Sinclair to buy Fox Regional Sports

[comfortably_numb]

Gee, a regional sports network, wouldn't that be nice. Oh, wait, I have one (here in Pennsylvania). It's called the Rocky Mountain Sports Network and carries the Rockies and Colorado Buffaloes, among others. Only one problem, every, and I mean every, sporting event of any kind is blacked out. The only things that aren't are the talk shows and infomercials.

Have you ever called Dish to ask them to reauthorize your receiver? If you don't contact them, they can't fix it. If calling doesn't work, it's time to email ceo@dishnetwork.com

Incessantly complaining about it here won't solve anything.

 

[Hall]

We have a Sinclair station in our local reception area, along with a few others. The Sinclair station is known in this area as more of a joke when compared to the other local stations. It’s an EXTREMELY high turnover station. Someone new almost every month. News broadcasts always mismatching stories and pictures. Misspelled words scrolling across the screen. They throw in their opinion segments which are extremely skewed and one sided (always, they never waiver). The station is in Springfield, IL and we’re 17 miles South BUT to get a good local news reporting, we’ve resorted to a channel out of Champaign, IL. Much better reporting on Springfield. Better weather reporting. A more professional look and feel overall. But the Sinclair station...just terrible.

Sounds like you're referring to WKEF (ABC) and WRGT (FOX) from the Dayton OH market. Sinclair-owned but 'controlled' out of Indianapolis. They do the opinion segments too (the very last part of their news broadcast, right ?) and it's normally done by a guy from their Cincinnati station. I'd guess that most people think he works "at" the local Dayton station. I'll bet he shows up on other Sinclair-owned stations as well.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I think Sinclair is in for a rude awakening as these sports teams form their own sports network.

The Yankees did it and the Tigers, Pistons and Red Wings are doing it in Detroit soon.

 

[PortlandChris]

Sure hope those BS with Boris political propaganda segments don't hit the sports nets as they do Sinclair's channels.

 

[PortlandChris]

Can we all just agree that Root Sports was possibly the worst name for an RSN ever...

and Fox Sports whatever was a good name? Root was/is fine and still exists in the Pacific Northwest for the Mariners channel.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Sure hope those BS with Boris political propaganda segments don't hit the sports nets as they do Sinclair's channels.

Huh?

 

[SamCdbs]

"Root" is a bad word in Australian.

IIRC, the origin of splitting a few of the old Fox Sports Net regionals as Root Sports was related to the Liberty Media - NEWS Corp transaction relative to DirecTV. By having channels included it qualified for some kind of different tax treatment.

As to the current names, IMHO.

"Fox" and "NBC" can be confusing to the lay person. "Big" Fox, one of the numbered Foxes, or the local Fox Sports Net? Same with NBC. Obviously not to the kind of people who post here.

AT&T has never caught on. I had a pretty sharp friend who asked me how he could get a game he wanted to watch, which he thought was being streamed on his cell phone, since it was listed as being on "AT&T". Took me 10 minutes to explain that was a TV channel in Pittsburgh.

Root and Stadium just seem dumb.

 

[Yespage]

Huh?

It is an established point that Sinclair has inputted ‘editorials’ in their news broadcast as a local message which was in fact required broadcasting at every Sinclair owned station. To keep it out of The Pit, I’ll limit it to that.

I’m pretty their sports channels won’t get editorialized, but knowing Sinclair, the term ‘paywall’ comes to mind.

I wonder how profitable the RSNs are, as they’ve been switching hands periodically for the last few decades, since they were Sportschannel *insert region*. Sure, there have been NESN and MSG but those seem to be a minority.

 

[comfortably_numb]

It is an established point that Sinclair has inputted ‘editorials’ in their news broadcast as a local message which was in fact required broadcasting at every Sinclair owned station. To keep it out of The Pit, I’ll limit it to that.

I’m pretty their sports channels won’t get editorialized, but knowing Sinclair, the term ‘paywall’ comes to mind.

I wonder how profitable the RSNs are, as they’ve been switching hands periodically for the last few decades, since they were Sportschannel *insert region*. Sure, there have been NESN and MSG but those seem to be a minority.

Doesn't every TV news station input opinion and editorial pieces in their newscasts now? That's one of the reasons I can't stand to watch the news.

 

[Yespage]

Doesn't every TV news station input opinion and editorial pieces in their newscasts now? That's one of the reasons I can't stand to watch the news.

Not like Sinclair had.

 

[The Fat Man]

Have you ever called Dish to ask them to reauthorize your receiver? If you don't contact them, they can't fix it. If calling doesn't work, it's time to email ceo@dishnetwork.com

Incessantly complaining about it here won't solve anything.

I think you missed the joke. He lives in Pennsylvania, and is getting the same Colorado sports net that we all are getting. He's subjected to blackout restrictions, just as all of us outside the market are. So, other than live games that are blacked out, the only other content on it are talk shows and infomercials.

 

[The Fat Man]

I think Sinclair is in for a rude awakening as these sports teams form their own sports network.

The Yankees did it and the Tigers, Pistons and Red Wings are doing it in Detroit soon.

We have had NESN for decades. Owned jointly by the Red Sox and Bruins. It has to be one of the earliest team owned RSNs.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I think you missed the joke. He lives in Pennsylvania, and is getting the same Colorado sports net that we all are getting. He's subjected to blackout restrictions, just as all of us outside the market are. So, other than live games that are blacked out, the only other content on it are talk shows and infomercials.

He also isn't receiving the RSN he's supposed to be getting, though, and that is an issue

 

[Bobby]

He also isn't receiving the RSN he's supposed to be getting, though, and that is an issue

He’s in the Philadelphia DMA and, if I remember correctly, that RSN is not available to Dish or DirecTV...

 

[comfortably_numb]

He’s in the Philadelphia DMA and, if I remember correctly, that RSN is not available to Dish or DirecTV...

Ah!

 

[dare2be]

I wouldn't have necessarily assumed he was joking. I've seen worse on here who were serious.

 

[ncted]

Doesn't every TV news station input opinion and editorial pieces in their newscasts now? That's one of the reasons I can't stand to watch the news.

None of my local ones do this on a regular basis AFAIK. The ones we watch most don't seem to from my recollection. News, weather, sports, consumer assistance, local travel & public interest stories, and the occasional "investigative" story like the newspapers used to have staff to do, and that is pretty much it.

 

[comfortably_numb]

None of my local ones do this on a regular basis AFAIK. The ones we watch most don't seem to from my recollection. News, weather, sports, consumer assistance, local travel & public interest stories, and the occasional "investigative" story like the newspapers used to have staff to do, and that is pretty much it.

That's refreshing!

 

[ncted]

That's refreshing!

Well, NBC and Fox locals are locally owned. ABC is Disney-owned, and CBS is Neustar. The CW Sinclair station gets their news from the ABC station. CBS might have some opinion stuff, but honestly, they all have a hard enough time keeping up with the basics, I can't see why they'd bother.

 

[eddie willers]

Doesn't every TV news station input opinion and editorial pieces in their newscasts now? That's one of the reasons I can't stand to watch the news.

This was standard back when I was growing up. All the stations would have an "editorial" presented by some executive of the local station.

In fact, that is where Pat Paulsen first came to the big time as the "Vice President" of the Smothers Brothers Show giving double speak editorials.