SportsChannel

SportsChannel logo from 1995 to 2000
Country	United States
Broadcast area	Nationwide (available in select regions)
Headquarters	New York City
Programming
Language	English
Ownership
Owner	Cablevision (1979–1998) Rainbow Media (1983–1998) NBC (1988–1998)
Sister channels	Prime Network
History
Launched	1976; 49 years ago (1976) (New York Tri-State area; as Cablevision Sports 3) March 1, 1979; 46 years ago (1979-03-01) (launch of SportsChannel brand)
Closed	January 1998; 27 years ago (1998-01) (most) March 2000; 25 years ago (2000-03) (Florida)
Replaced by	Fox Sports Networks Comcast SportsNet

SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group ofregional sports networks in the United States that was owned byCablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as ajoint venture withNBC.

Operating from March 1, 1979, to January 27, 1998, it was the country's first regional sports network, and along withPrime Network, was an important ancestor to many of the regional sports outlets in the U.S., particularlyFox Sports Networks andComcast SportsNet. At its peak, SportsChannel operated nine networks serving several of the nation's largest cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.

SportsChannel's origins date back to 1976, when Cablevision launchedCablevision Sports 3 (the "3" referencing its original channel slot on the provider), a sports network carried on the company'sNew York City area system. The network originated the SportsChannel brand on March 1, 1979, when it changed its name toSportsChannel New York.^[1] The network carried games from several New York area sports teams including theNew York Yankees andNew York MetsMajor League Baseball franchises and theNBA'sNew Jersey Nets. One of the notable accomplishments from the channel's early days was inking one of the earliest cable deals with a pro sports team when they signed a contract to broadcast games on cable for theNational Hockey League'sNew York Islanders in 1978 while still known as Sports 3.

The network expanded to other regions with the launches and purchases of additional networks throughout the 1980s; the first expansion occurred when Cablevision signed a deal to televise theChicago White Sox in 1981.^[2] However, this new network would be short-lived as the White Sox launchedSportsVision the following season. Cablevision's subsidiaryRainbow Media's purchasedBoston-basedPRISM New England in 1983, relaunching the network asSportsChannel New England. Shortly after, Cablevision formed a partnership withThe Washington Post which gave the Post a 50% interest in SportsChannel.^[3] By the end of the year, the Rainbow/Washington Post partnership purchasedPhiladelphia-basedPRISM and SportsVision, affiliating them with SportsChannel (although the SportsChannel Chicago brand would not reappear until 1989).^[4][5] The White Sox returned to Cablevison, now with the addition of theChicago Blackhawks andChicago Bulls. In 1984,CBS entered the partnership in a deal that gave each of the three companies a one-third interest in three of the four networks and a one-sixth interest in SportsChannel New England (the other 50% was owned by theCeltics and theWhalers). The same deal would also give CBS a 50% interest in Rainbow's other networks, then-premium servicesBravo andAmerican Movie Classics.^[6] The partnership with the Washington Post and CBS would end in 1987 when both companies sold their shares back to Cablevision, citing delays in the deployment of cable television service in New York and other cities as the reason for exiting the partnership.^[7] Also, in 1987SportsChannel Florida was launched, initially with programming from local college teams and out-of-marketMLB games that SportsChannel already had rights to through its other networks. While the Florida network got off to a slow start, this proved to be a great move as it gained rights to severalexpansion teams in the years that followed.

In 1988, SportsChannel would make its largest television deal, gaining national television rights for theNational Hockey League fromESPN. The three-year $51 million agreement also included rights toplayoff games.^[8] A national networkSportsChannel America (also the new name for the group of networks) was also launched on October 6, 1988, to make the games available to cable subscribers in areas without a SportsChannel affiliate.^[9]Maryland-basedHome Team Sports andMinneapolis-basedMidwest Sports Channel (independently owned and operated despite the similar sounding name) would also sign-up as affiliates. Later that year, Cablevision would also gain a new partner. In December 1988, NBC and Cablevision announced that they would form a joint venture to operate their respective cable networks, including SportsChannel.^[10] Through this partnership, SportsChannel launched five additional networks in theBay Area,Cincinnati,Cleveland,Philadelphia, andLos Angeles. The partnership also produced theOlympics Triplecast, apay-per-view service providing additional coverage of the1992 Summer Olympics.

