# Merger Results in Formation of DIRECTV Sports Networks



## Unknown (Oct 16, 2007)

DIRECTV completed a merger transaction with Liberty Media yesterday .. More information here. Some more information came available today.

BigSkyBusiness.com


> As a result of the merger, Liberty Sports Group has been re-branded DIRECTV Sports Networks, a controlled subsidiary of DIRECTV that is comprised of three regional sports networks, which include FSN Northwest, FSN Pittsburgh and FSN Rocky Mountain (and sub-region FSN Utah). The three networks combined reach more than 8.5 million viewers across 17 states and own exclusive programming and distribution partnerships with more than 25 teams and conferences.


What effect will this have if any. also i did a search and nothing cam up on this topic.


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## n3ntj (Dec 18, 2006)

I am certain this will come into play around the end of December regarding the lack of Versus on D* and comcrap's carriage agreements with these same RSNs expiring. D* will soon have what they call "leverage".


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

I hope they use their hold on FSN Northwest, FSN Pittsburgh and FSN Rocky Mountain as HUGE leverage against Comcast in those areas to get Versus back. Comcast subs who are Pittsburgh Penguins fans would go nuts got yanked.


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

Let's see how nice DirecTV Sports plays with Comcast on the Pirates games. May start getting easier for DirecTV to get Comcast Philly.


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## Newshawk (Sep 3, 2004)

Talk about strategic placement! FSN Rocky Mountain is right smack in the 2nd home of Comcra... er, Comcast (as well as DirecTV's second home and Dish's first home). FSN Northwest is in the Seattle/Poetland area and FSN Pittsburgh is about as close as you can get to Philly with a sports network not named "Comcra"... er, "Comcast". (I wonder why my keyboard always does that? :sure


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## loudo (Mar 24, 2005)

Great News for us sports junkies. Keeping DirecTV the leader in sports television.


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## lwilli201 (Dec 22, 2006)

Would some one explain how Directv can own/control FSN regional channels. Does FSN produce the programming on FSN Northwest, FSN Pittsburgh and FSN Rocky Mountain?


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## lwilli201 (Dec 22, 2006)

Here is the Directv Sports Network web page.

http://www.fsninsider.com/


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## Garry (Jul 4, 2006)

lwilli201 said:


> Would some one explain how Directv can own/control FSN regional channels. Does FSN produce the programming on FSN Northwest, FSN Pittsburgh and FSN Rocky Mountain?


Comcast New England used to be Fox Sports New England but was not owned by Fox. It was owned, I believe, by Cablevision but Comcast bought it from them.

As you said, Fox provides programing as they do now with Comcast New England.


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## 5353 (Sep 3, 2009)

MikeW said:


> Let's see how nice DirecTV Sports plays with Comcast on the Pirates games. May start getting easier for DirecTV to get Comcast Philly.


Does this mean that there is a possibility to get Philly Comcast on DTV I have been waiting for years. I miss it and have been looking to get it and there is no way cause of the Prism days


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## sum_random_dork (Aug 21, 2008)

I wonder how this will play into D* also having purchased The Dan Patrick and Tony Bruno shows, will they be combined into this network? It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.


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## kevinwmsn (Aug 19, 2006)

Good, maybe Comcast can give it exclusive access to Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast as well as the other above channels.


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## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

"You're watching DSN, the DirecTV Sports Network" 

So who owns the other Fox Sports Nets?


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## Willh (Jan 1, 2009)

TheRatPatrol said:


> "You're watching DSN, the DirecTV Sports Network"
> 
> So who owns the other Fox Sports Nets?


NewsCorporation, they own all of the other FSN RSNs


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## grooves12 (Oct 27, 2005)

FSN is an affiliate network... just like many of the local CBS, NBC, FOX, etc. channels are owned by independent companies, but carry the network programming, the same is true of the Regional Sports Networks. Even though most of them fall under one of the two major brands (Fox Sports or Comcast Sports) that doesn't necessarilly mean Fox or Comcast owns all the networks that carry those names.


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## ajc68 (Jan 23, 2008)

Goodbye FSN NW (Mariners and Pac-10 sports) on Comcast cable in Washington/Oregon thanks to Comcrap denying CSN NW (Blazers and Ducks) to D*. D* is truly calling C* bluff on this one, and it started with Versus. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. We may not know until April when baseball season starts...


