Spectrum Sports was a network of regional sports cable television stations serving much of the

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

area. The stations, which were

owned and operated 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 ...

Charter Communications Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...

through its acquisition of

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 ...

in May 2016, were available in

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

Binghamton Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

and Buffalo. The network broadcast a variety of local college and minor league sports games and was the de facto successor to the Buffalo-based

Empire Sports Network Empire Sports Network was an American regional sports network that was owned by the Adelphia Communications Corporation. The network was available on cable providers in much of upstate New York (stretching from Buffalo to Albany), as well as pa ...

. Unlike most regional sports networks, Spectrum Sports was never available on satellite television, nor was it available in areas of upstate that are served by companies other than Charter Spectrum/Time Warner Cable (such as

Atlantic Broadband Breezeline (previously Atlantic Broadband) is the trade name for the United States operations of Cogeco Communications, constituting the 8th largest cable operator in the United States, based on the number of television service customers served. ...

in Cattaraugus County or Zito Media in Cayuga County).

History

The network was formed in 2003 as budget cuts at the now-defunct

, the area's previous regional sports network, forced severe cutbacks in the network's ability to cover sports outside of Buffalo. As a result,

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

dropped Empire and instead signed a contract with Time Warner to carry their games on a separate channel, which became Time Warner Sports. Time Warner added some other sports events from local college and minor league sports teams to create the channel, which was initially only offered in the

area. In December 2006, Time Warner Sports expanded southward into the

market. Also in December 2006, Time Warner SportsNet (TWSN) was established by Time Warner Cable in

by acquiring rights to teams owned by the

Rochester Sports Group Steve Donner is an American sports executive, team owner, and manager. He is the founding Commissioner of the Professional Box Lacrosse Association, and the co-owner of the Elmira Mammoth of the Federal Prospects Hockey League. He is the former ...

: namely the

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

(ice hockey), Knighthawks (indoor lacrosse), Rattlers (outdoor lacrosse) and Raging Rhinos (soccer). Some of those teams had previously aired on other Time Warner channels, such as

WRWB WRWB-FM (99.3 MHz) is a radio station licensed to Ellenville, New York and serving an area including much of the Hudson Valley and the eastern parts of the Catskills. WRWB-FM is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and broadcasts with 115 watts effective ...

(the cable-only WB affiliate on channel 16 which has since has been sold to

WHAM-TV WHAM-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Rochester, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Fox af ...

) and Time Warner's overflow channel, channel 98. In June 2007, TWSN obtained the rights to televise the games of the

Rochester Red Wings The Rochester Red Wings are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Rochester, New York, and play their home games at Innovative Field ...

baseball team. TWSN also obtained the rights to air the Rochester Razorsharks basketball team, replays of the

Rochester Raiders The Rochester Raiders were a professional indoor American football, indoor football team based in the Rochester, New York area. They played their home games at Bill Gray's Regional Iceplex in Rochester. The Raiders were previously a member of the ...

indoor football team, and some collegiate sports. The channel serves the entire Greater Rochester area, including the

Finger Lakes The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...

region and Genesee County (

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

). Time Warner Cable established a Buffalo version of TWSN on November 19, 2007, on channel 13 on Buffalo-area TWC systems, operating out of the former Empire studios on Indian Church Road in

West Seneca West Seneca is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 44,711 at the 2010 census. West Seneca is a centrally located interior town of the county, and a suburb of Buffalo. West Seneca, Orchard Park and Hamburg form the ...

. The channel replaced former local-interest channel "Time Warner 13." TWSN hired former Empire host Jim Brinson in the spring of 2008; Brinson returned to Western New York after a stint as the morning co-anchor at

KOHD KOHD (channel 18) is a television station in Bend, Oregon, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for Central Oregon. It is owned by local cable company BendBroadband alongside low-power CBS affiliate KBNZ-LD (channel 7). Both stations sha ...

in Bend, Oregon and hosts programs as well as handles play-by-play duties. In March 2009, after parent company

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

spun off

as a separate company, all three stations were correspondingly re-branded to begin with "Time Warner Cable" instead of just "Time Warner". The Buffalo and Rochester stations were rebranded as Time Warner Cable SportsChannel in fall 2012, adopting a logo similar to the newly established

Time Warner Cable SportsNet Spectrum Sports (abbreviated as SPECTSN), also known under the corporate names Spectrum Networks, or Charter Sports Regional Networks, is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned a ...

in Los Angeles. Likewise, the channels were rebranded "Spectrum Sports" in September 2016 when

purchased Time Warner Cable. Spectrum Sports ceased operations on October 5, 2017. Locally originated programming mostly ended in June; the network waited until October to cease operations to fulfill its commitment to professional baseball coverage. Existing programming on the network was merged into

Spectrum News Spectrum News (formerly Time Warner Cable News) is the brand for a slate of cable news television channels that are owned by Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016. Each of the 15 regional channels primari ...

and migrated to online platforms.

Programming

Spectrum Sports aired a wide variety of local sports programming. To suit local interests, and because of rights issues, some events are carried only on the Buffalo, Rochester and/or Syracuse feeds. Binghamton, Utica, and North Country viewers receive the Syracuse (Central New York) feed. In addition to local sports (listed below), Time Warner Sports was also affiliated with

ESPNEWS ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News", stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns ...

