| SportsChannel America | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 1976 |
| Closed | 2000 |
| Owned by | Cablevision |
| Country | United States |
| Replaced by | Fox Sports Net Comcast SportsNet |
| Sister channel(s) | Prime Network |
SportsChannel America was a cable television network operated by Cablevision. It was the country's first regional sports network, and thus (along with Prime Network) an important ancestor to many of the United States' regional sports outlets, especially Fox Sports Net and Comcast SportsNet. SportsChannel New York was the first of these networks and was launched in 1976. Cablevision later partnered with Fox and Liberty Media to merge the network into Fox Sports Net in early 1998.
Contents |
The network obtained the National Hockey League rights from ESPN in 1988 by offering the NHL almost triple the amount of money that ESPN was offering (a move not unlike the 2005 NHL rights grab by Comcast/OLN over ESPN). SportsChannel America was only in a few major markets, and reached only one-third of the households that ESPN did. After 4 seasons, the NHL ended the deal and went back to ESPN, leaving SportsChannel America with little more than outdoors shows and Canadian Football League games. For SportsChannel, the deal was a disaster. While the cable channel three years later was available in 20 million homes, the broadcaster lost as much as $10 million on the agreement, and soon faded into obscurity.[1] Some local SportsChannel stations – which carried NHL games in their local markets – were not affected.
In 1993, Cablevision partned with Liberty Media and NBC to form Prime SportsChannel Networks combining SportsChannel America with Liberty's Prime Network. This partnership would produce NewSport and American Sports Classics.
In 1998, Cablevision partnered with Fox Sports and Liberty Media to rebrand most of the SportsChannel America networks as Fox Sports Net stations. The first affiliate to rebrand itself was SportsChannel New York (currently MSG+) when it became Fox Sports New York on January 27, 1998. All other SportsChannel networks except SportsChannel Florida were rebranded later that week. The last affiliate to rebrand itself was SportsChannel Florida, which became Fox Sports Net Florida (now Fox Sports Florida) in March 2000.
|
|||||||||||||||||||