2023-24 NBA and NHL seasons

[Viper550 268]

The NHL preseason has begun, and we've already got Monumental's new graphics

 

 

A little big for my liking, but it's pretty much just a flatter version of the ESPN one so there's nothing revolutionary here.

Edited October 6, 2023 by Viper550

[Georgie56 3059]

Here's the Scripps Sports scorebug.

 

And here it is in motion:

 

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Georgie56

[Georgie56 3059]

ABC adding midweek NBA games in January.

 

https://x.com/paulsen_smw/status/1708875698834682362?s=20

[Viper550 268]

In a move surprising absolutely no one, SportsNet Pittsburgh has been downgraded to the NESN graphics. Seeing that tiny thing without "BOS" somewhere is a little surreal, but when you have 80% of the package done already because the Bruins have the same colors...

 

 

[nycnewsjunkie 1395]

2 hours ago, Viper550 said:

In a move surprising absolutely no one, SportsNet Pittsburgh has been downgraded to the NESN graphics. Seeing that tiny thing without "BOS" somewhere is a little surreal, but when you have 80% of the package done already because the Bruins have the same colors...

 

 

They completely changed out the booth too. I guess Fenway wanted to bring in their own people.

[CTrey98 26]

3 hours ago, Viper550 said:

In a move surprising absolutely no one, SportsNet Pittsburgh has been downgraded to the NESN graphics. Seeing that tiny thing without "BOS" somewhere is a little surreal, but when you have 80% of the package done already because the Bruins have the same colors...

 

 

Not a shock. Like I said with the ACC deal on The CW, there was no time to put together a new package. Once they announced that NESN would take over their operations, it was pretty obvious their look was going to be like this. AT&T SportsNet literally pulled the rip cord on them so they had to act fast if they wanted to keep the network on the air. Maybe they'll change their look next season. NESN definitely needs an upgrade anyway. Their look is way too boring. Either way tho, I can definitely see NESN and SportsNet Pittsburgh using the same package no matter what going forward.

[Spring Rubber 609]

21 hours ago, CTrey98 said:

Not a shock. Like I said with the ACC deal on The CW, there was no time to put together a new package. Once they announced that NESN would take over their operations, it was pretty obvious their look was going to be like this. AT&T SportsNet literally pulled the rip cord on them so they had to act fast if they wanted to keep the network on the air. Maybe they'll change their look next season. NESN definitely needs an upgrade anyway. Their look is way too boring. Either way tho, I can definitely see NESN and SportsNet Pittsburgh using the same package no matter what going forward.

Thinking back over the past ~15 years, I don't think NESN has ever had good graphics. Their current score bug looks like it was made in 5 mins, and their lower thirds feel like a knockoff of the 2017-2020 Fox Sports package.

[CTrey98 26]

6 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

Thinking back over the past ~15 years, I don't think NESN has ever had good graphics. Their current score bug looks like it was made in 5 mins, and their lower thirds feel like a knockoff of the 2017-2020 Fox Sports package.

Actually, this look from 2015 was pretty good. Had a lot more team colors and logos added to it. They should've kept this style and modify it but instead, they dumbed it down way too much.

[Georgie56 3059]

The Coyotes have left Bally Sports Arizona for Scripps.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by 24994J

[24994J 5269]

Nobody started a dedicated 2023-24 NHL/NBA thread? I'm shocked.

[mrschimpf 2051]

Still the preseason for the NHL; we usually start those threads at the start of the season.

[atlnews2 557]

6 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

The Coyotes have left Bally Sports Arizona for Scripps.

 

 

interesting that the Scripps AZ CW stations don’t appear to be involved with this. I guess the network commitments made it impossible 

[T.L. Hughes 746]

On 10/5/2023 at 8:44 PM, atlnews2 said:

interesting that the Scripps AZ CW stations don’t appear to be involved with this. I guess the network commitments made it impossible 

I dunno, it would have been feasible to delay CW programming until late evening, once game-delayed editions of KASW and KWBA’s prime time newscasts concluded.

 

By not putting the games on KASW and KWBA, Scripps put the Coyotes at somewhat of a coverage disadvantage in comparison to the Suns and Mercury, given that KTVK (which is/will be carrying most of their games) has distribution on satellite, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream, while KNXV and KGUN’s DT2 subchannels (due to them being Antenna TV and Laff affiliates, respectively) as well as KUPX and KSTU-DT2 in Salt Lake City (both of which will be alternating carriage of Coyotes telecasts there, and the latter lacking satellite and vMVPD coverage for the same reason as KNXV and KGUN subs) have no pay TV distribution beyond cable in their respective markets. Between this issue and the Coyotes planning to launch their own streaming service for the games, some ‘Yotes fans (read: those that subscribe to satellite or DirecTV Stream) have good reason now to cord-cut. (Cable subs in those areas just have to switch to a different channel.)

