YurView California (formerly known as 4SD, Channel 4 San Diego or unofficially COX 4, and originally known as KCOX) is an American
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
television channel
A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...
serving
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, owned by
Cox Communications, which carries the channel primarily on its San Diego area systems on channel 4.
It originally operated as a
regional sports network
In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region.
...
for
San Diego County
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...
, with a mixed format resembling that of
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
-based regional sports network
Altitude Sports and Entertainment
Altitude Sports and Entertainment (usually referred to as simply Altitude) is an American regional sports cable and satellite television channel owned by Stan Kroenke's Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. The channel, which serves the Rocky Moun ...
. After the loss of the network's television rights to many professional and collegiate sports teams in recent years, its programming has shifted more towards public interest programs as well as local programming,
informercials and older
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
that the channel had been carrying before losing the majority of its sports programming.
History
Cox Communications originally launched the channel sometime in the early 1980s as KCOX. Initially, a large portion of the programming on KCOX was sourced from the
USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
. Beginning January 1, 1983, Cox began offering both USA and KCOX as 24-hour services.
In 1996, the outlet was developed as an experimental service intended to cover the
1996 Republican National Convention
The 1996 Republican National Convention convened at the San Diego Convention Center (SDCC) in San Diego, California, from August 12 to August 15, 1996. The convention nominated former Senator Bob Dole from Kansas, for president and former Repres ...
(which was held at the
San Diego Convention Center
The San Diego Convention Center is the primary convention center in San Diego, California. It is located in the Marina district of downtown San Diego near the Gaslamp Quarter, at 111 West Harbor Drive. The center is managed by the San Diego ...
), as well as to provide round-the-clock coverage for the
Super Bowl festivities at
Qualcomm Stadium
San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium on the West Coast of the United States, west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was known as Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 199 ...
in 1998 and 2003.
During the
October 2007 wildfires that affected San Diego, 4SD carried
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
programs, including the network's
news
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. N ...
and primetime shows, in lieu of the market's ABC affiliate
KGTV (channel 10) due to that station's breaking news coverage of the fires. Similarly on January 17, 2010, 4SD aired a
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
game between the
Connecticut Huskies
The UConn Huskies (or Connecticut Huskies) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut, located in Storrs. The school is a member of the NCAA's Division I and the Big East Conference. The university's foo ...
and the
Michigan Wolverines in place of
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
affiliate
KFMB-TV
KFMB-TV (channel 8) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with CBS, The CW, and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Tegna Inc., it has studios on Engineer Road in the Kearny Mesa section of San Diego, and its transmitt ...
(channel 8), which instead carried a local pregame show for the
divisional playoff game between the
New York Jets and the
San Diego Chargers.
Since 2012, 4SD has served as an alternate channel for
Fox Sports San Diego
Bally Sports San Diego is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between Diamond Sports Group (itself a 50-50 joint venture between the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios) (which owns a controlling 80% stake ...
for Cox and Time Warner Cable systems in San Diego County, carrying games from other teams that the regional sports network holds television rights in the event that live Padres telecasts on Fox Sports San Diego occur simultaneously as
Los Angeles Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...
,
Anaheim Ducks or
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...
broadcast (which are simulcast from the latter channel's
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
-based sister network
Fox Sports Prime Ticket).
Cox San Diego agreed to carry some games from the first season of the
Fall Experimental Football League
The Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL) was a professional football minor league that played two seasons in 2014 and 2015. This league's stated goal was to become a professional feeder-system for the National Football League (NFL).
The lea ...
in October and November 2014. The channel was only programmed part-time
In March 2017, Cox Communications rebranded its local origination channels under the
YurView banner (with The Cox Channel relaunching as YurView California), as part of a nationwide effort by Cox to bring all of their community access channels under a unified brand.
Programming
YurView California now serves as a locally originated entertainment channel, with many of its programs airing several times each week. Shows broadcast on the channel include ''
Sam the Cooking Guy'', ''BackBeat'' (a program about local musicians), ''California Life with Heather Dawson'', ''Forefront'' and ''Cox California Edition''. Although the channel still carries some sports programs (including ''Raceline'' and ''
The Tim McCarver Show''), YurView no longer airs live sports events, with the possible exceptions of high school
football and
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
.
Sports programming
San Diego Padres
In 1997, 4SD obtained partial broadcast rights to
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
games from the San Diego Padres; it aired the team's Monday through Saturday games, with Sunday games (which were produced by 4SD) being televised on
independent station KUSI
KUSI-TV (channel 51) is an independent television station in San Diego, California, United States. It is the sole property of locally based McKinnon Broadcasting Company. KUSI-TV's studios are located on Viewridge Avenue (near I-15) in the Ke ...
