| Country | United States British Hong Kong |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Worldwide |
| Headquarters | Englewood, Colorado |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Bill Daniels/Tele-Communications, Inc. (1985–1994) Liberty Media (1994–1996) |
| Sister channels | SportsChannel |
| History | |
| Launched | October 19, 1985; 40 years ago (1985-10-19) (Southern California; as Prime Ticket) November 15, 1988 (1988-11-15) (Colorado; as Prime Sports Network) 1989 (1989) (launch of Prime Sports brand) |
| Closed | October 31, 1996 (1996-10-31) |
| Replaced by | Fox Sports Networks STAR Sports (pan-Asia) |
Prime Sports (originally known as thePrime Sports Network (PSN), and also known asPrime Network or simplyPrime) is the collective name for a former group ofregional sports networks in the United States that were owned byLiberty Media, operating from November 1988 to October 31, 1996. While Liberty owned many of these networks, some of Prime's member networks were owned by other companies, and carried programming distributed for the group through affiliation agreements. As a result, Prime-affiliated networks had the right to select Prime Network programs to broadcast.
Each of the networks primarily carried regional broadcasts of sporting events from various professional, collegiate and high school sports teams (with broadcasts typically exclusive to each individual network, although some were shown on multiple Prime networks within a particular team's designated market area), along with regional and national sports discussion, documentary and analysis programs.
In 1996, Liberty announced a partnership withNews Corporation, under which it would affiliate the Prime Sports channels with itsFox Sports Networks.
The group's history traces back to the original Prime Ticket (nowBally Sports West), a Los Angeles-based sports network that launched on October 19, 1985. The channel was founded as a joint venture betweenJerry Buss, majority owner of theLos Angeles Lakers andLos Angeles Kings, and cable television pioneerBill Daniels, who held a minority ownership interest in both professional sports franchises, which carried most of theirNBA andNHL games on the network. Prime Ticket was headquartered in a small office building across the street from theGreat Western Forum inInglewood, then the home stadium of the Kings and Lakers.
Prime Ticket caught on with cable subscribers inSouthern California as it was founded at the height of the Lakers' 1980s championship run, and later got a boost from the trade ofWayne Gretzky to the Kings in 1988. It was also unique among regional sports networks, in that it operated as a basic cable channel, instead of apremium service as many of the RSNs operating at the time did.
Within a few years, Daniels bought out most of Buss's shares in Prime Ticket and became the channel's majority owner. In 1989, Daniels partnered with cable television providerTele-Communications Inc. to form a new group of regional sports networks. Prime Ticket served as the flagship charter network, joined by the Prime Sports Network (nowAT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain), an owned-and-operated outlet based inDenver, near TCI's corporate headquarters in the suburb ofEnglewood. The partnership also purchasedDallas-basedHome Sports Entertainment and its share ofOrlando-basedSunshine Network. HSE had been in operation since 1983, while Sunshine had debuted in 1988. These four networks formed the cornerstones of the Prime Network group, along with several others already owned by TCI.[1][2] Prime quickly obtained rights to thePac-10 Conference football and secured affiliation agreements with other major regional sports networks includingHome Team Sports (Baltimore),MSG Network (New York),New England Sports Network (Boston), andPro-Am Sports System (Detroit)[3] Prime formed a partnership withRaycom Sports that allowed to two companies to jointly-bid on rights and gave Prime the right to broadcast out-of-market games that Raycom already held rights to. Through this partnership Prime broadcast sporting events from theSouthwest andBig Eight conferences.[4]
In 1991, Prime merged itsSan Francisco-based Pacific Sports Network (co-owned withViacom) withRainbow Programming's SportsChannel Bay Area formingSportsChannel Pacific. This would be the first joint-venture between Prime and its rivalSportsChannel. Negotiations about a larger partnership continued. Finally, in 1993, Liberty Media,NBC, and Rainbow formedPrime SportsChannel Networks, a joint venture in which the companies pooled programming and advertising sales between Prime and Cablevision/NBC's SportsChannel. Bill Daniels exited the partnership just before the deal was announced.[5] Through this partnership, the two companies formed two national sports-related channels, the sports news serviceNewSport andAmerican Sports Classics, a network focusing on replays of past sporting events and historical sports documentaries.
