Comcast SportsNet Bay Area

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area
Launched July 1989 (1989-07)
Network Comcast SportsNet
Owned by Comcast SportsNet Bay Area Holdings
NBCUniversal (45%)
San Francisco Giants (30%)
21st Century Fox (25%)
Picture format 1080i (HDTV)
480i (SDTV)
Slogan Authentic Bay Area Sports
Country United States
Language English
Broadcast area San Francisco Bay Area
Northern California
Central California
Southern Oregon
Nevada
Nationwide (via satellite)
Headquarters San Jose, California
Formerly called Pacific Sports Network (1989–1991)
SportsChannel Bay Area (1990–1991)
SportsChannel Pacific (1991–1998)
Fox Sports Bay Area (1998–2000)
Fox Sports Net Bay Area (2000–2004)
FSN Bay Area (2004–2008)
Replaced Pacific Sports Network
Sister channel(s) Cable/satellite:
Comcast SportsNet California
Broadcast:
KNTV/San Jose
KSTS/San Francisco
Website www.csnbayarea.com
Availability
(some events may air on overflow feed Comcast SportsNet Bay Area Plus due to event conflicts)
Satellite
DirecTV 696 Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (SD/HD)
697 Comcast SportsNet Bay Area Plus (SD)
697-1 Comcast SportsNet Bay Area Plus (HD)
Dish Network 419 (HD/SD)
Cable
Available on select U.S. cable systems in designated broadcast area Consult your local cable provider or program listings source for channel availability
Streaming media
PlayStation Vue PlayStation Vue Core and Elite packages for the San Francisco Bay Area also include CSN Bay Area Plus, CSN California and CSN California Plus.

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (sometimes abbreviated as CSN Bay Area) is an American regional sports network that is owned as a joint venture between NBCUniversal (which owns a controlling 45% interest), the San Francisco Giants (which owns 30%) and the Fox Entertainment Group division of 21st Century Fox (which owns 25%), and operates as an affiliate of Comcast SportsNet. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional sports events throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area is available on cable providers throughout Northern and Central California, Southern Oregon, and Nevada; it is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV and Dish Network. As of 2015, Ted Griggs serves as the president of the network.

History

The network was formed as a merger of two separate regional sports networks: the Pacific Sports Network, which launched in July 1989 as an affiliate of the Prime Network and SportsChannel Bay Area, an owned-and-operated outlet of SportsChannel America that launched in April 1990 under the ownership of Rainbow Media, the broadcasting subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation. The two networks merged in July 1991 into SportsChannel Pacific.

On June 30, 1997, News Corporation and Liberty Media – which formed Fox Sports Net the year prior through News Corporation's partial acquisition of the Liberty-owned Prime Network group of regional sports networks – purchased a 40% interest in Cablevision's sports properties including the SportsChannel America networks (as well as Madison Square Garden and its NBA and NHL team tenants, the New York Knicks and New York Rangers);[1][2] the three companies formed the venture National Sports Partners to run the owned-and-operated regional networks. The channel was rebranded as Fox Sports Bay Area in January 1998, at which time most of the SportsChannel networks (with the exception of SportsChannel Florida, which did not join the network until 2000) underwent a near-groupwide rebranding as part of their integration into the Fox Sports Net family.

Logo as FSN Bay Area, used from 2004 to 2008.

The channel was then rebranded as Fox Sports Net Bay Area in 2000, as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner; subsequently in 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN Bay Area, through the networks' de-emphasis of the brand.

FSN Bay Area became the lone remaining Fox Sports regional network to be jointly owned by News Corporation and Cablevision following an asset swap between the two companies in February 2005, in which News Corporation traded its interests in FSN Chicago and FSN New York, 50% of Fox Sports New England (which remained 50% owned by Comcast), Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and New York Rangers to Cablevision in exchange for acquiring sole ownership of FSN Ohio and FSN Florida.

On April 30, 2007, Comcast purchased 50% interests in FSN Bay Area and FSN New England from Rainbow Media for $570 million.[3] Then on December 10, the San Francisco Giants acquired a 30% stake in FSN Bay Area,[4] with News Corporation becoming a minority partner in the network. As a result of Comcast becoming the majority interest holder, the network (after the sale was finalized in February 2008) was integrated into the company's own regional sports network group Comcast SportsNet, rebranding as Comcast SportsNet Bay Area on March 31, 2008.[5] CSN Bay Area became the first Comcast SportsNet-branded network to use a logo style (utilizing Comcast's then-universal corporate logo), similar to the current NBC-styled logo, that was later adopted by all the other Comcast SportsNet-branded networks on October 1, 2008.

