Carolinas Sports Entertainment Television, or C-SET, was 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. ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that was in operation from October 2004 until June 2005. It was the primary television vehicle of the

Charlotte Bobcats Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populou ...

of the

National Basketball Association 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 S ...

during that team's first season in the league.

History

C-SET was a joint venture between Bobcats owner Robert L. Johnson, the executive who founded

Black Entertainment Television Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

and used the money to become the first majority

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

owner in NBA history, and

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 ...

, the largest cable provider in North Carolina. It was supposed to cover both

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

and

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. An aspect that set C-SET apart from similar team-owned channels is that Time Warner Cable did not put the channel on analog cable, instead using it as an attraction to get customers for their

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...

services. Comporium Cable, the largest cable provider on the South Carolina side of the Charlotte market, simulcast C-SET's broadcasts on its local news channel, CN2. A package of 15 Bobcats games produced by C-SET aired on

WJZY WJZY (channel 46) is a television station licensed to Belmont, North Carolina, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Charlotte area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Rock Hill, South Carolina–licensed MyNetworkTV affi ...

Other programming

In addition to the Bobcats, C-SET aired college sports programs, mostly from the

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

and

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. CIAA institutions mostly consist of historically black coll ...

, outdoors programming (hunting and fishing),

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

, and

action sports Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear. Extreme tourism overl ...

. C-SET also planned a nightly sportscast.

Closure and aftermath

C-SET lasted only one NBA season and folded on the day of the 2005 NBA Draft. The lack of analog cable carriage, as well as the Bobcats' poor attendance, was seen as a primary reason. Additionally, despite being owned by North Carolina's largest cable provider, few other providers picked up C-SET. Time Warner Cable blocked

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

providers from carrying the channel. As a result, cable customers without a digital package, as well as western North Carolina and most of South Carolina, were left to rely on radio coverage. In 2005, the Bobcats moved their local cable broadcasts to

News 14 Carolina Spectrum News 1 North Carolina is an American United States cable news, cable news television channel owned by Charter Communications, as an affiliate of its Spectrum News slate of regional news channels. The channel broadcasts rolling newscasts 2 ...

in another complex and limiting deal which cut out viewers who did not have Time Warner or Comporium as a cable provider. In 2006–07, the team added over-the-air broadcasts on WMYT after one season on WJZY. In April 2008, Time Warner Cable allowed the Bobcats to exit the News 14 deal and sign a more accessible broadcasting agreement with

SportSouth Bally Sports Southeast (BSSE) (originally named SportSouth from its inception until October 4, 2015, and Fox Sports Southeast (FSSE) until March 31, 2021) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture be ...

FSN South Bally Sports South (BSSO) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports Networks. The network carries regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events from across ...

in exchange for Time Warner Cable acquiring the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

for the Charlotte Bobcats Arena, which was later renamed as

Time Warner Cable Arena Spectrum Center is an indoor arena located in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. It is owned by the city of Charlotte and operated by its main tenant, the NBA's Charlotte Hornets. The arena seats 19,077 for NBA games but can be expanded to 20, ...

. The Carolinas would not have a dedicated regional sports network focused on the region until 2008, when Fox Sports South created

Fox Sports Carolinas Fox Sports Carolinas (FSCAR) was an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operated as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel was ...

as a regional subfeed. {{Sports television in the United States Sports television networks in the United States Defunct local cable stations in the United States Television channels and stations established in 2004 2004 establishments in North Carolina Television channels and stations disestablished in 2005 2005 disestablishments in North Carolina Joint ventures National Basketball Association on television Defunct mass media in North Carolina Defunct mass media in South Carolina