YES Network
The Yankees Entertainment and Sports (YES) Network is a New York City regional cable TV channel dedicated to broadcasting baseball games of the New York Yankees, whose previous cable home was the MSG Network. YES made its debut on March 19, 2002. The channel is available in New York, Connecticut, and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and nationally on DirecTV.
Ownership
YES is owned by Yankee Global Enterprises LLC, a holding company which also owns the Yankees. The company was formerly known as YankeeNets, when the company also owned the New Jersey Nets. Goldman Sachs owns a minority share of the network.
Headquarters
The YES Network offices are based at the Chrysler Building in Manhattan. Yankees and Nets pre- and post-game shows are produced in studios that are located in Stamford, Connecticut. [1]
YES original programming
YES has also featured original programs, some of which have won local New York Emmys. Programming other than Yankees and Nets games includes:
- Yankees Magazine
- Nets Magazine
- CenterStage
- YES' Ultimate Road Trip
- Yankeeography
- WFAN's Mike and the Mad Dog, a simuelcast of the popular New York radio show.
- Kids On Deck and its spinoff Giants On Deck
- Boston Vs. New York Poker Challenge, A poker tournament between Yankee fans against Boston Red Sox fans. It is a co-production between YES and Boston RSN NESN.
- Yankees Batting Practice Today, which shows the Yankees, and the opposing team, taking batting practice for the game to follow it. This show was announced after ESPN announced a batting practice show preceding its Monday night MLB telecasts, to debut in 2007.
YES cablecasts two of the Yankees' minor league teams, the AAA Columbus Clippers and the Short A Staten Island Yankees. SI Yankee games are produced by YES, while Clippers games are locally produced in Columbus, Ohio. In 2004, YES cablecasted a game from their AA team, the Trenton Thunder, when Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was on a rehab assignment.
YES also shows Ivy League college sports, as well as live and classic Big East conference games. The Big East package is rumored to be moving to SportsNet New York for the 2006-2007 season.
Notably absent from YES is a daily sports highlight show, in the mold of ESPN's SportsCenter; both MSG and SNY have at least one daily sports newscast.
Other sports programming
In addition to the cablecasts, the YES Network also produces the over-the-air broadcasts of Yankee games on WWOR-TV, using the same on-air crew. (From 2002 to 2004, WCBS-TV carried the broadcasts). YES also co-produces the Yankees radio broadcasts, currently airing in English on WCBS-AM and in Spanish on WKDM (the Spanish feed is simulcast on YES as secondary audio).
Since the fall of 2002, the channel also has been the television home of the New Jersey Nets, who have a long term deal with YES as part of the NBA's team's sale to a group led by real estate developer Bruce Ratner. On April 2, 2006, WWOR announced that it would be the new over-the-air home of the New Jersey Nets. In addition to some regular season games, the deal WWOR carries virtually all first and second round Nets playoff games [2], pre-empting UPN (and in the future, My Network TV) programming. These games were moved off the YES Network due to conflict with New York Yankees games scheduled at the same time. Nets games previously aired on WLNY when YES had scheduling conflicts with the Yankees.
YES also attempted to secure TV rights to the New Jersey Devils, formerly owned by an affiliate of YankeeNets, but that team opted to renew its contract with MSG Network and FSN New York in 2005.
YES also produces select Ivy League college football and basketball cablecasts, re-airs NBA TV's daily news and fantasy basketball shows and The Marv Albert Show, syndicates ESPN Regional Television games (college sports), and shows the long-running This Week in Baseball, after each episode premieres on FOX.
On air personalities
Current on air personalities
- Marv Albert (2005-present; lead play-by-play broadcaster for Nets games)
- Ian Eagle (2002-present; alternate play-by-play broadcaster for Nets games)
- John Flaherty (2006-present; Yankees sideline reporter)
- Mark Jackson (2005-present; Nets game analyst)
- Kimberly Jones (2005-present; Yankees clubhouse reporter)
- David Justice (2004-present; Yankees game analyst)
- Jim Kaat (2002-present; Yankees game analyst)
- Michael Kay (2002-present; lead play-by-play broadcaster for Yankees games, host of CenterStage)
- Al Leiter (2006-present; Yankees game analyst)
- Bob Lorenz (2002-present; studio host)
- Bobby Murcer (2002-present; Yankees game analyst)
- Paul O'Neill (2002-present; Yankees game analyst)
- Nancy Newman (2003-present; fill-in studio host and reporter)
- Ken Singleton (2002-present; Yankees game analyst)
- John Sterling (2002-present; host of Yankeeography and Yankees Classics)
Former on air personalities
- David Cone (2002; left to join the New York Mets in 2003 before retiring as a baseball player)
- Fred Hickman (2002-2004; Now with ESPN)
- Joe Girardi (2004-2005; Now manager of the Florida Marlins)
- Charley Steiner (2002-2004; Now a play by play broadcaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers)
- Suzyn Waldman (2002-2004; Now a color commentator for YES-produced Yankees radio broadcasts)
Bob Sheppard
Since the launch of YES in 2002, the voice of longtime Yankee Stadium public address announcer Bob Sheppard has been featured in station IDs and upcoming schedules.
Controversy
A dispute over being carried by Cablevision (owners of MSG Network) at the time of the channel's launch led to a year without Yankee games for all Cablevision subscribers until New York State's government stepped in and negotiated a temporary deal. The two sides eventually signed a long-term carriage contract in 2004.
Dish Network remains the only cable or satellite provider in the New York City DMA not to carry YES, and has indicated that it will not offer YES unless YES asks for a lower subscription fee.
In 2003, Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer said some negative things in the media about owner George Steinbrenner. In response, Steinbrenner is rumored to have ordered YES not to show Zimmer on camera during its Yankee cablecasts.
In April 2005, YES did not broadcast the opening day ring ceremony at Fenway Park, where the Yankees were playing against the Boston Red Sox. ESPN showed the ceremony, along with the game, nationally, but was blacked out in the New York and Boston markets.
During the 2005 season, local New York newspapers reported that the postgame questions asked to Yankees manager Joe Torre by reporter Kimberly Jones, were being sent to her by Yankees ownership, and that Torre did not feel comfortable answering them. For the 2006 season, Torre, who had been paid a fee by YES to be interviewed after each Yankees game since the network's inception, will not have a post game interview specifically for the YES Network. YES must now send its reporter to his regular session with other media outlets.
YES Network HD
In September 2005, YES introduced a high definition version of the network, available through Time Warner Cable and Cablevision among other providers. All Yankees and Nets home games televised by YES are offered in high definition, as well as selected road games.