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## SteveHas (Feb 7, 2007)

This is getting good
:box:


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## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

Willh said:


> NewsCorporation, they own all of the other FSN RSNs


So that means we should be ok for a while with those. Hopefully they won't sell out to C*.


ajc68 said:


> Goodbye FSN NW (Mariners and Pac-10 sports) on Comcast cable in Washington/Oregon thanks to Comcrap denying CSN NW (Blazers and Ducks) to D*. D* is truly calling C* bluff on this one, and it started with Versus. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. We may not know until April when baseball season starts...


I wonder if they'll do an even exchange for the two? C* gets FSNW, in exchange D* will get CSNNW. Maybe the same with FSN Pittsburgh and CSN Philly.



SteveHas said:


> This is getting good


Its going to get interesting.


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## elaclair (Jun 18, 2004)

Willh said:


> NewsCorporation, they own all of the other FSN RSNs


Hmm, now if DirecTV Sports Network were to purchase NewsCorps holdings in their FSNs......or for that matter, just buy a majority stake in NewsCorp itself.....


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## blitzingATK (Aug 27, 2009)

From multichannel.com :

www.multichannel.com/article/390074-Liberty_Sports_Rebrands_As_DirecTV_Sports_Networks.php

"At this time, the networks' brand will continue as FSN and the existing programming, team partnerships and distribution agreements remain intact."

Why wouldn't they change the on-air name to DirecTV Sports NW, etc.?

Look at all the name recognition Comcast gets from their RSNs.

What am I missing?


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## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

Willh said:


> NewsCorporation, they own all of the other FSN RSNs





blitzingATK said:


> From multichannel.com :
> 
> www.multichannel.com/article/390074-Liberty_Sports_Rebrands_As_DirecTV_Sports_Networks.php
> 
> ...


At this time. They may change it in the future.


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## Tom Servo (Mar 7, 2007)

Guess I'm the only one who thinks this is a bad thing. I don't want *any *service provider owning *any* network, period.

Then again, if D* brings the hammer down on Comcast, and Comcast responds in kind, maybe it will spur some legislation in Congress to prevent this crap from happening.

But who will ultimately win? D* could pull their few regional sports nets, but Comcast could keep Versus off and pull their other regional sports nets, E!, G4, The Golf Channel, MLB Network. What's D*'s retaliation, removing the Starz!/Encore channels from Comcast? I wouldn't put it past Comcast to yank USA and SyFy and all the other NBC-U channels if that horrible deal goes through.

Seems like ultimately D* has more to lose with this tit-for-tat mess than C*.


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## grooves12 (Oct 27, 2005)

Because the Regional Sports Networks... are JUST that, NETWORKS. They have affiliate agreements in place, and likely have long-term contracts signed for names and programming. So, first they have to follow the terms of the agreement, including any provisions (if they exist) for terminating the agreement.

Then, they would have to find solution for all of the programming. They would need to replace all FSN programming with programming of their own. Since DSN is a new entity, I doubt they have replacement programming just sitting there waiting for them.

It is not simply a matter of changing their name.


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## grooves12 (Oct 27, 2005)

Tom Servo said:


> Guess I'm the only one who thinks this is a bad thing. I don't want *any *service provider owning *any* network, period.
> 
> Then again, if D* brings the hammer down on Comcast, and Comcast responds in kind, maybe it will spur some legislation in Congress to prevent this crap from happening.


I thought I read somewhere Congress was already investigating the matters... but yes, I too agree it is a bad thing for service providers to own content.


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## ajc68 (Jan 23, 2008)

Tom Servo said:


> Guess I'm the only one who thinks this is a bad thing. I don't want *any *service provider owning *any* network, period.


In a perfect world that would be the case... D* has been getting the short end from C* for some time now. The way the system works, it would get only worse for D* unless they made a counter move (including the power play with Versus). Now that C* has a lot to loose, let's see if they finally cave. If this happens, everybody should finally get what they want. But we are dealing with C*, so we'll see just how stubborn they can really be.


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## Santi360HD (Oct 6, 2008)

bottom line is this...without versus DirecTV as a company are followers...not leaders...


