SportSouth
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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 8.2 million cable and satellite subscribers in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and parts of North Carolina.
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[edit] Network histories
- Turner South was founded in 2000 by Time Warner as a way for the company to return to subsidiary Turner Broadcasting's Southern roots. Programming was a mixture of lifestyle programs, old movies, reruns of shows like In the Heat of the Night and Major Dad, and live sports events. Teams carried on Turner South were the Atlanta Braves (Major League Baseball), Atlanta Hawks (National Basketball Association), and Atlanta Thrashers (National Hockey League).
- The original SportSouth was founded by Turner Broadcasting System (which Time Warner would later buy) in 1990. Programs included Braves games, Hawks games, college sports, and some syndicated shows. One of them, This Week in NASCAR, was hosted by sportscasting veteran Eli Gold. Viewers could call in and discuss NASCAR racing with drivers and other guests. That show was produced at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. This original SportSouth was bought by Fox in 1996 and became what is today FSN South.
[edit] Sale
In March of 2006, FSN's parent company News Corporation, looking to further expand its roster of sports teams and events, bought the network for $375 million. [1]. After the deal was completed, FSN sought a new name. After about 60 different suggestions, network officials chose SportSouth, ironically the original name of the other network owned by News Corp, FSN South.
[edit] Current operations
SportSouth plans to air 61 Thrashers games and 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.[2]
There are two major differences between FSN South and SportSouth:
- SportSouth plans to air only programs of interest to the region, much as FSN Prime Ticket 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 FSN South will carry national FSN games, such as those from the Big 12 and Pac-10 Conferences.
- 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.
FSN 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 and Heath Shuler.