In 1991, the one year-old San Francisco-based SportsChannel Bay Area merged with rivalTCI's Pacific Sports Network to become SportsChannel Pacific. This would become the second regional sports network to affiliate both with SportsChannel and thePrime Network (Home Team Sports had done so since 1988). SportsChannel Los Angeles later ceased operations at the end of 1992 due to financial issues, with all of its sports broadcast contracts being acquired by the competingPrime Ticket.

In 1993, Rainbow andLiberty Media formedPrime SportsChannels America, a venture in which the companies pooled programming and advertising sales between SportsChannel and Liberty's Prime Network regional sports group. Through this partnership, the two companies formed the sports news serviceNewSport, replacing SportsChannel America.

On April 25, 1995, NBC sold its 50% interest in SportsChannel New York to Rainbow Media for US$93 million; NBC cited that "owning a piece of SportsChannel New York made less sense" after Cablevision and ITT purchased competing regional sports network,MSG Network. NBC retained its ownership in the other networks.^[11]

On June 30, 1997, Fox/Liberty Networks, a joint venture betweenNews Corporation andLiberty Media, purchased a 40% interest in Rainbow's sports properties including the SportsChannel networks,Madison Square Garden, theNew York Knicks and theNew York Rangers. Through the deal, the SportsChannel networks would be integrated intoFox Sports Net, a group of regional sports networks launched in November 1996 through News Corporation's purchase of Liberty'sPrime Network group; SportsChannel New York would also be rebranded as Fox Sports New York, with Cablevision-owned MSG also becoming a separately branded FSN outlet.^{[12][13][14][15]} Weeks after the deal was announced, SportsChannel would discontinue its national programming in favor of Fox's programming and simultaneously discontinued NewSport, replacing it withAmerican Sports Classics, a network focusing on replays of past sporting events and historical sports documentaries.

National Sports Partners, the venture formed through Cablevision's entry into the News Corporation/Liberty partnership to operate the existing and newly acquired owned-and-operated regional networks, later announced that it would relaunch the other SportsChannel networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner.^[16] SportsChannel New York was the first to rebrand, as Fox Sports New York, on January 27, 1998. Five of the seven other remaining SportsChannel networks relaunched as member networks of Fox Sports Net later that week.

Two of the SportsChannel networks would not become part of FSN, one of them not immediately, while a third was unable to carry FSN's national programming. After Comcast acquired a majority stake in Philadelphia-based entertainment company Spectacor to formComcast Spectacor in 1996 and announced plans to create its own regional sports network, Rainbow Media decided to shut down SportsChannel Philadelphia and sister premium service PRISM on October 1, 1997, with both networks' NBA and NHL contracts with thePhiladelphia 76ers andFlyers being acquired by the newComcast SportsNet Philadelphia (which replaced SportsChannel Philadelphia on local cable systems and additionally became an FSN affiliate; PRISM was replaced by then-Liberty owned premium movie networkStarz). SportsChannel Florida was also unable to join Fox Sports Net at the same time as its sisters asWayne Huizenga, owner of the NHL'sFlorida Panthers, owned a 70% controlling interest in the channel (with Rainbow Media as minority partner). Cablevision repurchased Huizenga's share of the network in November 1999, relaunching it as Fox Sports Net Florida on March 1, 2000, formally dissolving the SportsChannel brand two years after the national group effectively ceased operations.^[17] Though SportsChannel New England became known as Fox Sports New England in 1998, it was unable to broadcast FSN's national programming for a further two years because of a pre-existing contract Fox had signed with rival sports networkNESN back in 1996; Fox hoped to persuade NESN to break the contract early, but this did not occur. The contract expired on January 1, 2000, enabling Fox Sports New England to become a full FSN affiliate.^[18][19]

On February 22, 2005, Cablevision acquired News Corporation's ownership interests in Fox Sports Chicago and Fox Sports New York, and a 50% interest in Fox Sports New England (withComcast retaining its existing 50% stake), in a trade deal in which News Corporation sold its interests in Madison Square Garden, the Knicks and Rangers in exchange for acquiring sole ownership of Fox Sports Ohio and Fox Sports Florida. However, News Corporation and Cablevision retained joint ownership of Fox Sports Bay Area.^[20][21]

