The Rockets are heading back to MY-20

[TroyG]

KTXH's package calls for the station to carry weekend games ONLY, While FSN-Houston will be showing BOTH home and ROAD games Mon-Fri. This newly acquired deal takes into effect beginning with this upcoming 2007-2008 season. Meanwhile, look for a major announcement during the Thanksgiving week in regards to the Astros possible move to KPRC Local 2. KPRC will carry the home-opener, and weekend games, while the rest of the 2008 season will be carried by FSNH.

 

[arnoldevns]

I'm a little surprised Fox isn't getting the Astros games for KTXH too.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Meanwhile, look for a major announcement during the Thanksgiving week in regards to the Astros possible move to KPRC Local 2. KPRC will carry the home-opener, and weekend games, while the rest of the 2008 season will be carried by FSNH.

Might not be a bad idea for KPRC. Saturday nights are a network wasteland of reruns. The Astros games should do much better. Perhaps move to a 7pm start? And the Sunday games would be early afternoon, mostly preempting comparatively dull sports programming on NBC.

 

[stevenNOLA]

Both stations have HD capability so anything will be better than the picture quality on KNWS 51.

 

[snoman]

This is really bad news for KNWS, whose main source of revenue is the Astros and Rockets games. It will boost the dismal ratings of "My 20" as well, especially if the Rockets are going to be as good as all the experts say they will be.

 

[adguy]

Fox and the Rockets/Astros couldn't wait for the conditions that would free them from having to use KNWS. KTXH badly needs some boost to bring in viewers that NEVER watch that station, much less know it exists. As for KPRC carrying the Astros, it's all about $$$$$$'s for Drayton McClain and the Stros. If KPRC is willing to pony up for a few weekend Astros games as a promotional platform for their station, the Astros will take it. They are more loyal to money than to Fox. Their deal with Fox is in the third or fourth year of a 10 year deal and it's for a minimum number of games. Any games over that minimum number costs extra and the Astros have the right to sell those games to anyone. Although the ratings would not amount to much it would be a great move for KPRC. They have died the past couple of years due to poor NBC programming and their own shotty news operation. If the Astros have another bad year, it might be a waste of money. If the Astros are competitive the move to carry weekend games is a no lose proposition with them. Weekend prime, especially in the summer and Sat nights is a wasteland with few ratings carried by anyone. Whereas the Astros might not get KPRC much in the ratings dept, it might get them new viewers that will be new eyeballs for their news promos. Fox in Houston would love to get those weekend games for KTXH as well, but if it means spending extra bucks, they'll never do it. Their expense budgets are so thin to begin with there is never any wiggle room for such opportuniities during their budget year (July-June). If such an expense is not in their budgets when they are presented the prior spring, they really never have any kind of opportunistic spending bucks available for programming such as this during the year.
As for the Rockets deal, FSN owns the rights to all the games and can place those games on any other broadcast station in the market. It's obvious that they would use their own station (KTXH) for that. With My20 a quasi network at best with marginal programming, Fox corporate gave the ok for the station to carry some Rockets games. It's rare the Fox corporate allows local sports franchises to preempt network fare, but I guess they view MyNetwork as preemptible now, plus the Rockets are a favorite to compete for a title this year.

 

[stevenNOLA]

