NBC Sports Bay Area (sometimes abbreviated as NBCS Bay Area) is an American

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. ...

owned as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...

and the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

, and operates as an affiliate of

NBC Sports Regional Networks NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were origina ...

. Headquartered in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, the channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional sports events throughout the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. NBCS Bay Area's sister channel is

NBC Sports 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 regio ...

. The president of the network is

Ted Griggs Ted Griggs (born October 24, 1960) was President, Group Leader and Strategic Production and Programming, NBC Regional Sports Network, overseeing CSN New England, CSN Philadelphia, TCN, and CSN Mid-Atlantic. Prior to that position, Griggs worked as ...

History

Pacific Sports Network

The Pacific Sports Network was launched in September 1989 as a joint-venture of TCI and

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

. It initially held rights to the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

and various college sporting events, including those from Pac 10 conference through its associate with

Prime Network Prime Sports (originally known as the Prime Sports Network (PSN), and also known as Prime Network or simply Prime) is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that were owned by Liberty Media, ope ...

. The network was available as a

basic cable Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. with Data by SNL Kagan shows that about 58 ...

service.

SportsChannel Bay Area

SportsChannel Bay Area was an owned-and-operated outlet of

SportsChannel SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC. Operating from March 1, ...

that launched on April 2, 1990 under the ownership of

Rainbow Media AMC Networks Inc. is an American entertainment company headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York. AMC Networks owns and operates the eponymous cable channel and its siblings, IFC, We TV, and Sundance TV; the art house movie theater IFC Cen ...

, the broadcasting subsidiary of

Cablevision Systems Corporation Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...

. The new network was formed when both the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

and

reached an agreement with SportsChannel to televise their games. The Athletics' contract included 50 games and while the Giants' had 55 games, an increase of 20 games from the team's previous

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

service

GiantsVision GiantsVision was a pay-per-view television service for Major League Baseball games featuring the San Francisco Giants. GiantsVision was in operation for four seasons (1986–1989). Prior to this, the team's only local television outlet was KTVU, ...

. Both teams had also been in negotiations with the Pacific Sports Network, but didn't want their games shown on basic cable. At launch, SportsChannel Bay Area was offered as a

premium channel Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

in-market and as a basic cable service in the outer market which included southern Oregon, Nevada, Hawaii, and Arizona. Other programming included SportsChannel's national programming which featured its NHL package. Additionally, SportsChannel Bay Area televised local college and high school sports, including the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

, and

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

games that were not part of Prime's PAC 10 package.

Merger of two networks and new partnership

The two networks merged on July 12, 1991 to become SportsChannel Pacific. The combined network operated as a premium service until June 1, 1997 when it moved to basic cable. In 1991, SportsChannel Pacific picked up rights to the new

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are owned by San Jose Sports & Entertainm ...

NHL team with a 10 game agreement. On June 30, 1997,

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...

and

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company controlled by chairman John C. Malone. The company has three divisions, reflecting the company's ownership stakes in Formula One ...

– which formed

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 ...

the year prior through News Corporation's partial acquisition of the Liberty-owned

group of regional sports networks – purchased a 40% interest in Cablevision's sports properties including the SportsChannel networks (as well as

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

and its

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

and

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

team tenants, the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

and

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

); the three companies formed the venture National Sports Partners to run the owned-and-operated regional networks. The channel was rebranded as Fox Sports Bay Area on January 28, 1998, at which time most of the SportsChannel networks (with the exception of

SportsChannel Florida Bally Sports Florida is an American regional sports network owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local sports coverage in the state of Florida, with a focus on professional sport ...

, which did not join the network until 2000) underwent a near-groupwide rebranding as part of their integration into the Fox Sports Net family. Prior to the Cablevision decision to affiliate with Fox Sports, some FSN programming had been airing on

BayTV BayTV was a 24-hour regional cable news and sports channel that served the San Francisco Bay Area and operated from July 1994 to August 2001. It was originally owned as a joint venture between the locally based Chronicle Publishing Company (whi ...

, a local cable channel operated by

KRON-TV KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV maintains studios on Front Street in the c ...

and Liberty Media's sister company TCI; the deal which was signed in March 1997 was to last three years. '' Fox Sports News'' continued airing on BayTV until March 31, 1998 when it was moved to Fox Sports Bay Area. However, most of FSN's Pac-10 telecasts also remained on BayTV until the affiliation agreement expired in January 2000. Fox Sports Bay Area aired only a limited number of games featuring local and state teams (usually when there was a scheduling conflict). This led to viewers complaints since the better games were often on BayTV which had limited distribution. The channel was then rebranded as Fox Sports Net Bay Area in 2000, as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner; subsequently in 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN Bay Area, through the networks' de-emphasis of the brand.