(channel 51). In 2001, the Padres and Cox Communications signed a 10-year extension for broadcast rights; as a result of the deal, 4SD built a state-of-the-art broadcast center located at
Petco Park. KUSI lost rights to the Padres following the
2003 season
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
, after having aired the team's games for most of the previous 17 seasons; beginning with the
2004 season, 4SD became the Padres' exclusive broadcaster of games that are not nationally televised (on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
,
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially fo ...
,
MLB Network
The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox C ...
or
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
); although games that are not aired on 4SD or any of Major League Baseball's national partners are not televised within the Padres designated market area.
The majority of these non-televised games are usually mid-week daytime games, which air in time periods more subject to lower viewership. However beginning in August 2010, the Padres in conjunction with
MLB Advanced Media
MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) is a limited partnership of the club owners of Major League Baseball (MLB) based in New York City and is the Internet and interactive branch of the league.
Robert Bowman, former president and CEO of MLBAM, indicated ...
partnered to stream the non-televised games for free within the Padres market via
mlb.tv
MLB.com is the official site of Major League Baseball and is overseen by Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P. (a subsidiary of MLB). MLB.com is a source of baseball-related information, including baseball news, statistics, and sports column ...
for games that did not fall within the
blackout windows imposed by
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
(on Saturday afternoon) or
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
(on Sunday nights). During the time that 4SD held the Padres broadcast rights, Cox Communications'
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
system simulcast Padres games on "COX 96", a local origination channel on cable channel 96, which broadcast the team's games exclusively in
standard definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
(the remainder of "COX 96"'s consists of Las Vegas area government affairs and special event programming).
On April 21, 2011, 4SD manager Dennis Morgigno announced during a meeting with his employees that 4SD will probably not renew the Padres television rights for the 2012 season onwards. This was later formally acknowledged by Cox Communications' vice president of cable affairs for the San Diego market, Sam Attisha, in an announcement that it would lay off the channel's baseball production staff at the end of the
2011 season. The decision not to renew rights resulted from a dispute during contract negotiations in which 4SD and the Padres differed on an annual payments for the rights to the team's games from 2012 onward by a margin of $6 million a year for the next contract.
Fox Sports Net
Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...
offered the Padres a 20-year contract with rights fees ranging from $17 million to $22 million a year (running between $340 and $440 million by the end of the term) with some reports of up to $70 million a year (amounting to $1.4 billion at the end of the 20-year term). Fox Sports won the contract, resulting in the creation of a new regional sports network to televise the games,
Fox Sports San Diego
Bally Sports San Diego is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between Diamond Sports Group (itself a 50-50 joint venture between the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios) (which owns a controlling 80% stake ...
.
San Diego Chargers
Although YurView California never carried live Charger game telecasts, the channel formerly aired ancillary programming related to the
NFL team including interview shows and Chargers game preview programs before their 2017 move to Los Angeles.
San Diego State University Aztecs
From the channel's 1996 inception until 2006, 4SD carried sports events from the
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations ...
, in partnership with regional sports network Sportswest. On September 1, 2006, the Mountain West Conference formed its own sports network, the
MountainWest Sports Network
The MountainWest Sports Network, also known as The Mtn. (stylized as the mtn.), was an American college sports television channel. Launched on September 1, 2006, it was dedicated to the Mountain West Conference (MWC), including studio programs fo ...
(also known as "The Mtn.", which was shut down on June 1, 2012). However, as part of a distribution agreement between Cox Communications and the MountainWest Sports Network, 4SD was allowed to carry select
San Diego State Aztecs
The San Diego State Aztecs are the athletic teams that represent San Diego State University (SDSU). San Diego State currently sponsors six men's and eleven women's sports at the varsity level.
The Aztecs compete in NCAA Division I ( FBS for foo ...
sporting events that were produced by the MountainWest Sports Network as well as most of the MWC Basketball Tournament (which was produced by The Mtn. and
CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known a ...
), with the exception of the conference championship game (whose rights were held by Versus/NBC Sports Network (now
NBCSN). The Mountain West broadcast rights were exclusive to the 4SD feed carried on Cox; the telecasts were not carried on Time Warner Cable as MountainWest Sports Network did not maintain a distribution deal with that provider.
