Comcast Weighs Rival to ESPN

[MrRant 0]

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable operator, may be weighing a sports network to challenge the leadership of ESPN, according to a published report.

 

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Comcast may try to turn its niche Outdoor Life Network into a more broad-based sports network. At first it would need to land rights to broadcast games from the National Hockey League and National Football League to give it the sports programming it needs to attract viewers and greater cable distribution.

 

The NFL has recently signed broadcast rights deals with ESPN that run through 2013 and three broadcast networks that run through 2011 to carry most of its games. But the NFL will offer Thursday and Saturday night games late in the season starting in the 2006 season.

 

Comcast is in talks to broadcast those Thursday and Saturday games, according to the report, for as much as $400 million a year. The Journal reported that in one scenario under discussion, Comcast would give the NFL an equity stake in the rebranded sports channel.

 

OLN would need to increase its reach in order to be competitive for NFL games. It now reaches about 61 million homes. But it expects to reach 67 million homes by the end of 2005 with its current programming lineup, which includes the Tour de France, the Boston Marathon and professional bull riding.

 

Comcast bid for ESPN owner Walt Disney in early 2004, partly attracted by Disney's profitable cable networks, led by the ESPN brand. Broadcasting NFL Sunday night games starting in 1987 was a key to building the ESPN franchise, and in 2006 the cable network will start broadcasting "Monday Night Football," which had long been a staple of Disney-owned broadcast network ABC.

 

A less expensive and more immediate entry into team sports could be the NHL, which lost its entire 2004-05 season to a labor dispute. ESPN declined an option to carry NHL games this season under a pre-lockout rights deal, although the Journal reports it is interested in a new, lower-priced deal. It would have paid about $70 million for the NHL games on cable under that earlier deal. But the NHL will be scrambling to find a cable outlet for its season that starts in October.

 

OLN's most popular program is the Tour de France, the bicycle race that drew about 1.5 million daily viewers in 2004 and saw up to a 30 percent increase in viewership this year.

 

But with American rider Lance Armstrong expected to retire after winning his seventh straight title on Sunday, the Tour's viewership is expected to fall sharply next year.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/27/technology..._sportsnetwork/

 

Personally I'd like to see a challenge to ESPN and the EOE bullshit.

[Ripper 0]

I wish they would look into giving stable internet and cable serive first.

[MrRant 0]

You're just a bitter black man.

 

That and Atlanta's infastructure sucks in general and the city is a pain in the ass to work with.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

So... the people who don't subscribe to Comcast would miss out on NHL and some NFL? Fuck that.

[MrRant 0]

You're a fucking idiot.

 

Do you have OLN? Did you READ the motherfucking article?

 

Comcast OWNS OLN and is considering changing it's format.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

If you're talking to me, then no I don't have OLN...

[MrRant 0]

Then it's your cable operator/sat provider's issue. OLN is in about 60-67 million homes which is more than just Comcast.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Right, which pisses me off. Gahd, I'd like to watch NHL and those Thursday/Saturday NFL games...

[MrRant 0]

I would believe that if the channel does end up getting the NFL, your cable provider would add it to their lineup as that would be a big selling point and you wouldn't want the customers to leave to get it.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I would believe that if the channel does end up getting the NFL, your cable provider would add it to their lineup as that would be a big selling point and you wouldn't want the customers to leave to get it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I hope you're right. If not, it's time for a cable provider change.

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

I am 100% in support of this. Fuck the ESPN hegemony.

[Ripper 0]

You're just a bitter black man.

 

That and Atlanta's infastructure sucks in general and the city is a pain in the ass to work with.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yet every other cable provider seemed to do just fine. Comcastfucking sucks.

[Guest Vitamin X]

This seems like a good idea. I've never had a problem with the company itself, and I for one, welcome our new Comcast overlords.

[Art Sandusky 0]

It's CNN's MSNBC. Who will create the Fox News one?

[UZI Suicide 0]

It didn't work when Fox Sports Net tried it with an entire MLB and NBA lineup backing them, complete with popular anchors from ESPN, and it won't work now with Comcast.

[MrRant 0]

?

 

Fox Sports Net is just more or less regional sports meshed under the same name and that is why you see MLB, NBA and Hockey for your local team. They did try and have a Sportscenterish show yes but they didn't really broadcast games that the whole nation would be able to watch.

 

Maybe a few baseball games.