Comcast ownership

On April 30, 2007, Comcast purchased a 60% interest in FSN Bay Area, along with a 50% stake in FSN New England, from Rainbow Media for $570 million. Then on December 10, the San Francisco Giants acquired a 30% stake in FSN Bay Area, with News Corporation becoming a minority partner in the network. As a result of Comcast becoming the majority interest holder, the network (after the sale was finalized in February 2008) was integrated into the company's own regional sports network group

Comcast SportsNet NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were origin ...

, rebranding as Comcast SportsNet Bay Area on March 31, 2008. CSN Bay Area became the first Comcast SportsNet-branded network to use a logo style (utilizing Comcast's then-universal corporate logo), based on the logo for

SportsNet New York SportsNet New York (SNY) is an American regional sports network owned by Sterling Entertainment Enterprises, LLC, itself a joint venture between the Fred Wilpon (which owns a controlling 65% interest) Sterling Equities, Charter Communications thr ...

, that was later adopted by all the other CSN regional networks on October 1, 2008. Shortly after the rebranding in April 2008, Fox agreed to sell its interest in CSN Bay Area to Comcast. Following Comcast's purchase of majority control of

, which already owned

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

KNTV KNTV (channel 11), branded as NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's NBC network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Sta ...

(channel 11) and

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a divi ...

O&O

KSTS KSTS (channel 48) is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Telemundo network to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group al ...

(channel 48), on April 19, 2011, the network announced plans to build an additional set specifically for use on sports segments seen on KNTV's newscasts. The revamp would also include in-depth interviews in addition to providing scores and highlights, and utilize CSN Bay Area's sports anchors and analysts. On March 22, 2017, Comcast announced that CSN Bay Area would be rebranded NBC Sports Bay Area on April 2, 2017, in a move meant to "better associate the prestigious NBC Sports legacy with the strength of our Comcast Sports Networks' local sports coverage in Northern California."

Programming

NBC Sports Bay Area holds the regional cable television rights to the

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), ...

and the NBA's

, and also televises select games from Major League Soccer's

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

along with sister network

(these games will no longer air in 2023 on any television channel as Apple TV+ acquires the rights to all MLS games). The network also airs athletic events from

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

and the university's show ''The Charge''. The channel also broadcasts college sports sanctioned by the West Coast Conference. Select high school sports events are also occasionally broadcast on the network. Until 2004, the network also broadcast games involving the NBA's

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

. Following the expiration of their contracts with the then-FSN Bay Area, the owners of the Kings partnered with Comcast to create CSN Bay Area's sister channel, Comcast SportsNet West (now NBC Sports California). CSN Bay Area was also home to the

Major League Baseball franchise until the end of the 2008 season, when the team's games also moved to CSN California; similarly, CSN Bay Area was the home of the NHL's

until the end of the 2008–09 NHL season when their games also moved to

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 ...

. CSN Bay Area also televised select California Golden Bears and Stanford Cardinal sports not on national television before the third-tier rights to their games moved to Pac-12 Network upon its launch in 2012. Through its partial ownership by Fox, CSN Bay Area formerly carried programming distributed nationally for Fox Sports Networks affiliates, even after relinquishing controlling ownership of the network to Comcast and the Giants. This included access to a variety of college sports, notably Sunday telecasts of men's and women's basketball games from the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

, Pac-12 basketball games on various nights, as well as Saturday telecasts of football games from the Pac-12 and

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

s during their respective seasons. Most of that programming has shifted to Fox Sports' national sports network

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

Fox College Sports Stadium College Sports (formerly Fox College Sports) is a group of three American sports networks. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (under the joint venture Diamond Sports Group), the three channels air college and high ...

, with Comcast SportsNet having dropped FSN-distributed programming in September 2012 after the two parties were unable to renew their program content agreement. This arrangement was formed to secure national coverage for its lineup of collegiate sports events. The channel also aired simulcasts of radio shows such as ''

The Dan Patrick Show ''The Dan Patrick Show'' is a syndicated radio and television sports talk show, hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by Patrick and is syndicated to radio stations by Premiere Radio Networks, within and indepen ...

'' until those programs were inherited by

NBC Sports Network NBCSN was an American sports television channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated to programming prim ...

Current and former notable staff members

Rich Aurilia Richard Santo Aurilia (; born September 2, 1971) is a former Major League Baseball shortstop who played for several teams between 1995 and 2009. Amateur career Aurilia was born in Brooklyn, New York. Before being drafted by Texas, Aurilia was a ...

– Giants studio analyst *

Kelenna Azubuike Kelenna David Azubuike (born 16 December 1983) is a British-Nigerian-American former professional basketball player and currently the Golden State Warriors television analyst on NBC Sports Bay Area. Born in London, England and raised in Tulsa, ...

– Warriors color analyst * Jim Barnett - Warriors color analyst *

Vida Blue Vida Rochelle Blue Jr. (born July 28, 1949) is a former American professional baseball player. He was a left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball between and , most notably as an integral member of the Oakland Athletics dynasty that won thr ...

– Giants studio analyst *

Brodie Brazil Brodie Matthew Brazil (born April 3, 1981) is an American television broadcaster who has won 13 Regional Emmy Awards and nominated for 32.

