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Sinclair's American Sports Network debuts today


Viper550

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Today, Sinclair dips its toes into a market that only ESPN and Raycom have really gotten deep into, with the launch of its American Sports Network operation. I'm curious to see how things will go; unfortunately, however, I can't. Mainly because the only Sinclair station I get on cable here is KOMO, and they're putting it on their This TV subchannel (which we don't get in Canada, period. Although the Toronto folk will get to see it on WNYO/Buffalo, at least). Old Dominion/Hampton and FIU/Bethune-Cookman

 

 

The quality of this teaser actually looks sufficient; I hope their games look like they actually have a decent production budget...

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Some of their stations have added High School Football on either Thursday or Friday Nights under the "Friday Night Rivals" brand.

 

 

Wow. It's 2014 and we're still doing the "camera pointed at the scoreboard" clock.

 

And in this case with High School Football, the scoreboards (and the stations putting these games on) often lack the ability to sync the data with the character generator.

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Wow. It's 2014 and we're still doing the "camera pointed at the scoreboard" clock.

Some of their stations have added High School Football on either Thursday or Friday Nights under the "Friday Night Rivals" brand.

 

 

 

And in this case with High School Football, the scoreboards (and the stations putting these games on) often lack the ability to sync the data with the character generator.

I wonder why can't the production truck create their own clock? It would be one or two seconds off but it's really not any different than how they are doing the scoring if there is not scoreboard interface system.

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Some of their stations have added High School Football on either Thursday or Friday Nights under the "Friday Night Rivals" brand.

 

 

And in this case with High School Football, the scoreboards (and the stations putting these games on) often lack the ability to sync the data with the character generator.

 

WCGV brands their High School games as "Thursday Night Lights" and apparently KYMS does too now, as the WCGV website links to the KYMS TNL Facebook page instead of theirs.
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WCGV brands their High School games as "Thursday Night Lights" and apparently KYMS does too now, as the WCGV website links to the KYMS TNL Facebook page instead of theirs.

 

KMYS always has branded theirs Thursday Night Lights. The body that oversees high school sports in Texas, the UIL, prohibits live telecasts of high school football games in order to protect ticket sales, but they permit Thursday or Saturday night games, hence KMYS airing Thursday games.
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

Bumping to point out American Sports Network has it's first pro sports deal....albeit on a regional basis.

 

I'm a little late posting this but, ASN and Real Salt Lake announced a deal late last month to televise all 26 non-national games for the 2015 MLS Season. KMYU will be the "home" station. In addition, All 26 of Real Salt Lake’s non-National TV games produced by ASN will appear live on Sinclair-owned affiliates including; KYUU Boise, ID; KVMY Las Vegas, NV; and KAME Reno, NV with pending opportunities for distribution in Albuquerque, Tucson and Phoenix.

 

Hopefully, this works out well and the Columbus Crew SC is paying attention. It would be great if they could swing a similar deal with ASN next year to replace their crappy deal with TWC that expires at the end of this season. It would give them clearance in (most of) Ohio. And, be a vast improvement over the previous deal with Fox Sports Ohio where they were bumped or placed on tape delay. Or, the current TWC deal where they traded that for smaller distribution being limited to TWC systems. Plus, they could give fans an "olive branch" by moving to OTA. Fingers crossed.

 

I think Sinclair and ASN might have found a nice little niche.

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Bumping to point out American Sports Network has it's first pro sports deal....albeit on a regional basis.

 

I'm a little late posting this but, ASN and Real Salt Lake announced a deal late last month to televise all 26 non-national games for the 2015 MLS Season. KMYU will be the "home" station. In addition, All 26 of Real Salt Lake’s non-National TV games produced by ASN will appear live on Sinclair-owned affiliates including; KYUU Boise, ID; KVMY Las Vegas, NV; and KAME Reno, NV with pending opportunities for distribution in Albuquerque, Tucson and Phoenix.

 

Hopefully, this works out well and the Columbus Crew SC is paying attention. It would be great if they could swing a similar deal with ASN next year to replace their crappy deal with TWC that expires at the end of this season. It would give them clearance in (most of) Ohio. And, be a vast improvement over the previous deal with Fox Sports Ohio where they were bumped or placed on tape delay. Or, the current TWC deal where they traded that for smaller distribution being limited to TWC systems. Plus, they could give fans an "olive branch" by moving to OTA. Fingers crossed.

 

I think Sinclair and ASN might have found a nice little niche.