University of San Diego Toreros
In 1998, 4SD obtained the broadcast rights to
USD Toreros basketball home games that are not nationally televised (by either ESPN, ESPN2,
ESPNU or Fox Sports Net). In 2008, 4SD partnered with
Comcast SportsNet California
NBC Sports California (sometimes abbreviated as NBCS California) is an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. The channel broadcasts reg ...
and
Comcast SportsNet Northwest
NBC Sports Northwest (originally Comcast SportsNet Northwest) was an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. The network broadcast regional coverage of ...
to provide regional coverage of
West Coast Conference men's basketball (the deal allows WCC games produced and broadcast by either 4SD or Comcast SportsNet to be carried by either of the three channels, displaying the other network's on-air graphics during the game telecasts on the respective channels). 4SD previously aired all San Diego State University Aztec football/basketball game that was not on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
or
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially fo ...
. However, in August 2011, Cox announced that 4SD would not renew its broadcast deal with the university for the 2011-12 basketball season.
San Diego Legion
In 2018, the channel signed a distribution deal with the
San Diego Legion
The San Diego Legion is an American professional rugby union team based in San Diego, California. The team was founded in 2017 and competes in Major League Rugby.
Home field
The team plays at Snapdragon Stadium, which is located on the campus o ...
professional
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
to broadcast eight matches during its inaugural season with
Major League Rugby.
Carriage
YurView California is currently only available on Cox cable.
In addition to its carriage on Cox Communications, YurView California (at the time 4SD) was available on San Diego County's other major cable provider,
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
(TWC). However it was not available until March 2009 when Time Warner Cable began carrying 4SD on its systems. In June 2010 Time Warner Cable began carrying the channel's high definition feed on its Desert Cities systems. The channel was dropped from TWC lineups sometime in 2016. Games (but not the full lineup) were also made available to Cox subscribers in the Las Vegas Market.
YurView California was never available on
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...
providers
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...
and
Dish Network or to
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...
provider
AT&T U-verse
U-verse TV is a DirecTV brand of IPTV service. Launched on June 26, 2006, U-verse included broadband Internet (now AT&T Internet or AT&T Fiber), IP telephone (now AT&T Phone), and IPTV (U-verse TV) services in 48 states.[fiber optic
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...]
relays and its feed is not uplinked to
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...
(similar to the distribution method of
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia
NBC Sports Philadelphia is an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by locally based cable television provider Comcast (and owns a controlling 75% interest), and the Philadelp ...
). A controversial guideline imposed by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC) as part of the
(known as the "terrestrial exception"), which was implemented to encourage investments in local programming, stated that a television channel does not have to make its programming available to pay television providers that do not operate as cable services (such as satellite providers) if it does not use satellites for their transmission.
On January 20, 2010, the FCC voted 4–1 to close the terrestrial loophole. The ruling, however, did not dictate a maximum amount that providers were allowed to charge providers to carry microwave- or fiber optic-distributed channels. On June 15, 2010, Cox Communications announced its intentions to negotiate with DirecTV, Dish Network and AT&T U-verse to distribute 4SD to those providers. Reportedly, Cox negotiationed a subscriber fee that is much more than DirecTV, Dish Network or AT&T U-verse were willing to pay.
Will Cox strike a deal on Padres baseball?
''The San Diego Union Tribune'' February 21, 2011 However, these negotiations were not successful and led to the Padres' decision to sign a new deal with Fox.
YurView California HD
YurView California HD (formerly 4SD HD) is a high definition simulcast feed of 4SD, which broadcasts in the 1080i
1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is a combination of frame resolution and scan type. 1080i is used in high-definition television (HDTV) and high-definition video. The number "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines on the scre ...
resolution format. It is carried on Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable in San Diego County, and on channel 627 on Time Warner Cable's Desert Cities system.
In 2004, 4SD began simulcasting Padres games in 1080i
1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is a combination of frame resolution and scan type. 1080i is used in high-definition television (HDTV) and high-definition video. The number "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines on the scre ...
high definition. Between 2004 and 2006, 4SD broadcast approximately 120 games in high definition (however, road games outside the National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
West Division, and interleague matchups outside of AL West
The American League West is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. The division has five teams as of the 2013 season, but had four teams from 1994 to 2012, and had as many as seven teams before the 1994 realignment. Although its teams cur ...
teams were broadcast in standard definition, with the exception of a 2004 game featuring the Padres first-ever regular season road games against the Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...
and the New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...
, which were both broadcast in high definition); all Padres game telecasts on 4SD aired in high definition beginning with the 2007 season.
References
External links
*
www.cox.com/sandiego
– Cox Communications official website for San Diego
{{DEFAULTSORT:YurView California
Sports television networks in the United States
Cox Communications
San Diego Padres announcers
San Diego Chargers announcers
Television channels and stations established in 1981
1981 establishments in California