Fox Sports Chicago ceased operations in June 2006, after losing the regional cable television rights to local professional teams (including theChicago Bulls,Blackhawks,Cubs andWhite Sox) two years earlier to the newly launchedComcast SportsNet Chicago.^[22] In April 2007, Cablevision sold its interest in the New England and Bay Area networks to Comcast (theSan Francisco Giants later acquired part-ownership of the San Francisco-based network in February 2008); both networks became part ofComcast SportsNet, with FSN New England relaunching asComcast SportsNet New England in July 2007 and FSN Bay Area relaunching as Comcast SportsNet Bay Area in March 2008. Cablevision later rebranded Fox Sports New York as MSG Plus on March 10, 2008. Cablevision formally exited the regional sports business when it spun-off all of its sports assets (including MSG and MSG Plus) into theMadison Square Garden Company. This was new company was (and still is) headed byJames L. Dolan, the then-current CEO of Cablevision and son of Cablevision founderCharles Dolan. While Cablevision was sold toAltice in 2016, Dolan still runs the two New York-area sports networks to this day.

SportsChannel America was a national version of SportsChannel that launched in 1988 when SportsChannel gained rights to the NHL. The network was available to cable subscribers in areas that did not have a regional SportsChannel affiliate. At its peak it had 12 million subscribers nationwide.^[24] It was replaced withNewSport in 1993. The name SportsChannel America was sometimes also applied to the group as a whole.

SportsChannel broadcast severalCanadian Football League regular season games produced by SportsChannel Pacific during the 1993 season, later losing the broadcast rights to the upstartESPN2 (at the time devoted most of programming to extreme sports) through a four-year contract in 1994.

The network was also notable for providinglive national coverage ofNASCARBusch Grand National races beginning in 1990, as well as coverage of theWorld Basketball League.

SportsChannel America aired the professional wrestling showUWF Fury Hour on Monday nights from 1990 to 1991, and later aired the liveUWF Blackjack Brawl special in 1994. SportsChannel Philadelphia carriedECW Hardcore TV, asyndicated wrestling program of the now-defunctPhiladelphia-basedExtreme Championship Wrestling promotion from the program's debut in 1993 until the channel shut down in 1997.^[25]

From 1994 to 1997, SportsChannel America also airedNewSport Talk, a two-hour sports talk show produced by SportsChannel Chicago for sister network NewSport, that wassyndicated to most of its SportsChannel-branded sister networks.

SportsChannel America obtained the national cable television rights to the National Hockey League fromESPN in1988; Rainbow Sports was able to secure the rights by offering the NHL a bid of US$51 million ($17 million per year) over three years, more than double what ESPN had paid ($24 million) for its 1985–1988 contract (a move not unlike the2005 acquisition of NHL rights byComcast/OLN over ESPN); SportsChannel America obtained a fourth year of the contract for just $5 million in 1992.

One problem that arose with the deal was that SportsChannel America was available only in a few major markets and reached only one-third of the households that ESPN covered, limiting the national availability of its NHL coverage. In smaller markets, especially those with cable systems whoseheadends had limited channel capacity, the channel was only made available on a gametime basis as a pay-per-view option and often limited telecast to onlyStanley Cup playoff games. The NHL terminated its deal with SportsChannel America in 1992 and signed a new broadcast deal with ESPN, leaving SportsChannel America with very little sports content outside of outdoor sports shows and Canadian Football League games.^[26]

The NHL rights deal proved for a disaster for SportsChannel, as even though it helped the national channel expand its coverage to 20 million homes within the first three years, Rainbow Sports lost as much as $10 million on the agreement, and SportsChannel America soon faded into obscurity.^[26] Some regional SportsChannel networks – which carried NHL games in their local markets – were not affected by the national network's loss of league rights.

SportsChannel broadcast NPSL games at least as early as the1992–93 season.^[27] This was incidentally, the same year that for the NPSL being the top level of professional indoor soccer in the United States following the collapse ofMajor Soccer League. In February 1993, SportsChannel broadcast the NPSL All-Star Game^[28] fromCleveland. Lee Zeidman,^[29]Dave Johnson, and sideline reporterKeith Tozer served as the commentators for the occasion.

Besides Lee Zeidman and Dave Johnson, commentators for theirGame of the Week coverage includedDave Phillips and Bob Bishop. For SportsChannel's coverage of the 1993 NPSL Finals betweenCleveland andKansas City, they employed the broadcast team of Dave Phillips (on play-by-play) and Dave Johnson.

• SportsChannel
• Television channels and stations established in 1979
• Television channels and stations disestablished in 1998
• Defunct television networks in the United States
• Sports television networks in the United States
• Canadian Football League on television
• NBA on television
• Prime Sports
• Bally Sports
• NBC Sports
• Cablevision
• AMC Networks

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