Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia

Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia
CSN Philadelphia
Launched	October 1, 1997
Network	Comcast SportsNet
Owned by	Comcast Philadelphia Phillies
Slogan	Nobody does Philly Sports Better!
Country	United States
Language	English
Broadcast area	Philadelphia Metro Area Eastern Pennsylvania South Jersey Delaware
Headquarters	CSN Wachovia Center Studios
Replaced	PRISM Network (1976-1997) SportsChannel Philadelphia (1990-1997)
Sister channel(s)	Comcast Network
Website	CSN Philadelphia
Availability
Cable
Available on most cable systems	Check local listings for channels
Verizon Fios	76 (SD) 576 (HD)
Service Electric	28 (SD) 528 (HD)
RCN	29 (SD) 179 (HD)

Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia (CSN Philadelphia) is a regional sports network that is the charter member of Comcast SportsNet. It primarily serves the Philadelphia metro area, but its reach extends to cover Northeastern Pennsylvania, all of South Jersey, and most of Delaware.

CSN Philadelphia is owned by Comcast and was the first Comcast SportsNet channel. It is the cable home of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, NHL's Philadelphia Flyers, MLB's Philadelphia Phillies, AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms, and NLL's Philadelphia Wings. The network also covers local college sports games, including the Philadelphia Big Five, the Atlantic 10, and the Colonial Athletic Association.

CSN Philadelphia debuted on October 1, 1997, replacing the PRISM Network and SportsChannel in the Philadelphia area. The Phillies own a minority share of the channel.^{[verification needed]}

CSN Philadelphia's studios and offices are located inside the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. CSN Philadelphia also has a small studio inside Citizens Bank Park, which is used sporadically during the baseball season.

In addition, Comcast owns Comcast Network, which on occasion will air Phillies games in the Philadelphia metro area when a Flyers or 76ers game airs on CSN Philadelphia. Some Flyers and 76ers games are also aired by Comcast Network, while WPHL-TV carries some Phillies games.

Anchors

Current

• Michael Barkann (August 1997)
• John Boruk (July 2006)
• Ron Burke (August 1997–1999, January 2002)
• Amy Fadool (January 2009)
• Leslie Gudel (August 1997)
• Derrick Gunn (August 1997)
• Marshall Harris (March 2008)
• Neil Hartman (August 1997)
• Dei Lynam (August 1997)
• Gregg Murphy^[1]

Former

• Phil Andrews (August 2005 - March 2008)
• Pat Boyle - joined Comcast SportsNet Chicago in 2004
• Pete Christy (August 1997 - September 2002)
• Lance Crawford (2000 - 2008)
• Scott Hanson (2000 - 2002)
• Al Meltzer (August 1997 - 2001)
• Mike Rodgers (2002 - 2004)
• Erick Weber (2006)
• Matt Yallof (2000 – 2006) - joined SportsNet New York in 2006, now with MLB Network

Programming

News

• SportsRise
• Daily News Live
• SportsNite
• 'net IMPACT

Football

• Eagles PreGame Live
• Eagles Post Game Live
• Eagles Extra
• Inside the Eagles
• Eagles Locker Room

Basketball

• Sixers Pre Game Live
• Sixers Post Game Live

Baseball

• Phillies Pre Game Live
• Phillies Post Game Live
• Phillies Clubhouse

Ice Hockey

• Flyers Pre Game Live
• Flyers Post Game Live
• The Orange Line

Golf

• Inside Golf
• Golf Shots

FSN on Comcast SportsNet

CSN Philadelphia carries FSN programming in lieu of an FSN affiliate. This offers the regions access to a variety of college sports, notably ACC men's and women's basketball on Sundays, Pac-10 basketball on various nights, plus Big 12 and Pac-10 football on Saturdays during their respective seasons. They also air studio shows, such as The Best Damn Sports Show Period, and the FSN Final Score. This arrangement is to secure national coverage for its collegiate lineup of games.

Availability

Unlike most other cable networks, CSN Philadelphia is only distributed via microwave and fiber optics. The infrastructure Comcast uses for this was left over from the now defunct PRISM Network. Since CSN Philadelphia does not uplink its signal to any satellite, Comcast is able to avoid an FCC regulation that requires most television channels to be offered to direct broadcast satellite (DBS) companies. Lawyers for DirecTV and Dish Network have attempted to show that Comcast Corporation, who owns both CSN Philadelphia along with most of the cable systems in the Philadelphia market, is acting in restraint of trade because it does not uplink CSN Philadelphia to satellite. However, so far neither the FCC nor the federal courts have forced Comcast to make CSN Philadelphia available to the DBS services. Thus, DBS customers in the Philadelphia region do not get access to the network or any of the local teams' games. However, cable companies other than Comcast within the designated CSN Philadelphia market do have access to the channel. In December 2006, Comcast even made a deal to place CSN Philadelphia on Verizon's competing FiOS systems.^[2] All of the other members of Comcast SportsNet are available to DBS subscribers, with the exception of CSN Northwest (however this is only because DirecTV and Dish Network have not been able to reach a carriage agreement with Comcast).

Phillies games used to be unavailable on the satellite version of MLB Extra Innings, although the NBA and NHL have always been able to use the CSN Philadelphia feeds for their packages. Beginning in 2007, both the cable and satellite version of MLB Extra Innings began to use the CSN Philadelphia feed for some games and in 2008, when MLB Extra Innings began showing both feeds of most games, all Phillies games shown on CSN Philadelphia became available to all subscribers.

CSN Philadelphia channel numbers (must scroll down about half the page).

CSN Philadelphia HD

Comcast SportsNet HD is a high definition simulcast of the best programs from Comcast SportsNet including live sports and series. CSN Philadelphia shows all^[3] Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Flyers, and Philadelphia 76ers games in HD (except when the games on classified as prim time shows. Examples include Saturday afternoon games [FOX] and Sunday night games [ESPN]).^[4] Comcast SportsNet also broadcasts their live studio shows in high definition, such as Daily News Live, SportsNite, and Post Game Live shows.

References

External links

• CSN Philadelphia