owns Reseau des sports RDS and RDS2 French language sports networks that are licensed to serve all of Canada but in practice focus on the predominantly French speaking province of Quebec as there are relatively few francophones outside that province Prior to the 2014 15 season RDS could air Canadiens games on a national basis as it was also the national French language rightsholder of the National Hockey League in Canada With Rogers acquisition of the exclusive national media rights to the NHL and its decision to sub license French rights to Quebecor Media s TVA Sports RDS and RDS2 s coverage of the Canadiens and Senators are now restricted to parts of Eastern Ontario Quebec and Atlantic Canada 31 High definition EditNearly all regional sports networks broadcast all content in high definition as of 2016 with only the lowest cost programming or high school sporting events produced locally for regional broadcast now only available in standard definition Bally Sports and the NBC Sports Regional Networks owned and operated networks and affiliates maintain dedicated HD channels which are used to broadcast both local and national HD programming mainly game telecasts All Bally Sports affiliates transmit HD programming in their native 720p resolution format all NBC Sports Regional affiliates and independent channels transmit in 1080i Regional syndicators EditSome telecasts especially in U S college sports are broadcast by ad hoc syndicated packages which can be picked up on a network of broadcasters that may consist of either individual over the air stations regional sports networks or a mixture of both Jefferson Pilot Communications and Raycom Sports were well known as syndicators of college sports on broadcast television having previously held agreements with the Atlantic Coast Conference ACC and Southeastern Conference SEC By the late 2000 s both packages began to wind down after ESPN acquired the media rights to both conferences ESPN initially maintained a syndicated package known as SEC Network while Raycom was given a sub license to continue its syndication package subsequently renamed ACC Network 32 33 Both packages ended when ESPN launched dedicated cable channels for both conferences ESPN was originally intended to focus on sports in Connecticut but chose to broadcast nationally when it debuted in 1979 when it was discovered by the network s founders that it would be less expensive to broadcast nationwide on satellite as opposed to regionally through microwave transmission 34 ESPN formerly served as a college sports syndicator via ESPN Regional Television formerly branded on air as ESPN Plus but later using conference oriented brands such as SEC Network not to be confused with the SEC Network cable channel which served as its de facto replacement and Big East Network The SEC Network package was a successor to the previous Raycom Sports produced SEC package In 2014 television station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group established its own sports syndicator known as the American Sports Network ASN primarily syndicating broadcasts of college football and basketball from mid major conferences some of which were previously associated with ESPN Plus to stations that it owns and operates 35 36 In 2015 Sinclair also acquired regional rights to Major League Soccer s Real Salt Lake with ASN handling production and distribution of team telecasts within its designated market 37 ASN later began to operate a dedicated channel which in contrast to other sports channels was distributed free to air via digital subchannels and eventually subsumed its syndication of individual telecasts and In 2017 was replaced by Stadium as part of a joint venture with Silver Chalice which carries a larger focus on streaming distribution alongside digital subchannels See also EditSports channel Broadcasting of sports eventsReferences Edit Dave Warner April 17 2013 The High Cost Of Regional Sports Networks What You Pay For Sports Retrieved April 16 2015 Lucia Joe April 6 2021 Which RSN has the best MLB scorebug Awful Announcing Mike Farrell December 22 2014 Time Warner Cable to Initiate Sports Fee in January Multichannel News Retrieved April 16 2015 David Lazarus May 2 2014 Trapped into paying extra for cable TV sports Los Angeles Times Retrieved April 16 2015 Pergament Alan June 21 2016 Wide ranging deal will keep Sabres and other Pegula Sports amp Entertainment content on MSG The Buffalo News Berkshire Hathaway Archived from the