In August 1994, Daniels sold his share in Prime Ticket and the Prime Network to TCI sister companyLiberty Media. On November 16, 1994, Liberty Media announced that it would adopt a unified identity for its owned-and-operated regional sports networks under the "Prime Sports" brand. The move was part an alignment of the networks that would include a shift towards a common schedule of programming across the networks, outside each outlet's own regionally exclusive sports telecasts (including the incorporation of sports-related programs aimed at women and children, and the launch of a twice-nightly national sports news program, titledPress Box; the name originated from a local sports highlights show on Prime Ticket that began airing in 1990). Liberty also created an in-house sales service to sell national advertisements for the regional networks (replacingGroup W Sports Marketing).[6] The rebrand took effect in spring 1995.
In 1995, Prime Network's retail subsidiary, Prime Sports Merchandising, purchased select sports apparel stores that maintained locations inside shopping malls throughout the United States, and rebranded them as Prime Sports Shops, using the regional networks to promote the stores.[7]
On October 31, 1995,News Corporation, which sought to create its own group of regional sports networks as a cable venture forFox Sports, which was formed the year prior through theFox Broadcasting Company's acquisition of the television rights to theNFL'sNational Football Conference, acquired a 50% ownership interest in Liberty's U.S.-based regional Prime Sports networks and its international networksPremier Sports (Australia),Prime Deportiva (Latin America) andPrime Sports Asia.[8] Liberty and News Corporation created Fox/Liberty Networks as aholding company for the co-owned regional sports properties. In exchange, News Corporation also sold a 7.5% interest inStar TV to Liberty Media.[9]
On July 3, 1996, News Corporation and Liberty Media announced that the Prime Sports networks would be relaunched as part of the newFox Sports Net group, with the eight Prime Sports owned-and-operated networks adopting brands that combined the "Fox Sports" name with the state or region served by the respective network.[10] the Prime Sports-branded affiliates were officially relaunched as Fox Sports Net on November 1, 1996.[11][12][13]
On December 22, 2006, News Corporation sold its interests inFSN Pittsburgh (the former "Prime Sports KBL"),FSN Utah (the former "Prime Sports Intermountain West"),FSN Northwest (the former "Prime Sports Northwest") andFSN Rocky Mountain (the former "Prime Sports Rocky Mountain") to Liberty Media, in an asset trade in which News Corporation also traded its 38.5% ownership stake in satellite providerDirecTV for $550 million in cash and stock, in exchange for Liberty Media's 16.3% stake in the company.[14] Liberty later spun off the four networks in a partial assetspin-off of DirecTV into a separate company of the same name, while Liberty also increased its share in DirecTV from 48% to 54%, and Liberty ownerJohn Malone and his family acquired an additional 24% interest.[15]DirecTV Sports Networks, which assumed responsibility for the four Prime-turned-FSN networks,[16] rebranded them under theRoot Sports brand on April 1, 2011.[17]
| Channel | Region served | Year joined/launched | Current owner/status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Cadena Deportiva | Arizona California Nevada Hawaii | 1993 | Fox Deportes, owned byFox Corporation | Operated as Spanish-language version of Prime Ticket. |
| Prime Sports Intermountain West | Utah Idaho Montana Nevada andWyoming | 1989 | Defunct; merged underAT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain as a sub-feed with no distinct branding in 2017. | |
| Prime Sports KBL | western, central and northeasternPennsylvania central and southernWest Virginia easternOhio westernMaryland extreme easternKentucky | 1989 | SportsNet Pittsburgh, owned byFenway Sports Group and thePittsburgh Pirates. | Launched by TCI in 1986; known as KBL Entertainment Network until 1994 |
| Prime Sports Midwest | Missouri southernIllinois Indiana easternNebraska easternKansas westernKentucky | 1989 | FanDuel Sports Network Midwest, owned byMain Street Sports Group | |
| Prime Sports Northwest | Washington Oregon Idaho Montana Alaska | 1989 | Root Sports Northwest, owned by theSeattle Mariners | Launched by TCI andViacom in 1988 as Northwest Cable Sports; rebranded in 1989 |
| Prime Sports Rocky Mountain | Colorado Wyoming Southern Idaho westernKansas westernNebraska northeasternNevada westernSouth Dakota | 1988 | Defunct | Launched by Daniels in 1988; Known as Prime Sports Network until 1990 |
