• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Phillies, Flyers and Sixers games on CN8: The Comcast Network

J

Jul

Guest
Good evening. If you live in the Philadelphia and Harrisburg markets and you have comcast and CN8, sometimes CN8 carries the Phillies, Flyers and Sixers games for those 2 markets whenever CSN Philly is occupied with live sports broadcast of a game with one of the teams. But here is the problem, people that have satellite, Verizon FIOS or live in a non-comcast area, they don't get CN8 and thus don't see the games. I would like to know why can't CBS 3, and the CW Philliy (WPSG 57) carry these games instead of CN8 so that way, everyone can see the games. BTW when CN8 does ads promoting the Phillies games, they say "If you have comcast, you'll get the game" or something like that. Thoughts on this?
 
I know Blue Ridge Cable in Stroudsburg and other areas of the Poconos carries some of the CN8 games on their local Blue Ridge TV 13 channel. I think they also carry some of the games from CW 57 broadcasts that are not carried on Comcast Sports Net Philadelphia. They don't carry the CW 57 from Philly but get CW 38 from Scranton and CW 11 WPIX (Mets games) from New York. 2 CWs is enough! They do a good job offering most of the Phillies, Mets, and Yankees games, offering CSN, SNY, YES networks, and all 3 in HD.
 
Julius, first of all, the over-the-air affiliates can't just pick up something they don't have the rights to. Period. Comcast SportsNet would have provisions in the contract designating CN8 as the overflow station in conflicts like these. What's more, the fans of the shows actually airing on CBS (and maybe for a few teenage girls, the CW) don't want their programs pre-empted.

Sometimes not everyone can have everything. That's life.
 
Comcast is the rights holder and can put the games on any channel they desire, whether it be their own SportsNet, their own CN8, or on an over-the-air signal (WPSG or KYW for Phils' opening day).

The frustration lies in that the only provider that provides all the signals mentioned above is Comcast. It's business, it's a competitive advantage for Comcast, and it likely helps Comcast to retain subscribers and reduce satellite penetration among pro sports fans in the Philadelphia market.

Verizon FIOS lacks CN8. The issue is magnified during playoff season when playoff games of the Sixers and Flyers bump the Phillies to CN8. At least Verizon was able to get carriage of CSN-Philadelphia.

The worst part of the current setup is that CN8 isn't available in hi-def. I get that it's not worth it to devote a 24-7 hi-def channel to CN8. However, its sports programming ought to be presented in hi-def over the Comcast-controlled MOJO on Comcast systems. Such an arrangement takes place in other cities where Comcast won't devote a 24-7 channel to a regional sports network presented a game in hi-def. Think North Jersey with Comcast carrying Devils HD coverage from MSG+ (formerly FSN-NY) via MOJO. Perfect situation to utilize the arrangement would have been the night where MOJO was showing NBATVHD's coverage of Sixers/Pistons, except in Philadelphia, where the coverage was blacked out due to CSN-Philadelphia carrying the same game. Phillies were bumped to CN8, and thus lacked hi-def coverage. Why not put the hi-def presentation over MOJO which had nothing but a slide covering up the blackout of NBATV on MOJO?

The point becomes moot if/when CN8HD ever becomes a reality.

My issue isn't the original poster's beef. Comcast can do whatever it wants with the games for which it has purchased rights. It's the lack of hi-def availability for rights that Comcast has monopolized that I take issue with most.
 
This was happening in Boston too. The Bruins and Red Sox are both on NESN. One of the teams was bumped to NESN+ which Comcast carried on CN8 up in New England, DirecTv had it on channel 660 (only in SD, no HD) and even FIOS had it. I'm sure Comcast could arrange with Verizon to carry the game on some channel in the Philly area. They could even make it avaliable to DirecTv (if they would let them show CSN-Philly). DirecTv has every other CSN regional network. Maybe Congress should look into this. They looked into the fact that MASN wasn't carried on Comcast in the DC area right when DC was getting its own baseball team.
 
does this all go back to Comcast Sportsnet being delivered through microwaves and not satellite? It still makes me mad that up here in New Hampshire I can't get CSN-Philadelphia through Directv because of the "grand-father" rule.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom