Bye bye ASN

[ejb1980]

I liked their games on Directv but I don't think I would watch it OTA in SD as a subchannel.

http://awfulannouncing.com/local-ne...ork-reportedly-cease-operation-end-month.html

Sent from my SM-G920V using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[localclassictvfan]

All that money Delta Media spent on dropping This from KXKW 32.1 for ASN now down the tubes....

 

[SamCdbs]

There are different reports, with Sinclair (which is a fundamentally dishonest company) claiming it is not shutting down, but rather is going to "partner" with Campus Insiders to produce the content which will be shown on both the .2 ASN network and on as "over the top" on Campus Insiders pay site. Others are reporting that the "linear" .2 ASN network will shut down and Campus Insiders will buy/be given their remaining contracts only for Campus Insiders. It is certain that Sinclair fired everybody in the building who worked for ASN.

IMHO, ASN's coverage was fine. OTA, it was in SD, but it was OK. You could tell that the announcers were calling the games off the feed rather than actually being at the venue, but bigger outfits have done that. In my area they would take some Marshall (local team) content and move it to the .1 channel pre empting then major network in HD and it was fine.

The network was hurt by not being on DirecTV. Sinclair should have demanded it in return for retrans of its major network affiliates. My local hangout has lots of Marshall fans and they just could not show the games. They could put up an antenna, but just didn't. Landlord issues.

But the main point, IMHO, was the sports on it just were of little interest other than to fans of that particular team. In a world where there are 20 or 30 other games on, nobody is going to make an effort to see CUSA, MWC, or I-AA games in SD other than their own fans.

 

[RedPenguin]

Wow I wonder if this means my area will stop putting sports on my local MeTV channel.

Watch my luck, now if they do stop showing sports on MeTV, we will lose MeTV because they want TBD and Charge!.

Though I still have the national feed luckily so I should never lose MeTV as hopefully they wouldn't decide one day to stop the stream.

Odd how when I got frustrated when they kept pre-empting MeTV, that I just wished they'd close, but I just meant wish they'd put stuff on another channel vs taking over the programming I wanted to see.

 

[RedPenguin]

I am curious to see how this will follow as different sources all over the web seem to not be completely sure what is going on if it's shutting down or not.

I just mainly was curious what will happen to ASN preempting programming on my local MeTV but from the information I can't tell what exactly is likely to happen.

ASN on their FB isn't hinting anything either when folks asked them directly about it.

 

[RedPenguin]

Just a small update on this, even though ASN's website was redesigned not too long ago, ever since these rumors, their website has gone severely down hill.

All of the sudden, their Game Finder can't even properly list what stations a game will be on for a zip code.

The TV Guide section oddly can't go past Mar 19th.

They never had the greatest website ever, as many times games that aired in my area didn't claim they would on their site and many times when they said it would, it didn't.

Though their website was never this sloppy before as right now.

 

[RedPenguin]

Not to keep spamming this topic but I just found some more info that I don't see reported really anywhere else.

Sinclair seems to still be putting out job postings for ASN even one on Mar 13th.

http://www.jobs.net/jobs/sinclair-b...ch/?keyword=american sports network&location=

 

[ejb1980]

There are different reports, with Sinclair (which is a fundamentally dishonest company) claiming it is not shutting down, but rather is going to "partner" with Campus Insiders to produce the content which will be shown on both the .2 ASN network and on as "over the top" on Campus Insiders pay site. Others are reporting that the "linear" .2 ASN network will shut down and Campus Insiders will buy/be given their remaining contracts only for Campus Insiders. It is certain that Sinclair fired everybody in the building who worked for ASN.

IMHO, ASN's coverage was fine. OTA, it was in SD, but it was OK. You could tell that the announcers were calling the games off the feed rather than actually being at the venue, but bigger outfits have done that. In my area they would take some Marshall (local team) content and move it to the .1 channel pre empting then major network in HD and it was fine.

The network was hurt by not being on DirecTV. Sinclair should have demanded it in return for retrans of its major network affiliates. My local hangout has lots of Marshall fans and they just could not show the games. They could put up an antenna, but just didn't. Landlord issues.

But the main point, IMHO, was the sports on it just were of little interest other than to fans of that particular team. In a world where there are 20 or 30 other games on, nobody is going to make an effort to see CUSA, MWC, or I-AA games in SD other than their own fans.

With the sports pack, which gives you NESN, MASN, CSN, and Altitude, all which carry ASN games in HD, many of the ASN games were/are available just fine on Directv in HD...

 

[RedPenguin]

If ASN is really becoming under new management, Sinclair is being extremely secret about it.

The "Digital Team" seems to have put up a "Goodbye" photo and the website appears abandoned now with no updates at all. The schedule and Game Finder are no data or stale data now.