 

Curious to see which stations they'll partner with in Phoenix, Tucson, and Phoenix. But you're right, this has a lot of potential in a lot of markets, particularly Columbus since they could just air those games on WWHO and maybe a few on WTTE as well as on their sister stations in Dayton and Cincinnati.

 

Their Northwest cluster is out because they only have the ABC affiliates in Seattle and Portland and their current deals are with station groups that have duopolies in those markets (Meredith in Portland and Tribune in Seattle) although the Spanish games for the Sounders air on KOMO 4.2.

 

Their only other possible opportunity would be the DC United. They currently only air on CSN Mid-Atlantic which means that Sinclair could offer to air it on WJLA/Newschannel 8 and possibly their stations in Baltimore, Richmond, Roanoke, and Norfolk. But then again, Comcast could offer to air some of the games on WRC in addition to the games they already air on CSN Mid-Atlantic and basically shutout Sinclair's chances of getting the rights to that too.

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I was going to post something yesterday but didn't bother. It appears that MASN has bought some of their broadcasts, one of them was a college basketball game between Grand Canyon University and USC Bakersfield. Both of which aren't that popular here in the mid Atlantic.

 

I was surprised to find out that they stream games on their website for free with no authentication needed. Perfect for the college student who may not have a cable login.

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Real Salt Lake, huh? Well, I must say I have no clue where they're going to go out here. They have a soccer academy in Casa Grande but otherwise they do need to sell soccer to an audience largely unfamiliar with RSL or MLS in general. We have a USL Pro team here but it's been dodgy at times.

 

My guesses: KTVK, KASW or KAZT in Phoenix, and KTTU or KWBA in Tucson.

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Real Salt Lake, huh? Well, I must say I have no clue where they're going to go out here. They have a soccer academy in Casa Grande but otherwise they do need to sell soccer to an audience largely unfamiliar with RSL or MLS in general. We have a USL Pro team here but it's been dodgy at times.

 

My guesses: KTVK, KASW or KAZT in Phoenix, and KTTU or KWBA in Tucson.

 

I went to a few Arizona United SC matches last season and they were great experiences. But there is no publicity (billboards, commercials, etc.)

 

I cannot see KASW because RSL's previous deal was with KTVX / KUCW. I would think Nexstar is very unhappy about losing the local rights and would refuse to have anything to do with this new deal. KAZT is probably the best option, not only with RSL but also with ASN's WAC package, giving GCU an over-the-air home of sorts in the Valley.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was going to post something yesterday but didn't bother. It appears that MASN has bought some of their broadcasts, one of them was a college basketball game between Grand Canyon University and USC Bakersfield. Both of which aren't that popular here in the mid Atlantic.

 

I was surprised to find out that they stream games on their website for free with no authentication needed. Perfect for the college student who may not have a cable login.

Yeah MASN also broadcast UNC Asheville at Gardner-Webb.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It is a touch of a bump but KAZT apparently picked up the ASN WAC package; it has a Grand Canyon University basketball game (the last one of the season) today. Grand Canyon has an agreement with Cox 7 (local cable) for game telecasts in various sports which is now in its second season; they also do the Rattlers, NAIA Arizona Christian University, and high school football, so it's not out of place for them.

 

As to the RSL distribution, I can't find stations in any of Phoenix, Tucson or ABQ that picked it up.

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It is a touch of a bump but KAZT apparently picked up the ASN WAC package; it has a Grand Canyon University basketball game (the last one of the season) today. Grand Canyon has an agreement with Cox 7 (local cable) for game telecasts in various sports which is now in its second season; they also do the Rattlers, NAIA Arizona Christian University, and high school football, so it's not out of place for them.

 

As to the RSL distribution, I can't find stations in any of Phoenix, Tucson or ABQ that picked it up.

 

Unless Titan TV is wrong, it didn't even air in Reno, Las Vegas, or Boise like they were supposed to either.

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  • 1 month later...

ASN just acquired some more content as they signed a contract with the Atlantic 10 conference which includes basketball games next season.

 

http://www.atlantic10.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31600&ATCLID=210054498

 

One of the biggest winners in this whole thing might be KDNL since Saint Louis University is part of the Atlantic 10 conference.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The American Sports Network, now with minor league baseball. They'll now have a Sunday MiLB game of the week beginning May 31 and two A-level all-star games.

Looks like they're going to showcase most, if not all, of the Minor League associations. TBH, I wish they could expand it more so that I might see the Mahoning Valley Scrappers on TV.
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