Fox and the Rockets/Astros couldn't wait for the conditions that would free them from having to use KNWS. KTXH badly needs some boost to bring in viewers that NEVER watch that station, much less know it exists. As for KPRC carrying the Astros, it's all about $$$$$$'s for Drayton McClain and the Stros. If KPRC is willing to pony up for a few weekend Astros games as a promotional platform for their station, the Astros will take it. They are more loyal to money than to Fox. Their deal with Fox is in the third or fourth year of a 10 year deal and it's for a minimum number of games. Any games over that minimum number costs extra and the Astros have the right to sell those games to anyone. Although the ratings would not amount to much it would be a great move for KPRC. They have died the past couple of years due to poor NBC programming and their own shotty news operation. If the Astros have another bad year, it might be a waste of money. If the Astros are competitive the move to carry weekend games is a no lose proposition with them. Weekend prime, especially in the summer and Sat nights is a wasteland with few ratings carried by anyone. Whereas the Astros might not get KPRC much in the ratings dept, it might get them new viewers that will be new eyeballs for their news promos. Fox in Houston would love to get those weekend games for KTXH as well, but if it means spending extra bucks, they'll never do it. Their expense budgets are so thin to begin with there is never any wiggle room for such opportuniities during their budget year (July-June). If such an expense is not in their budgets when they are presented the prior spring, they really never have any kind of opportunistic spending bucks available for programming such as this during the year.
As for the Rockets deal, FSN owns the rights to all the games and can place those games on any other broadcast station in the market. It's obvious that they would use their own station (KTXH) for that. With My20 a quasi network at best with marginal programming, Fox corporate gave the ok for the station to carry some Rockets games. It's rare the Fox corporate allows local sports franchises to preempt network fare, but I guess they view MyNetwork as preemptible now, plus the Rockets are a favorite to compete for a title this year.

Since FSN has HD capability, would it seem reasonable KTXH could possibly broadcast these games in HD? If so, it would be good leverage to get KTXH-DT on cable.

 

[TroyG]

Another option for the Astros would be KHOU, which is fact one of the two well-performed stations here in Houston. Its sister station in Phoenix, KTVK, known to viewers as 3TV, has done an excellent job promoting the Arizona DiamondBacks this season-that team has made it to NLCS playoffs. KHOU should learn the tricks from 3TV. However, I don't think KPRC won't be getting the 'Stros because of these factors: Poor Ratings, Worst News Coverage, and being a cheapskate tightwad station as it is.

 

[txchipk]

As for the Rockets deal, FSN owns the rights to all the games and can place those games on any other broadcast station in the market. It's obvious that they would use their own station (KTXH) for that. With My20 a quasi network at best with marginal programming, Fox corporate gave the ok for the station to carry some Rockets games. It's rare the Fox corporate allows local sports franchises to preempt network fare, but I guess they view MyNetwork as preemptible now, plus the Rockets are a favorite to compete for a title this year.

Since FSN has HD capability, would it seem reasonable KTXH could possibly broadcast these games in HD? If so, it would be good leverage to get KTXH-DT on cable.

You may not want to get hopes up too high on HD broadcasts on KTXH. Fox has the rights to the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars. It splits them between FSN and KDFI 27 "My 27" Dallas (with clustermate KDFW 4 "Fox 4" also airing a few afternoon Rangers games). One would think if you are only going to produce only a few HD games, you would put them on the over-the-air station since more people have access to that. Of the 10 Stars games that will be HD this season, 10 will air on FSN and 0 on KDFI.

The Mavs games are split between FSN and CBS' KTXA 21. The KTXA games share the same broadcast announcers as FSN, but the production is different, whereas KDFI/KDFW just carries a FSN-produced game. KTXA carries the Mavs games in HD. FSN will produce some HD Mavs games this season, but most will not be.

I guess the culture at Fox still has not really embraced HD. The Fox network was slow behind the others on broadcasting HD; the local stations still don't broadcast news in HD (KDFW still will not give a estimated date for producing a HD newscast even though KXAS, WFAA, KTVT, and KTXA now have local HD newscasts; former Dallas Morning News critic Ed Bark has asked them several times for his unclebarky.com blog, but they will not commit to it); the regional sports networks still only air minimal HD content; etc.

As for pre-empting MyNetworkTV fare, KDFI does that fairly often. For the Stars, most of the Saturday evening games are on KDFI, even though that bumps MNT programming. Next month, it will bump MNT programming a number of times during the week for Stars games (Fri 11/2 7:30, Thu 11/8 8PM, Wed 11/21 7:30, Fri 11/23 7:30, Mon 11/26 6PM, Wed 11/28 6PM). KDFI simply airs the MNT shows right after the game ends.