 

Although I saw the writing on the wall for Bally Sports Arizona when the Diamondbacks, Suns and Mercury all ditched, it’s interesting they didn’t choose to carry on with the Coyotes, other than for financial reasons. It wouldn’t have been the only Bally Sports network to center around just one team, given that former owner News Corp/Fox built four of the RSNs around just the Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder (only the San Diego service has lost the rights to their sole team thus far), while compensating for the lack of other team rights by carrying games from the sister RSNs they spun off from. (The New Orleans and Oklahoma feeds were both spun from Fox Sports/Bally Sports Southwest when the Thunder and Pelicans relocated from Seattle and Charlotte, while the Kansas City and San Diego feeds were spun from from Fox Sports/Bally Sports Midwest and Fox Sports/Bally Sports West when the Royals shut down their broadcast/cable syndication service and the Padres cut ties with Cox’s 4SD local access channel, respectively.)

Edited October 10, 2023 by T.L. Hughes

[Viper550 268]

TNT did a slight, curious change to their branding, with the scoreboard now having a "TNT Sports" logo

 

 

Which, in turn, seems a bit similar to the new TNT Sports branding introduced in the UK

[CTrey98 26]

1 hour ago, T.L. Hughes said:

I dunno, it would have been feasible to delay CW programming until late evening, once game-delayed editions of KASW and KWBA’s prime time newscasts concluded.

 

By not putting the games on KASW and KWBA, Scripps put the Coyotes at somewhat of a coverage disadvantage in comparison to the Suns and Mercury, given that KTVK (which is/will be carrying most of their games) has distribution on satellite, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream, while KNXV and KGUN’s DT2 subchannels (due to them being Antenna TV and Laff affiliates, respectively) as well as KUPX and KSTU-DT2 in Salt Lake City (both of which will be alternating carriage of Coyotes telecasts there, and the latter lacking satellite and vMVPD coverage for the same reason as KNXV and KGUN subs) have no pay TV distribution beyond cable in their respective markets. Between this issue and the Coyotes planning to launch their own streaming service for the games, some ‘Yotes fans (read: those that subscribe to satellite or DirecTV Stream) have good reason now to cord-cut. (Cable subs in those areas just have to switch to a different channel.)

 

Although I saw the writing on the wall for Bally Sports Arizona when the Diamondbacks, Suns and Mercury all ditched, it’s interesting they didn’t choose to carry on with the Coyotes, other than for financial reasons. It wouldn’t have been the only Bally Sports network to center around just one team, given that former owner News Corp/Fox built four of the RSNs around just the Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder (only the San Diego service has lost the rights to their sole team thus far), while compensating for the lack of other team rights by carrying games from the sister RSNs they spun off from. (The New Orleans and Oklahoma feeds were both spun from Fox Sports/Bally Sports Southwest when the Thunder and Pelicans began play as NBA expansion teams, while the Kansas City and San Diego feeds were spun from from Fox Sports/Bally Sports Midwest and Fox Sports/Bally Sports West when the Royals shut down their broadcast/cable syndication service and the Padres cut ties with Cox’s 4SD local access channel, respectively.)

Bally Sports is a sinking ship at the moment. The Coyotes are just the first of many NHL Bally affiliates starting to leave. The network made the games impossible to watch. Very few TV providers to get it from and a streaming service that is too expensive and not worth the price given the technical quality and network IP the brand had to offer to the average fan. Not only that but with the Suns going to a OTA station like KTVK, if fans had to choose between two teams playing at the same time, you better believe they'll go for the one that's free to watch in the area. Although this station is a subchannel, it has the capability to reach a bigger audience than Bally's because of how easy it is to access.

[T.L. Hughes 746]

1 hour ago, CTrey98 said:

Bally Sports is a sinking ship at the moment. The Coyotes are just the first of many NHL Bally affiliates starting to leave. The network made the games impossible to watch. Very few TV providers to get it from and a streaming service that is too expensive and not worth the price given the technical quality and network IP the brand had to offer to the average fan. Not only that but with the Suns going to a OTA station like KTVK, if fans had to choose between two teams playing at the same time, you better believe they'll go for the one that's free to watch in the area. Although this station is a subchannel, it has the capability to reach a bigger audience than Bally's because of how easy it is to access.

This, however, poses a Catch-22 for Scripps. The subchannels that will carry the Coyotes games don’t have satellite or vMVPDs to rely on for additional distribution, unlike with KTVK (which has enough available options to view most Suns and Mercury games shown on the station that it mitigates any risk to the revenue stream Gray gets from its pay-TV carriage). Dish and DirecTV/DTV Stream subscribers thus would have to resort to either using an antenna or switching to a cable provider that carries the subchannels (e.g., Cox) to see the games. (Reception issues come into play for residents living in hillier regions of Arizona served by KNXV, KGUN and certain translators of theirs; luckily, the planned Coyotes streaming service will be an available backup option for those who have trouble receiving the OTA signals reliably.)

