The Royals Sports Television Network (RSTN) was a regional sports network serving the Kansas City area, Kansas, western Missouri, Nebraska,

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

, and Iowa owned by the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

. The network began operations before the

2003 Major League Baseball season The 2003 Major League Baseball season ended when the Florida Marlins defeated the New York Yankees in a six-game World Series. The Detroit Tigers set the American League record for losses in a season, with 119, and the Marlins became the first te ...

in response to

Fox Sports Midwest Bally Sports Midwest is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts regional e ...

's decision to reduce the number of Royals games it broadcast. RSTN had trouble getting widespread carriage by cable systems in the area and had no satellite carriage. However, the Royals began the season with good form and RSTN was able to make a deal with Fox Sports Midwest in June to redistribute most of their broadcasts. RSTN ceased operations after the 2007 season, with the Royals moving to the new channel Fox Sports Kansas City in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. The ''Royals Insider'' weekly magazine show won a Regional

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 2005 for Best Sports Program.

References

Defunct local cable stations in the United States Major League Baseball on television Television channels and stations established in 2003 2003 establishments in Missouri Television channels and stations disestablished in 2007 2007 disestablishments in Missouri Defunct mass media in Missouri Defunct mass media in Oklahoma Defunct mass media in Nebraska Defunct mass media in Iowa Defunct mass media in Kansas {{Baseball-stub