I did try Googling if Sinclair put out any official statement of any sort, but I can't find anything.

 

[RedPenguin]

It looks like ASN isn't actually going away.

This link was posted on their Facebook page.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sinclair-teams-sports-silver-chalice-210508175.html

I guess I still will have sports on my MeTV.... LoL

They do say "As a multicast channel on Sinclair stations, the new service “immediately will reach millions of homes” over the air and via pay TV distributors."

That doesn't mention randomly throwing it on non-ASN subchannels, but I don't think I'd be lucky enough that they'd only put it on ASN subchannels, unless my station WJAC would possibly drop GRIT for ASN.

It seems Sinclair has no love for GRIT at all anymore, even though they supposedly were getting paid.

 

[RedPenguin]

Actually to add to my previous point, I wonder how Sinclair will do pre-empting games from now on.

In many of their areas now, they got rid of GRIT and Get TV which was used for pre-empting in areas without ASN 24/7 and replaced them with their own diginets.

Will Sinclair be willing to replace their own content with the new ASN?

 

[SamCdbs]

My understanding is this is a partnership between Sinclair, Campus Insiders and 120. Sinclair will carry some content via a renamed ASN sub-channel, Campus Insiders will produce the content and offer it and much more via its website and apps, and 120 (which has a liscense to carry highlights) will do sportsnews.

If you look at the owners of Campus Insiders, it inlcudes some BIG names and so maybe there will be a future for this. And, since many of the owners are in other business deals with DirecTV, maybe the channel shows up somewhere in the 600s.

But it still all comes down to content. The content of ASN just is not appealing other than to fans of these particular mid-major and I-AA teams, in competition with so many more games.

 

[localclassictvfan]

Well ASN is still here. Guess it will not die out. KXKW looks like they're money will be well invested into the station...

 

[localclassictvfan]

My understanding is this is a partnership between Sinclair, Campus Insiders and 120. Sinclair will carry some content via a renamed ASN sub-channel, Campus Insiders will produce the content and offer it and much more via its website and apps, and 120 (which has a liscense to carry highlights) will do sportsnews.

If you look at the owners of Campus Insiders, it inlcudes some BIG names and so maybe there will be a future for this. And, since many of the owners are in other business deals with DirecTV, maybe the channel shows up somewhere in the 600s.

But it still all comes down to content. The content of ASN just is not appealing other than to fans of these particular mid-major and I-AA teams, in competition with so many more games.

LUS out of Lafayette, Louisiana has ASN on 133 (KXKW 32.1) on their lineup.....Funny cause I thought LP station weren't allowed on cable lineups...

 

[osu1991]

LUS out of Lafayette, Louisiana has ASN on 133 (KXKW 32.1) on their lineup.....Funny cause I thought LP station weren't allowed on cable lineups...

They're allowed, they just have to negotiate for carriage like anyone else. They are not covered by "Must-Carry" legislation

 

[Mgsports]

That's good to know.

 

[RedPenguin]

My understanding is this is a partnership between Sinclair, Campus Insiders and 120. Sinclair will carry some content via a renamed ASN sub-channel, Campus Insiders will produce the content and offer it and much more via its website and apps, and 120 (which has a liscense to carry highlights) will do sportsnews.

That's what I gathered also.

It's rather confusing because ASN started out as a pre-empt service on local subchannels such as GRIT, Get TV, and MeTV and eventually as a 24/7 subchannel.

But Sinclair never cared to give the 24/7 station a different name while still carrying out their pre-empting practices, so it lead to confusion while reading news about ASN.

At least ABC and ESPN give the name "ESPN on ABC".

 

[zeebre12]

Did they say this new channel will be on pay TV as well? Like sports channels on DirecTV?

 

[SamCdbs]

Did they say this new channel will be on pay TV as well? Like sports channels on DirecTV?

They have not said.

However, 100% speculation on my part, look at the partners in Campus Insiders and 120 Sports are closely related companies that share space in Oprah's old studio in Chicago.

There is overlapping ownership, but look at the names involved.

Time, Inc (publisher of Sports Illustrated, note that the other companies with "Time" in the name like Time Warner Cable are different companies)

Jerry Reinsdorf (owner of Bulls and White Sox)

MLBAM (spun off from MLB, which still owns a share, it does the MLB and NHL apps)

PGA Tour (which is owned by the players, and has the right to take its TV rights back from Golf Channel after next season)

NHL

And then Sinclair, which owns TV stations in 80 markets covering 30% of the population.

All of those entities have one thing in common. All are in deals with DirecTV. I expect that a nationalized version of whatever they call ASN will show up on DirecTV.

 

[RedPenguin]

Also, maybe Sinclair will somehow use the Tennis Channel as part of their national coverage.