Comcast SportsNet California

Comcast SportsNet California
Launched	October 2004 (2004-10)
Network	Comcast SportsNet
Owned by	NBC Sports Group (NBCUniversal)
Picture format	1080i (HDTV) 480i (SDTV)
Slogan	Authentic Bay Area Sports
Country	United States
Language	English
Broadcast area	San Francisco Bay Area Sacramento Northern California Oregon Western Nevada National (via satellite)
Headquarters	San Jose, California
Formerly called	Comcast SportsNet West (2004–2008)
Sister channel(s)	Cable/satellite: Comcast SportsNet Bay Area Broadcast: KNTV/San Jose KSTS/San Francisco
Website	www.csncalifornia.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	698 CSN California (SD/HD) 699 CSN California Plus (SD) 699-1 CSN California Plus (HD)
Dish Network	438 (SD/HD)
Cable
Available on select other cable systems in designated broadcast area	Consult your local cable provider or program listings source for channel availability
IPTV

Comcast SportsNet California (sometimes abbreviated as CSN California) is an American regional sports network that is owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, and operates as an affiliate of Comcast SportsNet. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional and college sports events throughout Northern California, as well as original sports-related news, discussion and entertainment programming.

CSN California is available on cable and fiber optic television providers throughout northern California, and portions of Oregon and western Nevada. The network maintains main studios and offices headquartered with sister network Comcast SportsNet Bay Area in San Jose, California.

History

In the summer of 2003, Comcast acquired the regional television rights to broadcast regular season and early-round playoff games from the Sacramento Kings. Previously, the team's game broadcasts were only available either via pay-per-view sports packages and on an alternate feed of SportsChannel Bay Area (now Comcast SportsNet Bay Area). As a result, Comcast created a new regional sports network to broadcast the team's games; the network launched as Comcast SportsNet West in October 2004, coinciding with the start of the Kings' regular season.

Although the network originally focused on the Northern California region, it began expanding its coverage to serve as a complement to Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. This began with the network's rebranding to Comcast SportsNet California in September 2008; it subsequently became the official broadcaster of the Oakland Athletics (which previously broadcast its games on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, in addition to the San Francisco Giants) for the 2009 Major League Baseball season, broadcasting an 145 regular season games that year (a substantial increase from only 37 telecasts in 2008).^[1] The San Jose Sharks followed the A's from CSN Bay Area for the 2009–10 NHL season, seeing a similar increase in game broadcasts with 75 games being shown overall (50 of which were televised in high definition).^[2] With the relaunch, Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and California merged editorial coverage on their respective regional websites. Many cable providers in the San Francisco Bay Area that previously carried CSN California via digital cable have since moved to the network to basic cable tiers.

In September 2009, CSN California's carriage agreement with Dish Network expired, however the satellite provider continued to carry the network in the interim while the two parties attempted to reach a renewed contract. Negotiations went on for months, leading Dish to file a request with the Federal Communications Commission to enter into arbitration hearings to formalize a deal. Dish Network lost its case and dropped Comcast SportsNet California from its lineup on November 24, 2010.^[3] On February 3, 2011, Dish Network restored CSN California after the satellite provider reached an agreement to carry the channel without any legal arbitration.^[4]

With Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, Comcast SportsNet was also integrated into the new NBC Sports Group unit, culminating with the addition of the peacock logo and an updated graphics package to mirror that of its parent network. The updated graphics were implemented on most of CSN's live game coverage and all studio shows, with the exception of Kings game telecasts (which used a different graphics package, as part of the "Kings TV" production partnership between the team and ABC affiliate KXTV (channel 10) in Sacramento) and SportsNet Central.

In September 2012, Comcast SportsNet California and its sister Comcast SportsNet outlets ceased carrying Fox Sports Networks-supplied programming, after failing to reach an agreement to continue carrying FSN's nationally distributed programs.^[5] SportsNet Central would ultimately implement a new on-air look of its own and on April 14, 2014, in conjunction with that change, the program switched to the updated graphics package introduced three years earlier. This scheme extended over to the network's Kings telecasts in October 2014 (for the 2014–15 season), following the signing of an exclusive 20-year broadcast contract between the Kings and Comcast SportsNet California.^[6]

Programming

Sports coverage

Comcast SportsNet California holds the regional cable television rights to the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball, the NHL's San Jose Sharks, the NBA's Sacramento Kings, and the AFL's San Jose SaberCats. The network produces its pre-game and post-game shows for Oakland Athletics either on-site during home games, or on the SportsNet Central set at the CSN Bay Area studios during road games. The station also airs Shark Byte, a magazine program focusing on the San Jose Sharks that originated on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.

The network also simulcasts Comcast SportsNet Bay Area-produced telecasts of games involving the San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball franchise and the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer. It formerly broadcast games from the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs until the team folded in 2011; the Sacramento Mountain Lions from 2009 until the United Football League folded; and the PASL's Stockton Cougars until that team folded in 2011. The network also carries programming related to the NFL's Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers.

The network also broadcasts various college sports events, mainly involving the Stanford Cardinal and the California Golden Bears as well as sports sanctioned by the Pacific-12 Conference, Western Athletic Conference, Mountain West Conference and West Coast Conference. CSN California serves as the official home for the California Golden Bears, often airing football and men's basketball games that are not nationally televised by ABC, ESPN or Fox Sports Net.

CSN California's college sports coverage also includes events from UC Berkeley, Sacramento State University, St. Mary's College, UC Davis, the University of San Francisco, the University of the Pacific, the University of Nevada and San Jose State University. Select high school sports events are also occasionally broadcast on the network, including weekly high school football games on Friday nights during the fall.^[7]

Other programming

Comcast SportsNet California currently carries the CSN Bay Area original program Chronicle Live, a sports discussion program produced in conjunction with the San Francisco Chronicle, each weeknight at 12:00 a.m. The network also carries a live video simulcast of The Gary Radnich Show (hosted by the longtime sports anchor at MyNetworkTV affiliate KRON-TV) from KNBR (680 and 1050 AM) in San Francisco each weekday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., except on rare occasions when it is pre-empted by a live sporting event on either outlet. Comcast SportsNet California previously also broadcast the "Raiders Report", a weekly show featuring news and game highlights on the Oakland Raiders. In September 2009, the program was replaced by a live post-game show airing immediately after network telecasts of Raiders games.

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

• Shooty Babitt – Athletics pre-game and post-game host
• Jamie Baker – Sharks color analyst
• Brodie Brazil – Sharks sideline reporter and "Shark Byte" host
• Ray Fosse – Athletics color analyst
• Jerry Glanville – Mountain Lions color analyst
• Randy Hahn – Sharks play-by-play announcer
• Bret Hedican – Sharks pre-game and post-game analyst
• Jim Kozimor – Earthquakes play-by-play announcer, and House Party and Zero to Sixty anchor
• Glen Kuiper – Athletics play-by-play announcer
• Grant Napear – Sacramento Kings play-by-play announcer, Mountain Lions play-by-play announcer
• Mike Pawlawski – Mountain Lions color analyst
• Scott Reiss – Sharks pre-game, intermission and post-game host
• Jerry Reynolds – Sacramento Kings color analyst
• John Shrader – Earthquakes color analyst

Related services

Comcast SportsNet California HD

Comcast SportsNet California HD is a 1080i high-definition simulcast feed of Comcast SportsNet California. The feed broadcasts all Sacramento Kings home game telecasts, as well as all home and some road games involving the San Jose Sharks in HD. In 2010, CSN California began broadcasting all Athletics games in high definition.^[8]

References

External links

• Official website