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Bally Sports West

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Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket
Typecable television network
Country
United States
AvailabilitySouthern California, southern Nevada, and Hawaii
OwnerNews Corporation through Fox Entertainment Group
Launch date
Fox Sports West: October 1985 (as the original Prime Ticket)
Prime Ticket: January 1997 (as Fox Sports West 2)
Former names
Fox Sports West: Prime Ticket, Prime Sports West, Fox Sports West, FSN West
Prime Ticket: Fox Sports West 2, FSN West 2
Official website
FS West
PrimeTicket

Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket are Los Angeles-based regional sports networks serving Southern California, southern Nevada, and Hawaii. They are owned by Fox Cable Networks, a subsidiary of News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group. They are the cable television homes of the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers (National Basketball Association), Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Los Angeles Dodgers (Major League Baseball), Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings (National Hockey League), Los Angeles Sparks (Women's National Basketball Association), C.D. Chivas USA and Los Angeles Galaxy (Major League Soccer), and Los Angeles Avengers (Arena Football League) and local coverage of the Pacific 10, West Coast, and Big West conferences.

To note, Lakers and Angels local cable broadcasts air exclusively on West, and the Dodgers air their cable telecasts exclusively on Prime Ticket. The remaining teams on the West/Prime Ticket roster usually shuffle between the two networks in the case of overlapping coverage of televised events. This reflects the fact that KCAL-TV carries all Lakers away games not on ABC, and also provides "destination viewing" for the Dodgers. Most of the teams, aside from the Kings, have some coverage on an over-the-air station, further reducing conflicts. KCOP (also owned by News Corp.) carries 50 Angels games per year (produced by Fox Sports West), while KTLA carries the Clippers and KDOC carries the Ducks (also produced by Fox Sports West).

For a small number of selected Lakers home telecasts on Fox Sports West, games are also broadcast on Prime Ticket (referred to as "Courtside View"), usually on a night when there are no other live telecasts airing. Courtside View offers viewers different camera angles (including those from above the baskets), from the perspective of a fan sitting courtside at a Lakers game. Bill McDonald is the host of those "Courtside View" telecasts, however there are no play-by-play accounts of these broadcasts, but the FoxBox scorebar is on-screen at all times, including most timeouts. This experiment was also used on a couple Kings home telecasts in recent years.

Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket's general and sales offices are located in downtown Los Angeles, across from Staples Center. Their studio is located inside Staples Center.

History

1980s

Fox Sports West was founded in October 1985 as the original Prime Ticket network. The network's founders were Dr. Jerry Buss, majority owner of the Lakers and then-majority owner of the Kings hockey team, and cable television pioneer Dr. Bill Daniels, who was a minority-interest owner in both franchises. Unlike many of the regional sports networks that were operating at the time of Prime Ticket's launching, the channel was (and still is) a basic cable channel, as opposed to being a premium cable service. The first contract with Prime Ticket was negotiated and signed by Tony Acone as President of Prime Ticket and Bob Kerstein as Chief Financial Officer of Falcon Cable TV. Prior to the launch of Prime Ticket, Lakers and Kings games (primarily the non-nationally televised home games) were on the ON-TV/SelecTV subscription service. Because of the height of the Lakers popularity in the midst of their 1980s championship run, and the addition of hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky to the Kings in 1988, Prime Ticket became one of the leading regional sports networks in the country, rivaling that of New York's Madison Square Garden Network.

1990s

In 1990, the network became the cable television home of the then-California Angels, as well as serving as the cable home of the Clippers for one season (1990–91), before they moved to the now-defunct SportsChannel Los Angeles (originally Z Channel) the following season.

In August 1994, Buss and Daniels sold off Prime Ticket to Liberty Media, and became a part of its Prime Sports networks, along with Prime Sports Arizona (now Fox Sports Arizona), Prime Sports Midwest (now Fox Sports Midwest), Prime Sports Rocky Mountain (now Fox Sports Rocky Mountain), SportSouth (now Fox Sports South), KBL (now Fox Sports Pittsburgh), Prime Sports Northwest (now Fox Sports Northwest), and PASS (Pro-Am Sports Systems; now Fox Sports Detroit).

In 1996, the now-rechristened Prime Sports West became part of the new Fox Sports Net, which formed after News Corporation purchased the Prime Sports networks from Liberty Media. It was then that the network took on its current name. It was one year later that the new Fox Sports Net merged with SportsChannel America, to undertake its current configuration.

In January 1997, Fox Sports Net West 2 was formed to serve as a cable home for the Clippers, Dodgers, Ducks, and all other events that FSN West didn't have room for. This is after the December 1993 shut-down of SportsChannel Los Angeles, which left their home teams with only over-the-air and part-time cable coverage locally.

2000s

On April 3, 2006, FSN West 2 officially became FSN Prime Ticket, and later Prime Ticket, making its change with the season opener between the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. The network's new philosophy is to concentrate more on local originally-produced content (such as Before the Bigs, In My Own Words, and team-themed Insider shows) and less on the supplemental programming provided nationally from Fox Sports Net.


Carriage Dispute with Cox and Time Warner Cable in San Diego County

Ever since Prime Ticket came into existence in 1997 (back then it was known as FSN West 2), Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications serving San Diego County have refused to carry Prime Ticket, claiming that the network asks too much money to be put on the expanded basic tier. It should be noted that Time Warner Cable in parts of Fallbrook, Encinitas, San Marcos, Solana Becach, Vista and all of Carlsbad and Del Mar receive Prime Ticket, due to the fact those areas were formerly served by Adelphia. Adelphia in San Diego County acquired PrimeTicket in December of 2001, and was grandfathered into the cable lineup of those communities, when Time Warner Cable took over Adelphia in 2006.

Dodgers and Angels Blackout in San Diego County

Due to the fact that the San Diego Padres have the territory rights for all of San Diego County, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are blacked out on Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West in that county no matter the cable or satellite provider, requiring purchase of the MLB Extra Innings package to view those telecasts. All other non-Major League Baseball broadcasts are available on both networks in the areas that receive either or both networks.

Personalities

Former personalitites

See also

References


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