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YES Network

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Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network
TypeRegional cable television network
Country
United States
AvailabilityNY metro area; nationwide
OwnerYankee Global Enterprises LLC, Goldman Sachs
Launch date
March 19, 2002
Official website
YESNetwork.com

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, and basketball games of the New Jersey Nets. YES made its debut on March 19, 2002. The channel is available in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and parts of Pennsylvania and nationally on DirecTV.

Founding

YES was the product of a 1999 merger of the business operation of the Yankees and Nets, into a holding company called YankeeNets. One of the reasons that the teams merged was to give them better leverage over their own broadcast rights, with the belief that they would get a better deal if they negotiated the rights to both teams together. Two years earlier Cablevision, who at the time owned the Nets' broadcast home SportsChannel New York (now Fox Sports Net New York), became the sole owner to the television rights of all seven MLB, NBA and NHL teams in the New York market when they acquired the competing Madison Square Garden Network, which had the Yankees broadcast rights since 1989. This led to monopoly-like tactics, including the shift of some games to MSG Metro Channels, which had very limited distribution because Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable routinely fought over carriage deals. Cablevision attempted to buy the Yankees outright, but could not agree to acceptable terms with George Steinbrenner and his partners.

YankeeNets discussed multiple options with potential partners to either stay with Cablevision or start their own network. The ultimate decision was to start their own network, ending the five year monopoly that Cablevision had held on local New York sports. The Yankees' success in the late-1990s was a key factor in the decision, as they had become a much more valuable brand than ever before.

Ownership

File:YESNetworklogo.JPG
Former Logo (2001-2005).

When YES launched, Goldman Sachs owned a minority share of the network. In late 2003, the Yankees and Nets decided to part ways, with the Nets being sold to a group led by real-estate developer Bruce Ratner. In 2004, YankeeNets was renamed Yankee Global Enterprises LLC, which owns the Yankees and YES as separate companies. Therefore, the Yankees technically do not own YES. The Yankees, however, receive a rights fee from YES that is somewhat higher than MSG previously paid. Thus, the Yankees as a team may not be profitable even though Yankee Global possibly is.

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:

YES broadcasts notable Yankees press conferences live, including those of free-agent signees Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon; of trade acquirees Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez; and the announcement of Derek Jeter being named team captain. On August 16, 2006, YES covered the groundbreaking ceremony for the New Yankee Stadium, which is scheduled to open in April 2009.

Since the network's debut, YES has aired select cablecasts of the Yankees' minor league teams: the Yankees' former Class-AAA team, the Columbus Clippers of the International League, and the Class-A (short season) Staten Island Yankees of the New York-Penn League.

Clippers games were locally produced in Columbus, Ohio. After the 2006 season, the Yankees ended their affiliation with the Clippers, and will be affiliated with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons beginning in 2007. It is unknown if Red Barons games will be shown on YES, and who would be responsible for producing them. Staten Island Yankee games are produced by YES, using the same graphics and talent as the major league Yankee games.

In 2004, YES cablecasted a game from the Yankees' Class-AA team, the Trenton Thunder, when Derek Jeter was on a injury rehabilitation assignment. YES wanted to air more Thunder games, but local cable channel CN8 has a contract with the Eastern League to offer games from various teams in its territory. [citation needed]

YES also shows Ivy League college sports, as well as live and classic Big East conference games.

Relationships with New York Giants and Manchester United

In 2000, YankeeNets engaged in a marketing agreement with the New York Giants of the National Football League. This relationship has resulted in exclusive Giants programming on YES, including Giants Online and Giants on Deck, which have remained on the air after the YankeeNets breakup. YankeeNets also had a similar relationship with British football club Manchester United. YES formerly broadcasted taped delayed and classic United games produced by the team's MUTV in the network's earlier days.

Other sports programming

File:IDYES2002.jpg
YES Network ID, 2002.

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 talent. (From 2002 to 2004, WCBS-TV carried the broadcasts.) YES also 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).

On April 2, 2006, WWOR announced that it would be the new over-the-air home of the New Jersey Nets, for at least the 2005-06 season. In addition to some regular season games, the deal allowed WWOR to carry virtually all first-round and most second-round Nets playoff games in 2006 [3]. These games were moved off the YES Network due to conflict with 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 with the team now under a different ownership group, it opted to renew its contract with MSG Network and FSN New York in 2005.

YES also broadcasts NBA TV's daily news and fantasy basketball shows (usually a rebroadcast, but occasionally live in the early AM drive hours) and The Marv Albert Show, and syndicates ESPN regional television games (college sports). YES previously showed This Week In Baseball after new episodes premiered on Fox.

On air personalities

Current personalities

Former on air personalities

  • David Cone - Yankees game analyst (2002; left to join the New York Mets in 2003 before retiring as a baseball player)
  • Fred Hickman - studio host (2002-2004; now with ESPN)
  • Jim Kaat - Yankees game analyst (2002-2006; now retired from broadcasting)
  • Charley Steiner - occasional host of Yankees-related programs (2002-2004; now a radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers)
  • Kelly Tripucka - Nets game analyst (2003-2005)
  • Suzyn Waldman - Yankees clubhouse reporter (2002-2004; now a color commentator for YES-produced Yankees radio broadcasts on WCBS radio)

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, who attempted to purchase the Yankees in 1998 and carried the team's games on 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 area not to carry YES, and has indicated that it will not offer YES unless YES asks for a lower subscription fee. [4] YES, however, has a most favored nations clause with all of its cable and satellite operators. If YES lowered its price for one operator, it would void all other contracts. Ironically, YES minority owner Goldman Sachs also has an ownership stake in Dish Network parent Echostar.

In 2003, now-former 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. [5]

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 market. [6]

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 top-level team executives (quite possibly on directives from Steinbrenner), 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, did 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, Comcast 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. Games on WWOR-TV previously were not available in high definition because that station did not have an HD feed, before September 2006.

Trivia

  • During every Yankee home game telecast on YES and WWOR, the performance of God Bless America, preceeded by a patriotic speech by Bob Sheppard is shown, before going to commercial break.
  • When the network launched in 2002, the domain [yesnetwork.com] was registered by a seminar training company called the Yes! Network. YES temporarily used the domain [yesnetworktv.com], before making a deal with the Yes! Network, who moved to the new domain [yesmidwest.com].
  • Early in the 2006 season, website design and maintainence of yesnetwork.com was taken over by MLB, who operates websites from other team-owned regional sports networks including the Mets' SportsNet New York, the Indians' Sportstime Ohio and the Orioles and Nationals' MASN.
  • During the 2006 baseball season, YES ran promos that the network is the highest rated regional sports network in the country. The claim does not account that the NYC market is the largest in the country, so the highest rated regional sports network would likely come from New York. In fact, Boston Red Sox games on NESN, despite a significantly smaller viewing area than YES, got higher ratings for baseball in 2006 than Yankee games on YES.
  • On air promos for CenterStage end with the guest saying, "Only on YES.". This tagline is rarely used for any other on air promos on the network.
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