Fox Sports Net West/Prime Ticket

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**Fox Sports Net West/Fox Sports Net Prime Ticket**

Type	cable television network
Country	United States
Availability	Southern California, southern Nevada, and Hawaii
Owner	News Corporation through Fox Entertainment Group
Launch date	FSN West: October 1985 (as the original Prime Ticket) FSN Prime Ticket: January 1997 (as Fox Sports West 2)
Past names	FSN West: Prime Ticket, Prime Sports West, Fox Sports West FSN Prime Ticket: Fox Sports West 2, FSN West 2
Website	[1]

Fox Sports Net West and Fox Sports Net Prime Ticket, or simply FSN West and FSN Prime Ticket, are Los Angeles-based cable sports networks serving Southern California, southern Nevada, and Hawaii. They are owned by Fox Cable Networks, a subsidiary of News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group. They are the cable television homes of the Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers (National Basketball Association), Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers (Major League Baseball), Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings (National Hockey League), Los Angeles Sparks (Women's National Basketball Association), C.D. Chivas USA and Los Angeles Galaxy (Major League Soccer), and local coverage of the Pacific 10, West Coast, Mountain West, Western Athletic, and Big West conferences.

To note, Lakers and Angels local cable broadcasts air exclusively on West, and the Dodgers air their cable telecasts exclusively on Prime Ticket. The remaining teams on the West/Prime Ticket roster usually shuffle between the two networks in the case of overlapping coverage of televised events. This reflects the fact that KCAL carries any Lakers game not on national TV or FSN West, and also provides "destination viewing" for the Dodgers and Angels, since both teams play at the same time on a regular basis. Most of the teams, aside from the Kings and Galaxy, have some coverage on an over-the-air station, further reducing conflicts.

FSN West/Prime Ticket's general offices are located in downtown Los Angeles, across from Staples Center. Their studio is located inside Staples Center, while its sales offices located at the Fox Television Center in West Los Angeles, intergrated with those of KTTV and KCOP, the local Fox-owned television stations.

1 History
2 Personalities
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

FSN West was founded in October 1985 as the original Prime Ticket network. The network's founders were Dr. Jerry Buss, majority owner of the Lakers and then-majority owner of the Kings hockey team, and cable television pioneer Dr. Bill Daniels, who was a minority-interest owner in both franchises. Unlike many of the regional sports networks that were operating at the time of Prime Ticket's launching, the channel was (and still is) a basic cable channel, as opposed to being a premium cable service. Prior to the launch of Prime Ticket, Lakers and Kings games (primarily the non-nationally televised home games) were on the ON-TV/SelecTV subscription service.

Old Fox Sports Net West 2 Logo

Because of the height of the Lakers popularity in the midst of their 1980s championship run, and the addition of hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky to the Kings in 1988, Prime Ticket became one of the leading regional sports networks in the country, rivaling that of New York's Madison Square Garden Network. In 1990, the network became the cable television home of the then-California Angels, as well as serving as the cable home of the Clippers for one season (1990-91), before they moved to the now-defunct SportsChannel Los Angeles (originally Z Channel) the following season.

In August 1994, Buss and Daniels sold off Prime Ticket to Liberty Media, and became a part its Prime Sports networks, along with Prime Sports Arizona (now FSN Arizona), Prime Sports Midwest (now FSN Midwest), Prime Sports Rocky Mountain (now FSN Rocky Mountain), SportSouth (now FSN South), KBL (now FSN Pittsburgh), and PASS (Pro-Am-Sports-Systems; now FSN Detroit).

In 1996, the now-rechristened Prime Sports West became part of the new Fox Sports Net, which formed after News Corporation purchased the Prime Sports networks from Liberty Media. It was then that the network took on its current name. It was one year later that the new Fox Sports Net merged with SportsChannel America, to undertake its current configuration.

In January 1997, Fox Sports Net West 2 was formed to serve as a cable home for the Clippers, Dodgers, Ducks, and all other events that FSN West didn't have room for. This is after the Decemeber 1993 shut-down of SportsChannel Los Angeles, which left their home teams with only over-the-air and part-time cable coverage locally.

On April 3, 2006, FSN West 2 officially became FSN Prime Ticket, making its change with the season opener between the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. The network's new philosophy is to concentrate more on local originally-produced content (such as Before the Bigs, In My Own Words, and team-themed Insider shows) and less on the supplemental programming provided nationally from Fox Sports Net.