 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Minneapolis-Saint Paul and outlying areas |
| Affiliates | KSTC-TV |
| Programming | |
| Language | American English |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Carl Pohlad |
| Key people | Kevin Cattoor, President[1] |
| History | |
| Launched | 31 October 2003 (2003-10-31) |
| Closed | 8 May 2004 (2004-05-08) |
Victory Sports One was acable andsatellite televisionregional sports network owned by theMinnesota Twinsbaseball team. It was first conceived in 2001[2][3] and launched on October 31, 2003.[4] Victory Sports was the exclusive cable TV home of Twins games for the first month of the2004 season; in addition, it was planned to have coverage of variousMinnesotacollege andhigh school games along with outdoors programming, including former TwinKent Hrbek's popular program. The channel also simulcastESPNEWS.[5]
The Twins opted to take their local broadcast rights in-house after the2003 season, ending a 15-year partnership withMSC/FSN North. The model for the plan was the success of theNew York Yankees'YES Network.[3]
Victory Sports was slated to air 105 Twins games, with the other 57 airing onKSTC-TV. However, it was unable to obtain carriage from the primarycable television providers in theTwin Cities, the rest of the state of Minnesota, and theDakotas, or fromDirecTV orDish Network. These providers balked at the $2.20-per-subscriber price that the Pohlads were demanding, which they felt was too much for a regional sports network, especially for one which would be effectively dark to most viewers from October to March, as FSN North held the rights to theTimberwolves andWild. The cable companies were only willing to air it on a digital tier, but the Pohlads insisted that it air on basic cable.[5] It did, however, sign contracts with several smaller providers.[6][7] By April 2004, so few providers had signed on with the network that it was apparent it would never be viable. After a month in which only a tiny percentage of Twins fans could watch games locally, Victory Sports One signed off on May 8. The Twins quickly re-signed with FSN North to placate viewers inconvenienced by the change, and were able to obtain a significant increase in cable revenue over their previous contract with FSN North.[8]Kent Hrbek Outdoors quickly found a new home onKMSP-TV.
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