CSN Bay Area
| Comcast SportsNet Bay Area | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Launched | 1990 (as SportsChannel Bay Area) |
| Network | Comcast Sports Net |
| Owned by | Comcast Fox Broadcasting Company San Francisco Giants |
| Country | United States |
| Language | American English |
| Broadcast area | San Francisco Bay Area Northern California |
| Formerly called | SportsChannel Bay Area (1990-1991) SportsChannel Pacific (1991-1998) Fox Sports Bay Area (1998-2000) Fox Sports Net Bay Area (2000-2004) FSN Bay Area (2004-2008) |
| Replaced | Pacfic Sports Network |
| Sister channel(s) | CSN California |
| Website | CSN Bay Area |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| DirecTV | 696 (SD) 696-1 (HD) |
| Dish Network | 419 (SD) 369 (HD) |
| Cable | |
| Available on select cable systems | Check local listings for channels |
Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (CSN Bay Area for short) is the regional sports network that serves cable outlets throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as other parts of Northern California and Northern Nevada.
Contents |
History
Originally launched as SportsChannel Bay Area in April 1990, it merged with the Pacific Sports Network in the July 1991 and became SportsChannel Pacific. When the SportsChannel networks joined the Fox Sports Net family, the channel was rebranded as Fox Sports Bay Area in January 1998, and to FSN Bay Area in 2004. With the network being 45% owned by Comcast, 30% owned by the San Francisco Giants and 25% owned by Fox, the network was rebranded as a part of the Comcast SportsNet family on March 31, 2008.[1]
Programming
CSN Bay Area is the main television channel for the MLB's Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants, the NBA's Golden State Warriors, the NHL's San Jose Sharks and MLS's San Jose Earthquakes. It also airs the AFL's San Jose SaberCats, but infrequently.
The channel also broadcasts college sports, mainly involving the Stanford Cardinal and the California Golden Bears as well as sports involving the Pacific-10, Western Athletic, Mountain West and West Coast Conferences.
Until 2004, the network also broadcast games involving the NBA's Sacramento Kings and the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs. Following the expiration of their contracts with the then-FSN Bay Area, the owners of the Kings and Monarchs went on to create CSN Bay Area's sister station, CSN West (now CSN California). CSN California is still the main channel for other Bay Area teams like MLL's San Francisco Dragons and NLL's San Jose Stealth.
Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area still features Fox Sports Net original shows like FSN Final Score, Sports Science and The Best Damn Sports Show Period.
CSN original programming
Every Thursday night, CSN Bay Area airs an out-of-market National Hockey League game, usually either from CSN Philadelphia or CSN Mid-Atlantic.
Beginning with the Comcast SportsNet era, most A's and Giants home games and California road games are preceded and followed by a half an hour plus show previewing and analyzing the day's game respectively.
Although the Warriors and Sharks were still playing when CSN launched, their games did not feature pre-game and post-game shows (except a few Sharks playoff games which had pre-game shows, and the Warriors who already had their own pre-game show), but Sharks pre-game and post-games were introduced for their 2008-2009 seasons with former ESPN personality and Stanford grad Scott Reiss. The Warriors do not have a pre-game or post-game show.
CSN is the main channel for "Shark Byte", a show aired during the Sharks season which features interviews and segments on players and coaches. The A's launched a show called "All A's '08" which has the same idea.
In July, CSN purchased a new studio in San Francisco, which will be the set for future news shows for the network.
Additional channels
CSN Bay Area also operates three additional channels for their programming. CSN Plus and CSN Plus2 are overflow channels utilized for scheduling conflicts when more than one team broadcast by the station is playing at the same time. CSN HD is the high definition feed of the network. Like the CSN+ channels, this channel is only used for select HD broadcasts, and shows no other programming. A select number of Giants, Athletics, Warriors, Sharks and SaberCats games are broadcast in HD.
Personalities
- Shooty Babitt, Athletics pre-game and post-game host
- Mindi Bach, Athletics pre-game and post-game host
- Jamie Baker, Sharks pre-game and post-game host
- Jim Barnett, Warriors color analyst
- Troy Dayak, Earthquakes color analyst
- Ray Fosse, Athletics color analyst
- Bob Fitzgerald, Warriors and SaberCats play-by-play announcer
- Amy Gutierrez, Giants sideline reporter
- Randy Hahn, Sharks play-by-play announcer
- Duane Kuiper, Giants play-by-play announcer
- Glen Kuiper, Warriors and Athletics play-by-play announcer
- Mike Krukow, Giants color analyst
- Kate Longworth, Earthquakes sideline reporter and Sharks intermission host
- Greg Papa, Giants pre-game and post-game host, Giants substitute play-by-play announcer
- Scott Reiss, Sharks pre-game, intermission and post-game host; Warriors halftime co-host
- Drew Remenda, Sharks color analyst
- Bip Roberts, Giants studio analyst
- FP Santangelo, Giants and Athletics game analyst
- John Shrader, Earthquakes play-by-play announcer
- Jaymee Sire, Athletics and Warriors sideline reporter
- Matt Steinmetz, Warriors sideline reporter, half-time co-host
References
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