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Santi360HD said:


> bottom line is this...without versus DirecTV as a company are followers...not leaders...


I get that you like one of the sports on VS but this statement is very inaccurate. No other provider has more sports. VS is the place where sports that can't sustain themself on mainstream channels go. Not a dig at these sports but just a financial fact.

What's the % of total hockey games that are lost without CI and with CI? PBR just had it's final event of the season. Tour De France is a week long once a year. These are all niche sports and while they have fans, and their fans want to see them, it barely makes a ripple when compared to all of the other sports that DirecTV has.

Sorry you can't watch the sports you want to watch.

Anyways there's a whole thread you can talk about not being able to see VS. This has to do with DirecTV now owning these 3 FSN's.


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## Ronmort (Apr 23, 2002)

Maybe DTv will finally allow FSN Pittsburgh to be an RSN in the Wilkes-Barre--Scranton area for free instead of having to purchase the sports pack to get that channel. FSN Pittsburgh is on Comcast's basic service in the area but not DTV.


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## Santi360HD (Oct 6, 2008)

i was only commenting on "the leader in sports" cliche as it is in this thread, scroll back...I'm well aware of the VS on DTV seperate thread..game on and peace out..


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## loudo (Mar 24, 2005)

Ronmort said:


> Maybe DTv will finally allow FSN Pittsburgh to be an RSN in the Wilkes-Barre--Scranton area for free instead of having to purchase the sports pack to get that channel. FSN Pittsburgh is on Comcast's basic service in the area but not DTV.


Coverage areas are determined by the leagues, not the network owner. In other words the NHL determines what the coverage area is for the Pittsburgh Pens and tells the owners of FSN Pittsburgh what zip codes are allowed to see Pens games, as the local market.


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## lman12 (May 23, 2007)

kevinwmsn said:


> Good, maybe Comcast can give it exclusive access to Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast as well as the other above channels.


Now us sports fans may even get to see DirecTv and Comcast play nice with each other. If so, it can only be better for everyone.


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## DCSholtis (Aug 7, 2002)

Tom Servo said:


> Guess I'm the only one who thinks this is a bad thing. I don't want *any *service provider owning *any* network, period.
> 
> Then again, if D* brings the hammer down on Comcast, and Comcast responds in kind, maybe it will spur some legislation in Congress to prevent this crap from happening.
> 
> ...


Comcrap is one of the co-owners of the MLB Network along with Directv and MLB so there is no way they could pull it unilaterally.


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## Ronmort (Apr 23, 2002)

loudo said:


> Coverage areas are determined by the leagues, not the network owner. In other words the NHL determines what the coverage area is for the Pittsburgh Pens and tells the owners of FSN Pittsburgh what zip codes are allowed to see Pens games, as the local market.


The Pens and Pirates are teams allowed to be seen by the leagues in the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton zips, but to see them on DTV, one must subscribe to the Sports Pack.


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## bertjo44 (Jan 14, 2009)

I wonder if they could (with leaving the regional networks in place) also create a new national channel that shows the best from each of the regional broadcasts.


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## Thaedron (Jun 29, 2007)

Tom Servo said:


> Guess I'm the only one who thinks this is a bad thing. I don't want *any *service provider owning *any* network, period.
> 
> Then again, if D* brings the hammer down on Comcast, and Comcast responds in kind, maybe it will spur some legislation in Congress to prevent this crap from happening.
> 
> ...


I don't think it's a bad thing, I think it's a HORRIBLE thing. Distribution and content ownership should IMO remain seperate. Any individual should have equal opportunity and equal access to content regardless of their provider's ownership status.


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## Laker44 (Jun 18, 2008)

lwilli201 said:


> Would some one explain how Directv can own/control FSN regional channels. Does FSN produce the programming on FSN Northwest, FSN Pittsburgh and FSN Rocky Mountain?


This is the history of FSN Pittsburgh it started out as KBL,which was owned by Prime Network,which was an RSN owned by Liberty Media.Then in 1993 Liberty,NBC and Cablevision created a new venture called Prime SportsChannels America sharing programming and sales agreements between Prime and SportsChannel America. In 1996, Liberty Media sold 50 percent of their regional Prime Sports channels to News Corporation creating Fox Sports Net and a new company, FOX/Liberty Networks. In 1997, FOX/Liberty merged with SportsChannel America creating National Sports Partners, and the Prime Network and SportsChannel names were dropped for the FSN name nationwide.

