Bright House adding 24 hour sports channel plus ESPNU/CNN HD

[Howard Mass]

Yesterday, I got wind of a report that Bright House is expanding a 24 hour sports station they currently have in Tampa here in Central Florida next week.

It's called Catch 47.

http://www.baynews9.com/Sports.html

Interestingly enough BHN moved AMC to channel 48 yesterday and now has 47 as a bright house controlled channel.

Word is the channel will be added next week and probably will have some Orlando programming.

It will be interesting to see what programming the channel will air but some Orlando stuff will likely be tied into the channel.

[craig01]

I know the catch 47 channel shows USF stuff, so maybe we'll see UCF on this one.

[magicmamma]

I thought the reason they wouldn't put FSN on basic cable was that they didn't have any slots.

[Howard Mass]

Well they are going to re-do the channels within the next 2-3 months.

This channel is owned by Bright House so no problem.

On adding FSN Florida, if they acquire it, they can always demote a channel to digital like Speed but then again, they are redoing the lineups.

We should also be getting new HD channels within the six weeks.

[craig01]

I thought the reason they wouldn't put FSN on basic cable was that they didn't have any slots.

Well, obviously this is one of those "reserved" slots that they didn't have....LOL

But this may be OK, as we can now probably see some nice middle school volleyball games, pee wee football, and spelling bees instead of the Rays and Magic.

[Howard Mass]

Craig,

There will probably be some decent stuff on this channel.

I'm as frustrated about the FSN thing as you are but I got faith they are going to work something out.

[yoyo65]

sounds to me like they arnt going to give you much after all blackouthouse is a cheep bunch of sons of well you know what its sad so many of you will miss so many games this year yet again i just hope they have a change of heart and give you the fsn network but i doubt it

[craig01]

What scares me about this season, is that if FSN/Britehouse FAIL to come to agreement, Sunsports has front loaded the schedule. We'd get about one out of four games (15 of the last 56) after the first of the year.

Like everyone else, I hope it gets done. I doubt it does though........

[lovehoops01]

I had faith last year that they would get it worked out.

But they torched that so I don't have faith any more. They said they were working on it last season and never got it done. Why should I have any faith it will be different this year -- especially given the history between Bright House and FSN?

What exactly in Orlando could they put on that Bright House channel other than Preds games not on other stations, the minor-league hockey team and high school games? The Magic, Rays, Dolphins, Marlins, Gators, Knights, Seminoles, Hurricanes -- they all have contracts with other networks.

[craig01]

Third tier college games, replays, high school games.

[Howard Mass]

I see they have a Lightning and Rays show. They also have some nice fishing shows.

It's not going to be anything great but it's decent programming and more of it for the sports fan.

On the FSN thing, I have faith because the Magic are more involved.

[lovehoops01]

I see they have a Lightning and Rays show. They also have some nice fishing shows.

It's not going to be anything great but it's decent programming and more of it for the sports fan.

On the FSN thing, I have faith because the Magic are more involved.

They already have all the Lightning games and shows on them on Sun Sports. We get some Rays games on over-the-air TV.

The reason I am so cynical about this is exactly because of that. Sun Sports has every Lightning game. But not every Magic game. In fact, that's a reason they use for not having every Magic game on Sun Sports -- they can't fit them all on TV because they carry every Lightning. That's great for Tampa but sucks for Orlando and is a good reason for Magic fans to dislike the Lightning even if they are hockey fans. I guess Bright House is a Tampa cable company and not an Orlando cable company then. And doesn't Sun carry all the Heat games in Miami? Why discriminate against us? Most parts of Orlando don't have a choice of cable companies, and if for some reason they cannot get DirectTV or don't mind when their TV is knocked off the air because of rain, they are screwed. (If you want League Pass, Dish is not an option.)

[Howard Mass]

Bright House and Sun Sports/FSN are owned by different companies.

I will say that Tampa BH gets a better deal in the fact that they have FSN Florida, GSN and 3 fox college sports stations.

This channel will be high school and some small sports shows. It's not going to be huge or anything but Tampa has had this since 2004. At least were getting this now too.

I see where your coming from on the FSN situation but I believe in hope.

On other systems, ATT U-Verse is now in Jacksonville in addition to South Florida, it should be hear soon to give others another choice.

I've heard good things about it especially if you are not an HD customer. The HD service is suspect because you can only have 2 channels on per household at a time. Soon FIOS will also be here too.

In the end, we got to keep the faith and know the Magic are trying harder to get us out of this mess they created.

[Howard Mass]

It's confirmed. Were also getting ESPNU in HD along with CNN,

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/etan_o ... se-ne.html

Bright House Sports Network - A new, 24-hour regional sports channel that will broadcast University of Central Florida, University of South Florida and Sunbelt Conference games. It will also broadcast more than 75 live high school sports events a year and have its own studio shows, and feature coverage of fishing, auto racing, extreme sports, boxing and soccer. The channel will debut on Sept. 17 as channel 47. This is a digital channel, so you must have a cable box or a digital tuner in your TV to receive this channel, said Bright House Spokeswoman Sara Brady.

[craig01]

That'll be nice for the UCF replays. I believe they show USF both live and on replay.