Following Comcast's purchase of majority control of NBCUniversal, which already owned NBC owned-and-operated station KNTV (channel 11) and Telemundo O&O KSTS (channel 48), on April 19, 2011, the network announced plans to build an additional set specifically for use on sports segments seen on KNTV's newscasts. The revamp would also include in-depth interviews in addition to providing scores and highlights, and utilize CSN Bay Area's sports anchors and analysts.[6] KNTV plans to begin the segments in June 2011.[7] The new segment and set debuted on June 13, 2011.

Later that year, Comcast subsequently integrated the Comcast SportsNet networks into the new subsidiary NBC Sports Group, culminating with the addition of the peacock logo and an updated graphics package to mirror that of its parent network.

Programming

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area holds the regional cable television rights to the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball and the NBA's Golden State Warriors, and also televises select games from Major League Soccer's San Jose Earthquakes along with sister network Comcast SportsNet California. The channel also broadcasts college sports, mainly involving the Stanford Cardinal and the California Golden Bears as well as sports sanctioned by the Pac-12, Western Athletic, Mountain West and West Coast Conferences. Select high school sports events are also occasionally broadcast on the network.

Until 2004, the network also broadcast games involving the NBA's Sacramento Kings and the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs. Following the expiration of their contracts with the then-FSN Bay Area, the owners of the Kings and Monarchs went on to create CSN Bay Area's sister channel, Comcast SportsNet West (now Comcast SportsNet California). The network was also home to the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball franchise until the end of the 2008 season, when the team's games also moved to CSN California; similarly, the network was the home of the NHL's San Jose Sharks until the end of the 2008-09 NHL season when their games also moved to Comcast SportsNet California. The network also occasionally broadcast games featuring the San Jose Sabercats of the Arena Football League.

Through its partial ownership by Fox, Comcast SportsNet Bay Area formerly carried programming distributed nationally for Fox Sports Networks affiliates, even after relinquishing controlling ownership of the network to Comcast and the Giants. This included access to a variety of college sports, notably Sunday telecasts of men's and women's basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Pac-12 basketball games on various nights, as well as Saturday telecasts of football games from the Pac-12 and Big 12 Conferences during their respective seasons. Most of that programming has shifted to Fox Sports' national sports network Fox Sports 1 or Fox College Sports, with Comcast SportsNet having dropped FSN-distributed programming in September 2012 after the two parties were unable to renew their program content agreement.[8] This arrangement was formed to secure national coverage for its lineup of collegiate sports events. The channel also aired simulcasts of radio shows such as The Dan Patrick Show until those programs were inherited by NBC Sports Network.

Original programming

Every Thursday night during hockey season, Comcast SportsNet Bay Area airs an out-of-market National Hockey League game, usually either from Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia or Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic.

Most Giants, Warriors and San Francisco 49ers games (in the latter case, this is despite the fact that CSN Bay Area does not broadcast 49ers football games) are preceded by a Pregame Live and followed by a Postgame Live show. These pre-game and post-game shows are produced in the SportsNet Central studios in San Francisco, although shows for some games are occasionally broadcast on-site. These broadcasts are also usually only aired when they do not conflict with another live scheduled game.

On April 6, 2009, CSN Bay Area premiered SportsNet Central, a half-hour sports news program featuring up-to-date scores, highlights and news of all the Bay Area/Northern California teams (including those covered primarily by CSN California, like the Oakland Athletics, Oakland Raiders, San Jose Sharks and Sacramento Kings). Reporters include current CSN Bay Area personalities Scott Reiss, Kate Longworth and Kelli Johnson. On that date, the network also premiered Chronicle Live, hosted by Bay Area sports announcer Greg Papa (who also serves as host of the Giants edition of Pregame Live and Postgame Live, and substitute play-by-play announcer for Giants telecasts on the network, as well as the play-by-play voice for the Raiders), which features analysis and debates on hot topics on Bay Area sports, with the panel consisting of writers and experts mainly (but not exclusively) from the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury News.[9]