| Prime Sports Southwest | northern and easternTexas Oklahoma northernLouisiana New Mexico Arkansas | 1989 | FanDuel Sports Network Southwest, owned by Main Street Sports Group | Launched by Warner-Amex in 1983; Known as Home Sports Entertainment (HSE) until 1994 |
| Prime Sports Upper Midwest | Iowa Minnesota North Dakota South Dakota Wisconsin | 1990 | Defunct | Prime Sports Upper Midwest was the only U.S.-based Prime-owned outlet to cease operations, doing so on December 31, 1995. |
| Prime Sports West | Southern California Arizona Hawaii Nevada | 1985 | FanDuel Sports Network West, owned by Main Street Sports Group (operates as a sister network to the present-day Prime Ticket) | Known as Prime Ticket until 1994. |
| Channel | Region served | Year of affiliation | Current owner/status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empire Sports Network | Western New York | 1991 | defunct | owned byAdelphia Communications Corporation |
| Home Team Sports | Delaware Maryland south-centralPennsylvania Virginia Washington, D.C. West Virginia | 1989 | Monumental Sports Network, owned and operated byMonumental Sports & Entertainment | Previously owned byWestinghouse Broadcasting, also affiliated with SportsChannel |
| MSG Network | New York northernNew Jersey northeastPennsylvania southernConnecticut | 1989 | Owned bySphere Entertainment | |
| NESN | Massachusetts eastern and central Connecticut Vermont Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island | 1989 | Owned by theFenway Sports Group andDelaware North | |
| PASS Sports | Michigan northwesternOhio northeasternIndiana northeastWisconsin | 1989 | defunct; team broadcast rights acquired byFox Sports Detroit | |
| SportsChannel Pacific | northern and central California northwestern Nevada parts of southernOregon | 1989 | NBC Sports Bay Area, owned by NBCUniversal | Created in 1991 as merger of TCI/Viacom's Pacific Sports Network (launched as a Prime affiliate in 1989) andCablevision/NBC's SportsChannel Bay Area |
| SportSouth | Georgia Mississippi Alabama Kentucky North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee | 1990 | FanDuel Sports Network South, owned byMain Street Sports Group | Partially owned by Liberty Media, in conjunction with theTurner Broadcasting System during association with Prime. |
| Sunshine Network | Florida | 1989 | FanDuel Sports Network Sun, owned by Main Street Sports Group | Liberty had 49% ownership |
| Channel | Region served | Year joined/launched | Current owner/status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premier Sports | Australia | 1995 | Fox Sports Australia, owned byFox Sports Pty Limited |
| Prime Deportiva | Latin America | 1996 | Operation have since regionalised
|
| Prime Sports | pan-Asia | 1991 | Operation have since regionalised
|
| TopSport | Brazil | 1991 | Defunct; replaced bySporTV in 1994 |
Prime Sports Showcase was a short-lived sports network that focused on women's sports. It was launched in November 1994. The network reached 45 million homes.[18] Other programming on the Showcase network included Spanish Language programming and sporting events originating from Spanish speaking countries.[19] The channel folded in late 1996.
The Prime Network was revolutionary in the sense that it was one of the first sports networks to provide live national coverage of regional auto racing series (such as theNASCAR West Series) and lower-division national series (such as theARCA stock car series). It was also the exclusive live broadcast home to theUSAR Hooters ProCup Series from the series' inception in 1994 until Prime Sports converted into Fox Sports Net in November 1996, whenESPN2 secured the rights to the series (running the series' races from 1997 to 1999). In addition, Prime also televised a great deal ofAmerican Speed Association races during the late 1980s and most of the 1990s, sharing the broadcast rights withTNN (nowParamount Network). The network also was the first to televiseNASCAR Winston Cup qualifying sessions on a regular basis, mainly forraces televised byTBS. Prime also televised a number ofNASCAR Busch Series races, including theGoody's 300 at Daytona, in the early 1990s.
Prime was well known for its broadcasts of both American and Canadianequestrian competitions, at a level not since matched by any other North American television network, helping the Prime group develop a significant reputation among followers of that sport. Prime also televised theBull Riders Only series, as well asPRCA ProRodeo events. It also televised a number of regionalNational Hockey League,college basketball andcollege football games, along withbodybuilding andwrestling matches. It would also occasionally air fitness programs (such asBody by Jake). The network was also an early broadcaster ofArena Football League games up through the early 1990s.