News: Union games to be carried on Comcast Sportsnet/The Comcast Network

awesome news if it's true

 

As a DirecTV customer and hater of all things Comcast, this is the worst possible news that I could imagine. Oh well, I guess my mistress will finally become a soccer fan.

 

100% awesomeness if true.

 

While those of you who watched last year's super obscure channel via satellite will lose out, CSN presents the opportunity to reach many more people than LiveWell ever could. Between the Flyers playoff run and the early Phillies season, Comcast has a huge potential for cross-promotion. Raising awareness of the team is still key to long term success.

 

dammit, no more Kyle Martino and his special name pronunciations, who will provide the unintentional comedy during broadcasts now?

 

How would moving from an over-the-air channel which everyone receives to a cable only channel that not everyone does be a good thing? Just because CSN/TCN are going to show a few games and a weekly show, that doesn't mean they'll suddenly start caring about the Union. That's like saying that they really care about lacrosse because they show some Philadelphia Wings games.

CSN/TCN is just looking for summer filler for when the Phillies are on regular TV. For people like me who can't afford cable, this blows huge.

 

the difference is people know about CSN/TSN and don't know about LiveWell. The exposure and ability to find the game on Comcast channels is dramatically better than it is on LiveWell.

 

The article makes the best counter-point to your argument. A majority of games weren't even on 6ABC they were pushed to the LiveWell channel. I have friends in the area that don't get that so they missed out on a ton of games. Almost every single road game was on FSC last year, which a majority of people around here don't get on any standard cable package.

CSN does a great job covering and broadcasting the "4 Major Sports" in Philly and adding the Union to that will definitely increase exposure and credibility even though it will be available to less people. If they do a weekly show like the article says, it will already be more than 6ABC has ever done. Then you get guaranteed coverage on CSN's recap shows, SportsRise and SportsNite as well as a seat at their daily roundtable show Daily News Live, which in turn will probably get the team more coverage in the Philly Newspapers as a more legitimate part of the Philly sports scene.

Sorry that you are getting screwed in all of this, but I'd go as far as saying this move will benefit more people than not.

 

ABC > CSN > TCN > LiveWell

I'll withhold judgement until we see how many games get pushed to TCN.

 

Fantastic news. I'm sure even the TCN games will have better viewership than Livewell. While not as big as CSN or ABC, it's definitely on the sports fans radar. Pretty thrilled about this deal. Also, the magazine show "State of the Union" will be a nice touch.

 

The cynic in me does not see much hope for cross-promotion and analysis. More like an announcer pronouncing the name of the baseball Carlos Ruiz flawlessly, then tripping over the pronunciation of our Carlos Ruiz.

 

Anything is better than the LiveWell network. Well, almost anything. Here's what I'm concerned about: games in April/May when the Phillies are also scheduled for CSN/TCN the same night and either the Sixers or Flyers are scheduled for a playoff game (NBA playoff games might be all natl TV like ESPN or TNT but I'm not sure)

What happens then? Obviously the Union gets bumped, but where or when (Back to LiveWell or are some Union matches headed for tape delayed broadcasts?)

 

I think this is a great move. I have Verizon FiOS and just checked that we get both CSN-PHL and TCN. It looks like we only get TCN in SD. Hopefully, Verizon will get FSC and TCN in HD soon.

Last season, there were a couple of away matches on LiveWell that did not show up in the Verizon guide. It was a pain and impacted my recordings. My hope is that CSN and TCN will have better updates to their guide data.

 

First, I love that CSN has been showing Wings games, because I can rarely get anyone interested in going with me to see them. But box lacrosse is clearly a niche sport that happens to have a 40 year history in this city, so it's not really and apt comparison. It's small potatoes compared to MLS, basically a semi-pro league.

Saying everyone receives LiveWell doesn't mean anyone knows it's there, whereas almost everyone who gets CSN/TSN knows about it. Even those people with HDTV antennas likely ignore those garbage subchannels, and you would never flip past it in the cable/satellite menus. I frequently had to tell bartenders the exact channel number for them to get to it. Look at the flak the NHL gets because they're not on ESPN.

Yes, it's unfortunate for DirecTV and antenna folks. But LiveWell had no potential for growth. At least FSC is a specialty channel that promotes MLS to euro fans. LiveWell followed the Union games with cable access cooking shows, and no postgame. Games on CSN gives credibility in the minds of potential fans who already follow the Phillies, Flyers, or sixers. Comcast is going to want to promote it, so I'd expect to see a few ads during games and pre/post game shows. I'd expect them to cover the games and scores a bit more on the day of/after, though I doubt we'll see practice reports and other off day coverage like for the big 4.

 

Also, looking at the schedule, I only see 6 conflicts so far, 1 with the sixers and 5 with the Phillies. There are a couple other times a long Phillies game could preempt the Union, or Flyers playoff games could bounce them.

I don't know what they'd do if there is a 3-way conflict, but I don't see a lot of potential for that. the April 23 RSL game conflicts with a Phillies game, so a simultaneous Flyers/Sixers playoff game might conflict. Later Phillies/Union conflicts, like the May 11 Galaxy game, or the May 21 Fire game (currently only airing on Galavision) should avoid 3-way conflicts once the playoff games are on National TV.

It could also open up an interesting possibility of televising the Open Cup games on TCN, as well as any friendlies over the summer.

 

I am all for it, maybe the Gov can do the post game show.

 

Second this.

I don't care if "people" didn't know about LiveWell. If they didn't know about it, it was because they didn't particularly care about watching the Union. If they didn't know about it, it means they didn't care enough to look. With an over-the-air channel, anybody who actually wants to watch can watch. How was that a problem?

I don't care about the "credibility" of being on Comcast, nor do I care about cross-promotion on Sportscenter-Lite on CSN--I care about being able to see the games, and this makes things harder for lots of people, myself included.

 

by that logic you'd be ok with all games just being streamed online only as long as union fans knew where to look for the stream.

 

plain and simple, anyone who is against this isnt looking at the big picture

 

LiveWell might not have been a well known station but it was always broadcasting in HD. Last year the only Union games I watched in SD were FSC. I am hoping FiOS will get FSC in HD soon, but now TCN will be the channel in SD. I also think there are going to be a lot of games that will be pre-empted on CSN on LiveWell it got priority. I must admit it is ironic that CSN wants Union games, but won't show Champion's League games in the middle of the afternoon during the week. Not sure they are that committed to soccer.

 

that comcast is an evil corporation and should slowly burn to the ground (building included).

it's good for fan base, for someone currently without cable don't care, but i used to have directv so my automatic reaction was "seriously?"... but when i move i'm getting FiOs so it's good to hear that verizon has the devil's network. but no matter, i'll be at a bar watching the games anyway.