 

Thus, Scripps would technically be risking taking a loss in subscriber fees from defecting customers of providers that carried BSAZ that can’t view the KNXV/KGUN subchannels on their lineup, a risk that it could mitigate by putting the games on the wider-distributed CW stations it owns in Phoenix and Tucson. Scripps and other station groups still rely on that revenue, even as the un-level carriage negotiating power by media companies (through the poorly regulated and long-broken retransmission consent structure) is responsible for accelerating the downturn of the pay-TV ecosystem.

Edited October 6, 2023 by T.L. Hughes

[nickp 294]

Bally Sports lost San Diego earlier this year and now all of Arizona First a city now a Whole State

[mrschimpf 2051]

It should be noted that the Coyotes and Scripps will eventually have an in-market streaming option in the coming weeks, so that will eventually be covered.

 

The big thing I'm worried about in the meantime is those subchannels better be upgraded to 720p at the very least by opening night because hockey is not a good sport in standard def to watch. You'd have to assume by next season too that KASW will be converted to a KMCC-esque indie with CW moving to KNXV-DT2 to better accommodate the games; it was just way too late to do anything last-minute.

 

But at the very least in Salt Lake City, which is getting both the Golden Knights and Coyotes, along with the Jazz on KJZZ for free TV options, along with Phoenix overall, you're a very happy winter sports fan.

[Georgie56 3059]

A look at the new Suns scorebug. 

 

They also brought back the old KUTP theme.

 

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by Georgie56

[Big Rollo Smokes 180]

On 10/5/2023 at 10:16 PM, T.L. Hughes said:

...The New Orleans and Oklahoma feeds were both spun from Fox Sports/Bally Sports Southwest when the Thunder and Pelicans began play as NBA expansion teams...

 

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the relocated Seattle SuperSonics.

 

The New Orleans Pelicans are technically the relocated (original) Charlotte Hornets, who moved to N.O. in 2002–03 then got displaced by Hurricane Katrina and played their home games in OKC for two seasons, setting the stage for the Sonics' move shortly thereafter. After the Bobcats/Hornets/Pelicans name change, the NBA retroactively turned the Pelicans into an "expansion franchise" by transferring the pre-'01–'02 Hornets records and history to their successor team in Charlotte, the former (expansion) Bobcats.

Edited October 10, 2023 by Big Rollo Smokes

[T.L. Hughes 746]

47 minutes ago, Big Rollo Smokes said:

 

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the relocated Seattle SuperSonics.

 

The New Orleans Pelicans are technically the relocated (original) Charlotte Hornets, who moved to N.O. in 2002–03 then got displaced by Hurricane Katrina and played their home games in OKC for two seasons, setting the stage for the Sonics' move shortly thereafter. After the Bobcats/Hornets/Pelicans name change, the NBA retroactively turned the Pelicans into an "expansion franchise" by transferring the pre-'01–'02 Hornets records and history to their successor team in Charlotte, the former (expansion) Bobcats.

Thanks for the correction.

 

Remembering how the Thunder move went about, the Sonics name and trademarks remained in Seattle for use by a future expansion franchise; the Clay Bennett-led ownership group also agreed to share the Sonics’ team history between the Thunder and a future Seattle franchise. So, the (original) Hornets not allowing for a similar arrangement with the city of Charlotte before the fact looks like they were less sure that Charlotte would snag a new expansion team (and agree to build a new stadium) down the line.

Edited October 10, 2023 by T.L. Hughes

[AaronQ 259]

ESPN announced that the great Barry Melrose has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and is stepping away from the network. 

 

 

[CTrey98 26]

First Rockets telecast on Space City Home Network and they are apparently carrying over the AT&T graphics package with them. Highly doubt this is permanent since the logo doesn't fit the scorebug very well. Maybe they are just buying themselves time until the regular season or at least until next baseball season. 

 

 

[T.L. Hughes 746]

The San Antonio Spurs have cut a deal with Tegna to broadcast 11 regular season games on KENS this season, starting with the November 20 home game against the Los Angeles Clippers. All of the games (including the lone non-prime time game, a February 10 away game against the Brooklyn Nets scheduled for a 5:00 tip-off) will preempt CBS prime time programming in some capacity on those dates.

 

Bally Sports Southwest’s San Antonio-area feed will carry 61 other regionally exclusive Spurs telecasts for 2023–24, while four additional games (presumably produced by BSSW) will be broadcast locally on WOAI-DT2. (In its article about the KENS deal, NextTV misidentified the secondary OTA carrier as KMYS, failing to recognize Sinclair’s 2021 decision to move that station’s CW and syndicated programming to a WOAI subchannel.)

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by T.L. Hughes

[Viper550 268]

 

The Jazz, looks a bit Bally-esque