, which was usually carried during the midday period while that network was provided to regional sports networks for filler programming. Paid programming airs on the channel in the overnight hours. Most first-choice

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

basketball and football games produced by

ESPN Plus ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, in partnership with ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Compa ...

aired exclusively on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel in its broadcast territory, including any that involve Syracuse University. Additionally, Spectrum Sports rebroadcasts Syracuse University games televised by other ESPN networks. SNY (which is part-owned by Charter) generally only has rights to the same games in the

New York City metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...

. However, it may have access to other Big East games to show across the full viewing area, particularly in basketball.

All stations

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

baseball (simulcast of games on

WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship (broadcas ...

) *

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

baseball (simulcast of games on

WWOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the Flagship (broadcasting), flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by Fox Te ...

) (2009-2010) *

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relati ...

, especially involving

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

, and

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

, in addition to the conference tournament. *

Rochester Americans The Rochester Americans (colloquially known as the Amerks) are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League; the team is an owned and operated affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. The team plays its home games in Rochester, New York, a ...

hockey (moved to

MSG Western New York MSG Western New York (MSG WNY) is an American regional sports network that is a joint venture between MSG Entertainment and Pegula Sports and Entertainment. The channel (also on occasion credited as ''Pegula Sports Network'' or ''MSG Buffalo'') i ...

as part of a deal between MSG and team ownership) *

Rochester Knighthawks The Rochester Knighthawks (also known as the K-Hawks) are a professional box lacrosse team in the North Division of the National Lacrosse League. They play in Rochester, New York at the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. The Knighthawks are ow ...

indoor lacrosse (most games were carried in Rochester but some were broadcast across the entire system) * Select

Oswego State Lakers State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY Oswego or Oswego State) is a public college in the City of Oswego and Town of Oswego, New York. It has two campuses: historic lakeside campus in Oswego and Metro Center in Syracuse, New York. S ...

games * Select

football, basketball, and lacrosse, plus coach's show * High school sports, with coverage separated by market.

Buffalo only

* ''Bengal Magazine'', the

Buffalo State College The State University of New York College at Buffalo (colloquially referred to as Buffalo State College, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo State, or simply Buff State) is a public college in Buffalo, New York. It is part of the State University of Ne ...

weekly athletics recap program *

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fiel ...

baseball *

Canisius College Canisius College is a private Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1870 by Jesuits from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. Canisius offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and minors, and around 34 master's ...

hockey and basketball *

Niagara University Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in Lewiston in Niagara County, New York. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and has 3,300 undergraduate students in 50 academic programs. Appro ...

hockey and basketball *

Portland Pirates The Portland Pirates were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). Their home arena was the Cross Insurance Arena in downtown Portland, Maine. The franchise was previously known as the Baltimore Skipjacks fr ...

hockey (2008–11) *

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

home football games (excluding

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%). The ...

family of networks broadcasts) and select feeds from road game broadcasts, men's and women's basketball, baseball (select games carries in other markets) * ''The Enforcers'', an opinion show hosted by

Rob Ray Robert John Ray (born June 8, 1968) is a Canadian sports broadcaster and former professional ice hockey player for the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators. He was awarded the King Clancy Memorial Trophy by the National Hockey League in 1999 for ...

and

Ruben Brown Ruben Parnell Brown (born February 13, 1972) is a former American football guard who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills 14th overall in the 1995 NFL Draft. He played college footba ...

Rochester only

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

men's ice hockey and occasionally women's ice hockey *

Rochester Rattlers Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom * Rochester, Kent **City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area **History of Rochester, Kent **HM Prison R ...

outdoor lacrosse * Rochester RazorSharks basketball *

baseball *

Rochester Rhinos Rochester New York FC, formerly known as the Rochester Rhinos, are an American professional soccer team based in Rochester, New York, United States. Founded in 1996, as the Rochester Raging Rhinos, they changed their name to Rochester Rhinos to ...

soccer

Buffalo and Rochester only

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 ...

basketball (simulcast of games on

MSG Monosodium glutamate (MSG), also known as sodium glutamate, is the sodium Salt (chemistry), salt of glutamic acid. MSG is found naturally in some foods including tomatoes and cheese in this glutamic acid form. MSG is used in cooking as a fl ...

when the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

are playing at the same time) * ''BullsEye'', the

weekly athletics recap program

Syracuse only

home football games, basketball, hockey, and lacrosse (select games aired in other markets) *

Syracuse Chiefs Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

baseball *

Syracuse Crunch The Syracuse Crunch are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). They play in Syracuse, New York, at the Upstate Medical University Arena. They are the primary development affiliate of the National Hockey League's Tampa ...

hockey

References

External links

Spectrum Sports

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spectrum Sports (New York)

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Television channels and stations established in 2003 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2017 Rochester Red Wings Syracuse Mets Sports in Syracuse, New York Sports in Rochester, New York Sports in Buffalo, New York 2003 establishments in New York City 2017 disestablishments in New York (state) Defunct local cable stations in the United States Defunct mass media in New York (state)

History

Programming

All stations

Buffalo only

Rochester only

Buffalo and Rochester only

Syracuse only

See also

References

External links