SportSouth is a regional sports network in the
United
States
, with its headquarters in Atlanta,
Georgia
. SportSouth, formerly
Turner South, relaunched on
October 13,
2006. The first
official event on the channel was a
National Hockey League game between
the
Atlanta Thrashers and the
Carolina Hurricanes.
SportSouth
reaches about 8.9 million cable and satellite subscribers in
Georgia
, Tennessee
, Alabama
, Mississippi
, South
Carolina
and parts of
North
Carolina
.
Network histories
Sale
In March 2006, FSN's parent company
News Corporation, looking to further expand
its roster of sports teams and events, boughtthe network for $375
million.
[366540]. After the deal was completed, FSN sought a
new name. After about 60 different suggestions, network officials
chose SportSouth, the original name of the other network owned by
News Corp, FSN South.
Current operations
SportSouth plans to air 61
Thrashers games, 45
Hawks games in 2006-07 and 55
Braves games in the
2007
MLB season.
That number will expand to 80 in 2008, when
TBS ends national broadcasts of
Braves games in favor of a leaguewide package.[366541] It shares local Braves broadcasting
with WPCH-TV
, the
spun-off local broadcast version of TBS, an arrangement which begun
in 2008. (Select games of the
Cincinnati Reds and
St. Louis Cardinals will also be
distributed on SportSouth, subject to Major League Baseball
territory restrictions.) However, conflicts with NBA and NHL
playoff games could see the split between SportSouth and Fox Sports
South differ from the planned 80/25 games per network. Also, in
2006-07, SportSouth began televising some
Memphis Grizzlies games.
[366542] This ensures that both they and the
Nashville Predators have the
maximum number of games televised that they wish to offer.
Sportsouth also has acquired the rights to University of Tennessee
sporting events as of August 28, 2007, including 12 encore
presentations of Tennessee football, four men’s basketball games,
four women’s basketball games, six Olympic sporting events, 12
60-minute episodes of The Phillip Fulmer Show, nine 30-minute
episodes of The Pat Summitt Show, and nine 30-minute episodes of
The Bruce Pearl Show.
There are two major differences between
Fox Sports South and SportSouth:
- SportSouth plans to air only programs of interest to the
region, much as PRIMETICKET does in
Southern California. Jeff Genthner,
vice president and general manager of FSN South and SportSouth,
cited a program currently in the works on Hawks rookie Shelden Williams' first year in the NBA as
one example. Thus, only Fox Sports South will carry national FSN
games, such as those from the Big 12 and
Pac-10 Conferences. The two channels also try
to put virtually all Southeastern Conference or Atlantic Coast Conference games on
one channel or the other, again often targeted to regional vs.
national interests.
- SportSouth is blacked
out in areas not covered by the ZIP
codes in the regional coverage area. For example, viewers
of DirecTV's "Sports Pack" in other parts of
the United
States will not receive the channel. The blackout
policy dates back to the days of Turner/Time Warner ownership.
However, as of August 2007, it appears the restrictions have been
lifted on DirecTV and "Sports Pack"
subscribers are now receiving the channel without blackouts (except
during major league sporting events) .
- Fox Sports South also covers a somewhat wider broadcast area,
and offers a variety of different MLB, NBA, and NHL teams,
depending on location.
Promotional commercials for SportSouth have included sports figures
such as
Steve Spurrier,
Bob Hartley,
Bo
Jackson, and
Heath Shuler.
Commentators
Atlanta Hawks
Atlanta Braves
Atlanta Thrashers
Charlotte Bobcats
Memphis Grizzlies
See also
References
- [1]
in Concord, North Carolina
. This original SportSouth was bought by Fox
Cable Networks in 1996 and became what is today Fox Sports South.
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