original on June 22 2016 Retrieved June 22 2016 Alan Pergament May 3 2003 DEAL WITH TIME WARNER HITS EMPIRE WHERE IT HURTS The Buffalo News Retrieved October 4 2017 Eskenazi Gerald 21 May 1969 GARDEN CABLE TV SIGN 1 YEAR PACT Knick Ranger Home Games in 125 Event Package The New York Times ProQuest 118734201 R Thomas Umstead July 8 1996 Liberty Sports regionals will become Fox Sports net Multichannel News Archived from the original on September 24 2015 Retrieved April 13 2015 via HighBeam Research FOX AND LIBERTY OUTLINE PLANS FOR NEW CABLE VENTURE Sports Business Journal November 1 1995 Retrieved April 9 2015 Fox putting together national Sports Net Changes ahead for SportsChannel Chicago Sun Times June 24 1997 Archived from the original on September 24 2015 Retrieved April 13 2015 via HighBeam Research John M Higgins June 30 1997 National net keys regional deal Fox Sports Liberty Media Corp challenge ESPN with stake in SportsChannel Broadcasting amp Cable Archived from the original on September 10 2015 Retrieved April 13 2015 via HighBeam Research Michael Sokolove Jayson Stark and Michael L Rozansky March 20 1996 Comcast Buying 76ers And Flyers Phils Also May Get Involved With Firm The Philadelphia Inquirer Retrieved April 16 2015 Bill Fleischman July 22 1997 New Sportsnet Reels In Sixers Philadelphia Daily News Retrieved April 15 2015 Rose DeWolf August 25 1997 Starz On The Horizon Goodbye Prism amp Sports Channel What s Next Depends On Where You Hang The Clicker Philadelphia Daily News Retrieved April 16 2015 CSN Mid Atlantic is rebranding as NBC Sports Washington Washington Post Retrieved 2017 08 23 Mike Reynolds November 20 2009 Liberty Sports Rebrands As DirecTV Sports Networks Multichannel News Retrieved November 20 2009 Root Sports new name for sports networks Denver Business Journal December 17 2010 Ken Fang June 12 2017 AT amp T SPORTS NETWORKS WILL REBRAND ROOT SPORTS IN SUMMER 2017 Root Sports Pittsburgh Region AT amp T Sports Networks Retrieved June 14 2017 Ted Miller 27 July 2011 Pac 12 Announces deal for national regional networks ESPN Retrieved July 27 2011 Jon Wilner August 10 2012 Pac 12 Networks News and notes from the Stevenson teleconference San Jose Mercury News Dirk Facer July 28 2011 Pac 12 creates its own network Deseret News Glenn Guilbeau June 9 2007 SEC explores launching its own TV Network USA Today Gannett News Service John Ourand Michael Smith July 14 2008 Florida rights deal may rule out SEC channel Sports Business Journal Mike Reynolds August 25 2008 ESPN Scores 15 Year SEC Deal Multichannel News Richard Sandomir May 3 2013 SEC Will Start TV Network in 2014 The New York Times Retrieved August 31 2013 a b c Sens Lets and Leafs featured regionally on TSN s feeds TSN ca Bell Media Retrieved August 24 2014 Sean Fitz Gerald May 6 2014 TSN counters Rogers NHL deal with three new channels filled with alternative sports content National Post Archived from the original on May 8 2014 Retrieved June 22 2014 TSN Frequently Asked Questions TSN ca October 8 2014 Retrieved October 15 2016 TSN s regional NHL coverage features 191 games TSN 2017 09 15 Retrieved 2017 09 15 a b Jets game broadcasts moving to TSN3 Winnipeg Free Press August 18 2014 Retrieved August 18 2014 Steve Faguy August 18 2014 NHL broadcast schedule 2014 15 Who owns rights to what games Fagstein Retrieved August 23 2014 Bell s TSN Habs channel has been shut down Smith Michael Ourand John October 5 2010 History with ACC secures future for Raycom Washington Business Journal American City Business Journals Retrieved September 1 2017 Smith Michael October 4 2010 History with ACC secures Future for Raycom PDF Sports and Business Journal Archived from the original PDF on October 9 2014 Retrieved March 14 2015 Miller amp Shales pp 7 8 Ryan Sharrow July 17 2014 Sinclair Broadcast Group to launch American Sports Network Baltimore Business Journal Retrieved July 17 2014 Deborah McAdams July 17 2014 Sinclair Launches Sports Network TV Technology Archived from the original on July 21 2014 Retrieved July 17 2014 KMYU KUTV The New Home Of Real Salt Lake All 26 non National MLS Regular Season Games Available on Free Over the Air TV Real Salt Lake January 23 2015 Retrieved January 23 2015 External links EditKaiser s Blog Info on RSN history and some regions Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Regional sports network amp oldid 1129801267, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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