In 2007, Liberty bought back FSN Pittsburgh, FSN Rocky Mountain, and FSN Northwest from News Corporation,but they maintained the FSN affiliate status.


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## stewdog1 (Sep 6, 2007)

So how will this effect us subscribers? Will these channels be added to our current plans? Do you still have to purchase Center Ice and MLB Innings in order to see the content?

It would be sweet if Directv would just add these channels to their packages with the ability to watch the games broadcast as well.


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## gregjones (Sep 20, 2007)

Santi360HD said:


> bottom line is this...without versus DirecTV as a company are followers...not leaders...


You vastly overestimate the ratings for Versus. How many customers do you believe will make a satellite provider decision based on Versus availability? What percentage of DirecTV's customer base do you believe that represents?

Now, what percentage of Versus viewers do you think DirecTV represents? If the (DirecTV Versus viewers as a percentage of all Versus viewers) is greater than (Versus viewers that will leave DirecTV as a percentage of all DirecTV subscribers), Versus has already lost.


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## lwilli201 (Dec 22, 2006)

stewdog1 said:


> So how will this effect us subscribers? Will these channels be added to our current plans? Do you still have to purchase Center Ice and MLB Innings in order to see the content?
> 
> It would be sweet if Directv would just add these channels to their packages with the ability to watch the games broadcast as well.


Viewing areas are dictated by the league/teams so do not count on that happening.


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## creesh (Jul 13, 2004)

DirecTV. please bring back Savran on Sportsbeat in Pittsburgh! Liberty pulled the plug last summer after like 20 years. I cancelled the Sports Pack the next day.


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## sunfire9us (Feb 15, 2009)

I would have to say if DTV could get say a few more of the Rsn's this would really force Comcrap to totally think differently. No longer would Comcrap get away with that **** concerning CSN Philly for one thing next to VS.This current situation may just even the tables between both sides and finally make both sides have to finally allow carriage access to ALL of the sports channels for a change.


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## c_perrone (Dec 22, 2004)

creesh said:


> DirecTV. please bring back Savran on Sportsbeat in Pittsburgh! Liberty pulled the plug last summer after like 20 years. I cancelled the Sports Pack the next day.


AND please bring back Mike Lange on the TV side for the Penguins. I can't stand the current announcers much longer....


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## JoeTheDragon (Jul 21, 2008)

sunfire9us said:


> I would have to say if DTV could get say a few more of the Rsn's this would really force Comcrap to totally think differently. No longer would Comcrap get away with that **** concerning CSN Philly for one thing next to VS.This current situation may just even the tables between both sides and finally make both sides have to finally allow carriage access to ALL of the sports channels for a change.


they should buy out comcast 20% of csn Chicago before nbc / comcast is able to take all fun / is own (full HD studio) and local shows out or even better people in the area need to tell the blackhawks / bulls / sox / and cubs that they don't want comcast to mess up there rsn and the teams are 80% part owners so they do have a lot of power there.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

Just a bit of history as it pertains to FSN Northwest in all this mix (as others, in the other RSN areas have chimed in on those), but FSN-NW was one of the first RSN's, along with YES and NESN, to carry (through DirecTV) a large percentage of baseball games in HD, quickly ramping up to 100% )both home and away games) some 4+ years ago, even before DirecTV10 allowed nationwide coverage (the RSN's were carried via the Spaceways on spot beams before that point, I'm sure folks in NY/NE remember those days).

In short, right there on the 'bleeding edge', a really superior RSN.


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## SWTESTER (Apr 7, 2004)

JoeTheDragon said:


> they should buy out comcast 20% of csn Chicago before nbc / comcast is able to take all fun / is own (full HD studio) and local shows out or even better people in the area need to tell the blackhawks / bulls / sox / and cubs that they don't want comcast to mess up there rsn and the teams are 80% part owners so they do have a lot of power there.


You said it. How can Comcast mess up CSN Chicago? The Chicago teams control 80% of CSN Chicago and could easily buy out Comcast, especially these days. The objective is great sports coverage on all providers.


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