FSN New England to be taken over by Comcast?

[2004RedSox]

The following was in Sports Business Journal yesterday. Looks like FSN New England could change to Comcast SportsNet N.E. Anyone have any additional info?

Comcast Nears Deal To Acquire Rainbow Media’s Stakes In RSNs

Comcast is in final negotiations to buy out Rainbow Media’s stake in FSN Bay Area and FSN New England— a “move that accelerates the cable operator’s strategy to develop a footprint” of RSNs across the U.S., according to John Ourand in this week’s SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Although the deal is still “several weeks away from being completed,” both sides have “agreed on the move that would have Comcast buying out” Rainbow’s 60% stake in FSN Bay Area and Rainbow’s 50% stake in FSN New England. FSN owns the remaining 40% of the Bay Area channel, and Comcast and Rainbow share ownership of the New England channel. Both RSNs will “likely be rebranded as Comcast SportsNet.” Ourand notes Comcast “may not be done, as it’s likely to acquire the three RSNs that News Corp. flipped to Liberty Media as part of the DirecTV deal late last year.” Those networks are in markets — Denver, Pittsburgh and Seattle — where Comcast is the “dominant cable operator.” Industry sources said that Liberty will “likely wait two to three years to sell those RSNs to Comcast, to take advantage of complicated tax breaks” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/19 issue).

 

[raccoonradio]

more via today's Globe
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/02/27/comcast_shooting_for_celtics/

 

[reject]

When this deal infact goes through, when do you think we'll see the changes to the station? IE graphic wise.

 

[brightonboris]

When this deal infact goes through, when do you think we'll see the changes to the station? IE graphic wise.

It will probably look like any other Comcast SportsNet regional network.
I can't believe that FSN NE is worth as much as they claim in the papers.
They only have the Celtics who get around 0.0 these days share because
they're awful. They even lost the Revs to TV38. They don't have any local spring/summer sports team programming. I imagine they'll retain FSN affiliation, too.


In any case, if Comcast buys out Cablevision, they'll probably do a cutover to CSN around the start of the next Celtics season which is October/November.

 

[2004RedSox]

Regarding FSNNE worth, remember that the regional network is available in approx. 4.5 million homes throughout New England. Subscription rates alone generate a boat load of revenue. Regarding the programming, the Celtics are actually around 25% ahead of last year in terms of ratings. There is a lot of fan interest in the team this year with all the young players. A lot of games are doing between 2 and 3 HH ratings. The regional sports news programs like Sports Tonight and New England Tailgate beat out NESN's news programs on a regular basis. Finally, regarding the Revs, good luck to TV38. The 0.0 shares you speak of for the Celtics actually belong to the Revs. 

 

[brightonboris]

Regarding FSNNE worth, remember that the regional network is available in approx. 4.5 million homes throughout New England. Subscription rates alone generate a boat load of revenue. Regarding the programming, the Celtics are actually around 25% ahead of last year in terms of ratings. There is a lot of fan interest in the team this year with all the young players. A lot of games are doing between 2 and 3 HH ratings. The regional sports news programs like Sports Tonight and New England Tailgate beat out NESN's news programs on a regular basis. Finally, regarding the Revs, good luck to TV38. The 0.0 shares you speak of for the Celtics actually belong to the Revs.

If you knew anything about the Revs situation you'd not make fun of their ratings.
Krafties buy airtime so any local outlet that carries them doesn't really mind low ratings.
The check clears and that's what matters. Anyway, that's a loss of revenue for FSN.
As for the C's, their ratings are only up slightly this season because everyone wants to see them lose which is pretty twisted in itself. C's ratings were in 2's last season so it's not much of an improvement.

FSN New England is half-owned by Comcast which is a monopoly in New England.
It can charge itself per-subscriber fees but with 2.0-3.0 rating for the C's
it can't charge for local ads as much as NESN which collects almost as much as ESPN
does in subscriber fees. Plus, NESN draws in the 5's with the weekday Sox game and charges way more for advertising than FSN could ever do with the hopeless C's.