– ''SportsNet Central'' anchor and reporter * Laura Britt – Multi-platform host and reporter *

Dennis Brown Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD (1 February 1957 – 1 July 1999) was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of l ...

– 49ers studio analyst * Kerith Burke – Warriors sideline reporter *

Shawn Estes Aaron Shawn Estes (born February 18, 1973) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. High school Estes attended Douglas High School in Minden, Nevada. As a senior in 1991, he was named Gatorade's Nevada State Baseball Player of the Year and fi ...

– Giants studio analyst *

Ahmed Fareed Ahmed Fareed is an American studio host and sports reporter for American television network NBC Sports. Early life Fareed is a native of Sparta, Michigan, where he played quarterback for the Sparta High School (Michigan), Spartans. After graduati ...

– ''SportsNet Central'' anchor and reporter *

Dave Feldman Dave Feldman (born 1965) is an American sportscaster. Formerly at ESPN and WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C., Feldman began his current position as reporter and television anchor for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area in San Francisco, California on July 23, 20 ...

– ''SportsNet Central'' anchor and reporter *

Bob Fitzgerald Robert James Fitzgerald (born 1966) is an American sports broadcaster who is currently the TV play-by-play announcer for the NBA's Golden State Warriors on NBC Sports Bay Area and was a co-host of the radio talk show ''Fitz and Brooks'' on KNB ...

– Warriors play-by-play announcer *

Amy Gutierrez Amy Gutierrez (born November 14, 1973), also known as Amy G, is an American sports journalist and writer. Life and education Amy U'Ren Gutierrez was born in San Mateo, California and raised in Petaluma, California. She attended La Tercera Elem ...

– Giants sideline reporter *

Kelli Johnson Kelli Johnson is an American journalist and former sports anchor on NBC Sports Bay Area in San Francisco, California. She provided coverage on the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants as well as other teams. She co-hosted the shows ''S ...

– ''SportsNet Central'' anchor and reporter *

Jim Kozimor Jim Kozimor is a television/radio sportscaster who has worked on four Olympic Games as a Play-by-Play announcer (Beijing, London, Rio, PyeongChang) for The NBC Sports Group. Play-by-Play with NBA, WNBA, MLS, College Football/Basketball & Olympi ...

– ''SportsTalk Live'' anchor *

Mike Krukow Michael Edward Krukow (born January 21, 1952), nicknamed "Kruk", is an American former professional baseball player and sportscaster. As a starting pitcher, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and ...

– Giants color analyst *

Duane Kuiper Duane Eugene Kuiper (born June 19, 1950), nicknamed "Kuip", is an American sportscaster and former professional baseball player. As a player, he was a second baseman for the Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball ( ...

– Giants play-by-play announcer *

Bill Laskey William Alan Laskey (born December 20, 1957) is an American former professional baseball player who was a pitcher for six seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1982 to 1986 and in 1988. He played for the San Francisco Giants, Montreal Expos ...

– Giants studio analyst * Matt Maiocco – 49ers Insider *

Greg Papa Gregory Charles Papa (born October 10, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed as the radio play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco 49ers. He has also broadcast for the Indiana Pacers, Golden State Warriors, Oakland Athletics, ...

– Warriors pre-game and post-game host, Giants pre-game and post-game host, and substitute play-by-play announcer *

Ray Ratto Ray Ratto has been a San Francisco Bay Area sportswriter since the 1970s and a sports columnist since the 1980s. A lifelong resident of Alameda, California, Ratto was a Senior Insider for the TV station '' NBC Sports Bay Area'' (''formerly Comcas ...

– NBC Sports Bay Area Senior Insider *

Garry St. Jean Garry St. Jean (born February 10, 1950) is an American former professional basketball coach and executive. St. Jean was head coach of the Sacramento Kings from 1992 through 1997. He later became the general manager of the Golden State Warriors, a ...

– Warriors studio analyst *

Randy Winn Dwight Randolph Winn (born June 9, 1974) is an American former professional baseball player. He played all or parts of 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily as an outfielder. Winn was a switch hitter, and threw right-handed. He mad ...

– Giants studio analyst * Henry Wofford – Warriors reporter, host of ''Race Week'', and ''SportsNet Central'' anchor and reporter * Monte Poole - Warriors insider, founding member and co-host of “Race In America: A Candid Conversation.”

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, list1= {{San Francisco Giants {{Golden State Warriors {{NBC Universal {{NBC Sports {{SF TV {{SportsChannel America {{Prime Network {{Fox Sports Networks {{NHL on SportsChannel America {{Major League Baseball on NBC {{NBA on NBC {{U.S. regional sports networks

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

SportsChannel Prime Sports Fox Sports Networks Television stations in the San Francisco Bay Area Sports in the San Francisco Bay Area Sports in San Francisco Television channels and stations established in 1989 1989 establishments in California Former Viacom subsidiaries