[UZI Suicide 0]

When FSN first started out they weren't a regional network. They had the "National Sports Report" and a few other shows like that, and then had the regional MLB and NBA games. But they were mainly going heads up at ESPN trying to be the #1 sports network, when that failed they ditched the National Sports Report and went entirely to regional coverage, except for a couple of shows (best damn sports show, beyond the glory)

[MrRant 0]

*sigh*

 

You don't really know do you? FOX SPORTS NET is the rebranded Prime Sports and various other regional networks and they have a few national shows.

 

Lord.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I dont see how Comcast would handle a sports network any better than ESPN.

 

See the horrible G4/Techtv merger for a prime example of this.

 

Im still trying to figure out what "hot babes of drift racing with rappers" has to do with video games (street fury/formula D). Its pretty bad the only show they kept from TechTV was Anime Unleased. They basically bought TechTV to gain carriage of G4 on Directv/Dish Network and other cable cos that were carrying TechTV but not G4. Their awards show was only slightly better than that SpikeTV video game awards train wreck.

 

err..sidetrack over..

 

Anyway..it might sound like a good idea but in practice it will suck. ESPN isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. They had to add these drama shows (TILT for example) because they had a big chunk of their programming taken away with the loss of the NHL.

[UZI Suicide 0]

*sigh*

 

You don't really know do you?  FOX SPORTS NET is the rebranded Prime Sports and various other regional networks and they have a few national shows.

 

Lord.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Right, but when they first became Fox Sports Net their aim was to overtake ESPN as the top sports network. They figured they would do that with the nationally broadcasted sports recap shows and then regional NBA and MLB games. They hired Keith Olbermann and Chris Meyers, put them on the National Sports Report which ran head to head with Sportscenter in most markets.. gave Olbermann his own national show, etc. ESPN continued killing them in the ratings and FSN eventually ditched that whole idea, and stuck to total regional programming (southern california sports report, rocky mountain sports report, etc.)

[MrRant 0]

Yes. But it wasn't LIKE ESPN. What killed it was the regionalized aspect and no national telecasts of games like OLN will probably get. You get the NFL and hockey and you've got a base to build off.

[Art Sandusky 0]

They're making me concentrate way too much on what games are on what networks these days.

[The Czech Republic 0]

FSN always looks really low-budget to me.

[AboveAverage484 0]

You're just a bitter black man.

 

That and Atlanta's infastructure sucks in general and the city is a pain in the ass to work with.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Speaking of Atlanta traffic, a couple weeks ago I was driving to Birmingham from Asheville, NC and I got stuck in traffic in Atlanta. No surprise there, then suddenly the traffic stops and doesn't move for like ten minutes straight. There is this big billowing cloud of black smoke and I roll down my window and stick my head out and see this car on fire up ahead. Apparently it had just wrecked and caught on fire as there were no fire trucks or cherry tops or anything there.

 

So I sat there for about thirty minutes in the 150 degree downtown Atlanta freeway heat til I decided to turn my car back on because I needed some AC. Thankfully traffic finally started moving so I thought I was home free after that, until I hit I-20 and it was stop and go for like twenty more minutes until I was out of Atlanta. Damn I hate that city's interstates.

 

*Probably just described Ripper's everyday trip to work*

[the max 0]

FSN always looks really low-budget to me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The thing that drives me nuts about FSN/FOX are the little sound effects that they play in the split seconds while they list that night's lineup.

 

It's like:

 

And tonight for the Marlins...<sound of beeping starts, continues while it lists the names in the batting order>

 

And then when the inning starts, when they put up their score-tracker at the top of the screen, there's a whooshing noise and then the graphic comes up.

 

Little things like that drive me insane.

[The Czech Republic 0]

I know just what you mean, and I hate it. Sportscenter is guilty of a similar offense, as whenever they cut to break, the little Sportscenter SC logo has to zoom in, and make some whooshing and beeping, and then whoosh back out, then maybe some little lights flash around it, then it sort of flies backwards, and spins around maybe, and all this completely extraneous shit. Just cut to the damn break! It's the Derek Jeter of on-air graphics.

[MrRant 0]

CGI Motherfucker... CGI.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

*Probably just described Ripper's everyday trip to work*

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ripper probably doesn't have to travel that far to get his welfare check.

 

Oh, and anything that attempts to give ESPN competition is a good thing...