Comcast SportsNet Bay Area Gearing For News
Daily News Show, Co-Production With Chronicle On Deack
Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 2/11/2009 3:36:07 PM
Comcast SportsNet Bay Area will take a swing at developing original sports news content as the regional sports network plans to launch two daily shows.
On April 6, the San Francisco-Oakland area network will premiere SportsNet Central, a daily local sports news shows that will air live 30-minute telecasts at 6 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and midnight, according to network officials. Also launching is Chronicle Live, a co-production with the San Francisco Chronicle that will feature the newspaper's reporters and columnists discussing sports topics daily.
The shows will be backed by the regional network's more than 100 reporters, editors, producers, talent bookers, researchers, and other professional executives, according to the network.
"Our lineup of entertaining, original and insightful programming will give fans the most in-depth, comprehensive coverage on all Northern California sports on a daily basis," said Comcast SportsNet Bay Area vice president and general manager Ted Griggs in a statement. "For Bay Area sports fans, Comcast SportsNet will become the ultimate source for complete local news coverage, breaking stories, highlights, scores, analysis and feature stories on their hometown teams."
As expected, Comcast Bay Area also announced it will move 147 Oakland A's baseball telecasts -- including 75 HDTV telecasts -- to its sister Comcast SportsNet California service.
As part of the move, Comcast SportsNet California viewers will be able to access for free encores of each A's telecast for approximately 24 hours via Comcast Cable's On Demand channel.
"We are delighted to be the new home of the Oakland Athletics," said Larry Eldridge, vice president and general manager, Comcast SportsNet California, in a statement. "For the first time, A's fans have a dedicated and exclusive destination where they can follow their favorite team, and fans will get now more games, more insider coverage and more HD with this change."
For Comcast Sports Net Bay Area's part, it will air 134 regular season San Francisco Giants games, including 75 games via HDTV. The network will also make its telecasts available on-demand over a 24-hour basis to Comcast Cable subscribers.
The Giants own part of the regional sports network.