Other services

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area HD

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area HD is high definition simulcast feed of the network, which transmits in the 1080i resolution format. All of the network's Warriors and Giants game telecasts have been broadcast by the network in HD since 2010; the simulcast feed also broadcasts most of the network's original programming in HD.[10]

Additional channels

Besides the main channel and its sister channel Comcast SportsNet California, Comcast SportsNet Bay Area also operates two additional channels to distribute their programming. CSN Plus is an overflow channel utilized by both Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and Comcast SportsNet California for scheduling conflicts when more than one team broadcast by the network is playing at the same time. If there are additional scheduling conflicts, such as when the Athletics, Sharks and Kings play simultaneously, one game will air on Comcast SportsNet Plus, with the HD feed available on the channel slot normally held by NFL RedZone's high definition feed.

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

  • Rich Aurilia – Giants studio analyst
  • Shooty Babitt – A's studio analyst
  • Mindi Bach – 49ers reporter
  • Jim Barnett – Warriors color analyst
  • Vida Blue – Giants studio analyst
  • Brodie Brazil – A's and Sharks pre-game and post-game host
  • Dennis Brown – 49ers studio analyst
  • Rosalyn Gold-Onwude – Warriors sideline reporter
  • Kate Scott – Earthquakes sideline reporter
  • Shawn Estes – Giants studio analyst
  • Randy Winn – Giants studio analyst
  • Ahmed Fareed – SportsNet Central anchor and reporter
  • Dave Feldman – SportsNet Central anchor and reporter
  • Ray Fosse – A's color analyst
  • Mark Mulder – A's color analyst
  • Bob Fitzgerald – Warriors and SaberCats play-by-play announcer
  • Amy Gutierrez – Giants sideline reporter
  • Randy Hahn – Sharks play-by-play announcer
  • Bret Hedican – Sharks studio analyst
  • Kelli Johnson – SportsNet Central anchor and reporter
  • Jim Kozimor – SportsTalk Live anchor
  • Mike Krukow – Giants color analyst
  • Duane Kuiper – Giants play-by-play announcer
  • Glen Kuiper – A's and WCC basketball play-by-play announcer
  • Kevin Kurz – Sharks Insider
  • Bill Laskey – Giants studio analyst
  • Matt Maiocco – 49ers Insider
  • Andrea Nakano – SportsNet Central anchor and reporter
  • Joe Nedney – 49ers analyst
  • Greg Papa – Warriors pre-game and post-game host, Giants pre-game and post-game host, and substitute play-by-play announcer
  • Alex Pavlovic – Giants Insider
  • Joe Stiglich – A's Insider
  • Ray Ratto – CSNBayArea.com Senior Insider
  • Jamie Baker – Sharks color analyst
  • Bip Roberts – A's studio analyst
  • Anthony Passarelli – Earthquakes play-by-play announcer
  • Chris Dangerfield – Earthquakes color analyst
  • Monte Poole – Warriors Insider
  • Henry Wofford – Raiders pre-game and post-game host, Warriors reporter, host of Race Week, and SportsNet Central anchor and reporter

Notable former on-air staff

References

  1. ↑ "Fox putting together national Sports Net // Changes ahead for SportsChannel". Chicago Sun-Times (Sun-Times Media Group). June 24, 1997. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ John M. Higgins (June 30, 1997). "National net keys regional deal. (Fox Sports, Liberty Media Corp. challenge ESPN with stake in SportsChannel)". Broadcasting & Cable (Reed Business Information). Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  3. ↑ Cynthia Littleton (April 30, 2007). "Comcast sports new cable networks". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  4. ↑ John Dempsey (December 10, 2007). "SF Giants take stake in FSN". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Authentic Opening Day". FSN Bay Area.
  6. ↑ "Comcast to provide sports content for KNTV". San Francisco Chronicle (Hearst Corporation). April 19, 2011.
  7. ↑ Jonathan Okanes (April 19, 2011). "CSNBA to provide content for sports segments on NBC Bay Area". Inside Bay Area. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
  8. ↑ John Ourand (August 14, 2012). "NBC Sports Group Drops FSN Programming From Comcast RSNs". Sports Business Journal (Advance Publications). Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Comcast SportsNet Opens New Era". Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (Press release). April 6, 2009. Archived from the original on February 14, 2009.
  10. ↑ "CSN Bay Area GIANTS TV SCHEDULE". Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, January 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.