Future Local Television Broadcasts http://chicagosports.chicagotribune...abletv,1,5141924.story?coll=cs-home-headlines Will the Fire be the #1 commodity on Fox Sports Chicago? Or will they jump ship to the Reinsdorf Network?
is there plans for a new sports channel?? and if they all jump ship... what the hell does fox sports chicago have to show?
I'm guessing the owners are looking at what the Yankees did with the Yes network, and, perhaps, to what Man U did, and are saying "Why can't we do that to?" I think the Cubs could pull it off, but I really don't see The Blackhawks Channel as succeeding. I bet they'll end up back at FSC and it's just a bargaining tool, but who knows?
Why would the Cubs need to when they have a huge portion of their games covered on WGN across the nation/world?
If I'm not mistaken, since the jumping of WGN to the U, the Cubs actually have a fairly weak deal with a number of their games actually going to CLTV.
Isn't there a rumor that Fox Sports Net is selling to Comcast as well? I'm not quite sure what to make of this just yet, but it seems pretty big. And actually, there seem to be less Cubs games on CLTV and more on WCIU now. There's more Bulls overflow on CIU as well. Both of those moves happened after WB started getting more serious about their original programming. Later, COZ
I brought this up awhile back when it was first rumored...it's the same sort of thing that happened with NY in respect to the Yankees jumping ship from MSG and FSNY and leaving MSG with very little. Directly or indirectly, it also produced the best local TV package in the league for the Metros, who have all home and away matches telecast, with a 30 min pregame show, sometimes biligually, plus a weekly news show on the team, plus they show MLS Wrap locally. If even one of the teams, especially the baseball teams, jumps, FSC is going to have a lot of programming time to fil, and frankly, so is the new network(s) if they only get one baseball team. I think it's an excellent time for the Fire to evaluate their options. That said, I hope the Fire, Cubs or Hawks don't end up on a 'Comcast Sports Net' because then they will not be on Dish anymore.
Cubs, Sox, Bears, and Hawks breaking away from Fox Sports Net http://chicagosports.chicagotribune...media,1,1094687.column?coll=cs-home-headlines What implications does this have on the Fire? I would assume it would make Peter's negotiations for a new TV deal easier. I also wonder if Peter has been approached about getting the Fire on this new channel these teams are forming.
Merged since we had a topic on this yesterday. And the Bears don't have a deal with FSC, theirs is with Channel 5.
With Comcast involved, you guys with a DBS in Chicagoland are going to be screwed if you want to watch teams other than the Fire. I am 100% certain, Comcast will establish a Comcast Sportsnet channel there, as was done here in Philly, that will be cable exclusive. All they need to do to get this done is distribute the channel to cable providers via microwave or some other land-based technology. I doubt they'll buy the local FSN and use their equipment because it looks like FSN Chicago is distributed via Satellite. I hate Comcast for doing this in Philly. They have close to 90% of the local market, own two of the local teams, their arenas, the cable channel, and the systems that get the team's content into local homes, so if you want local sports in Philly, you need to patronize Comcast or the industry the company dominates which includes crappy service and channel selection. Even worse, I want to pull for Comcast because it is a locally owned company, but they have truly evil business practices.
Yeah, but Philly has never had a Fox Sports affiliate. They had Sportschannel Philadelphia back in the late 80's and early 90's, but that's as gone as Prism. I don't think you can blame Comcast for this...iirc, which I may not, they just took over what was sort of already there. In Baltimore, Comcast took over the former HTS and that's available on DBS. Though it certainly does suck that I can't ever get to hear Harry Kalas do Phillies games.
This is true, but most SportsChannel affiliates were transformed into FSN affiliates. SposrtChannel Philadelphia was distributed via sattelite. When CSN started, both SC Philadelphia and Prism went dark. Comcast used the microwave equipment from Prism to distribute CSN and used the SC Philadelphia channel position on cable systems to get it in homes. Starz ws then distributed to the old Prism channel slot. Comcast is also the Philly Fox SportsNet affiliate. They pick up filler programming like 54321, The Best Damn..., etc from Fox. Comcast knew what they were doing and you certainly can blame them. I looked into this with a very through eye after Comcast dropped FSW. The article linked here said FSN Chicago will stay in business which means Comcast can create a new channel from scratch since they control distribution in the market. All they need to do is distribute the channel via microwave to closed circuit cable to keep the channel off of DBS. CSN Mid-Atlantic is only on DBS because they bought HTS and the distribution didn't change. They still beam via satellite. If they can honor DBS contracts and then install a microwave distribution network, they can make that one cable exclusive as well. There is a CSN in the North Carolina area that is not on DBS systems I think as well. Sorry, this is a sore issue with me and I wish something could be done to prevent this from happening here and in other markets because it isn't right.