 

[bostonmediaguy]

Regarding FSNNE worth, remember that the regional network is available in approx. 4.5 million homes throughout New England. Subscription rates alone generate a boat load of revenue. Regarding the programming, the Celtics are actually around 25% ahead of last year in terms of ratings. There is a lot of fan interest in the team this year with all the young players. A lot of games are doing between 2 and 3 HH ratings. The regional sports news programs like Sports Tonight and New England Tailgate beat out NESN's news programs on a regular basis. Finally, regarding the Revs, good luck to TV38. The 0.0 shares you speak of for the Celtics actually belong to the Revs.

Could TV38's deal with the Revs be tied to a long-term deal for Patriots' pre-season and associated programming for both 'BZ and 38?? 'CVB has been airing this programming for as long as I can remember, but since ABC no longer airs NFL games, the Krafts may wish to pursue other outlets.

 

[brightonboris]

Regarding FSNNE worth, remember that the regional network is available in approx. 4.5 million homes throughout New England. Subscription rates alone generate a boat load of revenue. Regarding the programming, the Celtics are actually around 25% ahead of last year in terms of ratings. There is a lot of fan interest in the team this year with all the young players. A lot of games are doing between 2 and 3 HH ratings. The regional sports news programs like Sports Tonight and New England Tailgate beat out NESN's news programs on a regular basis. Finally, regarding the Revs, good luck to TV38. The 0.0 shares you speak of for the Celtics actually belong to the Revs.

Could TV38's deal with the Revs be tied to a long-term deal for Patriots' pre-season and associated programming for both 'BZ and 38?? 'CVB has been airing this programming for as long as I can remember, but since ABC no longer airs NFL games, the Krafts may wish to pursue other outlets.

Patriots pre-season games are on WCVB, not on WBZ and TV38. They've been on Channel 5 since the Krafts bought the team in 93/94. Krafts are very happy with 5 and they're not going anywhere for a long time eventhough Paul LaCamera is no longer there. ABC may not carry MNF anymore but ESPN still does and if the Pats are on it(and they're at least once during the season) then 5 carries their game in the Boston market.

As for the Revs, they switched to 38 at the end of last season after Ansin bought 56. Revs had 2 games left on 56 but Ansin told Krafts they were free to seek another outlet in the market. They went out and bought time on 38. Kraft Sports Productions have bought the air time from anyone who'd sell it for cheap like FSN, WB56 or CN8 in the past. TV38 locked up the Revs for 2 years over the winter. Certainly the working relationship with Viacom on the Pats' Fifth Qtr doesnt' hurt but the Revs package with 38 is a separate deal.

 

[weee]

Instead of starting a new thread, I figured I'd ask this here.....Are The Whineys still going to be on FSNE? I heard they would a few weeks ago but haven't heard since.

 

[brightonboris]

Regarding FSNNE worth, remember that the regional network is available in approx. 4.5 million homes throughout New England. Subscription rates alone generate a boat load of revenue. Regarding the programming, the Celtics are actually around 25% ahead of last year in terms of ratings. There is a lot of fan interest in the team this year with all the young players. A lot of games are doing between 2 and 3 HH ratings. The regional sports news programs like Sports Tonight and New England Tailgate beat out NESN's news programs on a regular basis. Finally, regarding the Revs, good luck to TV38. The 0.0 shares you speak of for the Celtics actually belong to the Revs.

Revs actually got 1.0 share for their game last week and it's only beginning of the season. Celtics losers averaged 0.5 share in March and April. Comcast should've thought twice about paying all that money to Cablevision for the rights to showcase a franchise in shambles.

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/04/comcast_to_purc.html

 

[raccoonradio]

The deal is done

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=197763

"Cable company Comcast Corp. is buying up the remaining interest in sports channel FSN New England.
Comcast, which already owns half of FSN New England, is buying the remaining 50 percent as part of a $570 million cash deal with Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp. The deal will give Comcast full ownership of FSN New England - which is best known for broadcasting Boston Celtics games - and a 60 percent stake in FSN Bay Area."

 

[KML0224]

So I'm guessing that this will become Comcast SportsNet like they have now in Philadelphia?

 

[PaulRAnderson]

FSN New England is half-owned by Comcast which is a monopoly in New England.

What do you mean by saying Comcast is a monopoly? I've lived in three different places in New England the last ten years and never had Comcast as my cable company. Charter has most of the systems in central Massachusetts, and Time-Warner has some too.

FSN. I've never watched them. NESN and ESPN, yes, but I couldn't even tell you what channel number FSN is on, assuming it's even on my system.

Paul

 

[2004RedSox]

Regarding FSNNE worth, remember that the regional network is available in approx. 4.5 million homes throughout New England. Subscription rates alone generate a boat load of revenue. Regarding the programming, the Celtics are actually around 25% ahead of last year in terms of ratings. There is a lot of fan interest in the team this year with all the young players. A lot of games are doing between 2 and 3 HH ratings. The regional sports news programs like Sports Tonight and New England Tailgate beat out NESN's news programs on a regular basis. Finally, regarding the Revs, good luck to TV38. The 0.0 shares you speak of for the Celtics actually belong to the Revs.

Revs actually got 1.0 share for their game last week and it's only beginning of the season. Celtics losers averaged 0.5 share in March and April. Comcast should've thought twice about paying all that money to Cablevision for the rights to showcase a franchise in shambles.

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/04/comcast_to_purc.html

We'll see what happens after May 22nd (the day the ping pong balls drop)

 

[brightonboris]

Regarding FSNNE worth, remember that the regional network is available in approx. 4.5 million homes throughout New England. Subscription rates alone generate a boat load of revenue. Regarding the programming, the Celtics are actually around 25% ahead of last year in terms of ratings. There is a lot of fan interest in the team this year with all the young players. A lot of games are doing between 2 and 3 HH ratings. The regional sports news programs like Sports Tonight and New England Tailgate beat out NESN's news programs on a regular basis. Finally, regarding the Revs, good luck to TV38. The 0.0 shares you speak of for the Celtics actually belong to the Revs.

Revs actually got 1.0 share for their game last week and it's only beginning of the season. Celtics losers averaged 0.5 share in March and April. Comcast should've thought twice about paying all that money to Cablevision for the rights to showcase a franchise in shambles.

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/04/comcast_to_purc.html

We'll see what happens after May 22nd (the day the ping pong balls drop)

Judging on who currently owns, manages and coaches them....not much.

 

[KYLEBOOK]

I think this takeover of FSN by Comcast would also give the New York Mets an opportunity to start pushing their telecasts back into New England; Connecticut specifically.

Comcast owns & operates SportsNewYork, which I don't think is seen on too many cable systems north of New Haven or Meridan.

That would take care of the summer programming, not to mention bring FSN full circle back to what they did for many years - bring NY Mets cable telecasts into CT.

 

[KML0224]

You're probably right. Comcast in New Britain and Hartford does not carry SportsNewYork.

 

[brightonboris]

Regarding FSNNE worth, remember that the regional network is available in approx. 4.5 million homes throughout New England. Subscription rates alone generate a boat load of revenue. Regarding the programming, the Celtics are actually around 25% ahead of last year in terms of ratings. There is a lot of fan interest in the team this year with all the young players. A lot of games are doing between 2 and 3 HH ratings. The regional sports news programs like Sports Tonight and New England Tailgate beat out NESN's news programs on a regular basis. Finally, regarding the Revs, good luck to TV38. The 0.0 shares you speak of for the Celtics actually belong to the Revs.

Revs actually got 1.0 share for their game last week and it's only beginning of the season. Celtics losers averaged 0.5 share in March and April. Comcast should've thought twice about paying all that money to Cablevision for the rights to showcase a franchise in shambles.

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/04/comcast_to_purc.html

We'll see what happens after May 22nd (the day the ping pong balls drop)

Maybe Comcast should reconsider taking over FSN NE after what happenned tonight.
The Celtics will continue to be a snake-bitten franchise....I say average 0.0001 rating for C's games next year.

 

[2004RedSox]

We'll see about that brightonboris... the summer league games are pulling 1.5 ratings in key demos. With the addition of Ray Allen, if the team gets off to a quick start there will be a lot of fan interest.

 

[brightonboris]

We'll see about that brightonboris... the summer league games are pulling 1.5 ratings in key demos. With the addition of Ray Allen, if the team gets off to a quick start there will be a lot of fan interest.

Yes, we can all dream....