Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia

Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia (CSN Philadelphia) is an American regional sports network that operates as an affiliate of Comcast SportsNet which primarily serves the Philadelphia metro area, but its reach extends to cover Southeastern Pennsylvania, all of South Jersey, and most of Delaware. It is owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by locally-based cable television provider Comcast. CSN Philadelphia's studios and offices are located inside the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. CSN Philadelphia also has a small studio inside Citizens Bank Park, which is used sporadically during the baseball season.

Overview
CSN Philadelphia debuted on October 1, 1997, and was the first Comcast SportsNet channel to launch; it replaced the premium movie and sports channel PRISM and regional sports network SportsChannel Philadelphia.

It is the cable home of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, NHL's Philadelphia Flyers, MLB's Philadelphia Phillies, and MLS's Philadelphia Union. The network also covers local college sports games, including the Philadelphia Big 5, the Atlantic 10, and the Colonial Athletic Association.

In addition, Comcast owns The Comcast Network (TCN), which acts as an overflow network for CSN Philadelphia when two sports teams are playing simultaneously. Sister network WCAU (NBC10) carries some Phillies games.

With Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, Comcast SportsNet was also integrated into the new NBC Sports Group, culminating with the addition of the peacock logo and an updated graphics package to mirror that of its parent network.

Current

 * Michael Barkann (August 1997–present)
 * Ron Burke (August 1997–1999, January 2002–present)
 * Marshall Harris (March 2008–present)
 * Neil Hartman (August 1997–present)

Former

 * Scott Hanson (2000–2002, now an anchor/reporter for the NFL Network)
 * Gregg Murphy (December 2008–February 2012, still works for CSN as sideline reporter on Philadelphia Phillies telecasts)
 * Matt Yallof (2000–2006, now with MLB Network)

News

 * SportsNet Central
 * Philly Sports Talk
 * 'net IMPACT

Football

 * Eagles Pre Game Live
 * Eagles Post Game Live

Basketball

 * Sixers Pre Game Live
 * Sixers Post Game Live
 * Sixers City

Baseball

 * Phillies Pre Game Live
 * Phillies Post Game Live
 * Phillies Clubhouse

Ice Hockey

 * Flyers Pre Game Live
 * Flyers Post Game Live
 * The Orange Line

Soccer

 * Union Pre Game Live
 * Union Post Game Live
 * State of the Union

Golf

 * Inside Golf
 * Golf Shots

Satellite carriage controversy
Unlike most other cable networks, CSN Philadelphia is distributed only via microwave and fiber optics. The infrastructure Comcast uses for this was left over from the now-defunct PRISM network. Since CSN Philadelphia did not uplink its signal to any satellite, Comcast was able to avoid an FCC regulation that requires most television channels to be offered to direct broadcast satellite (DBS) companies (known as the "terrestrial loophole"). As a result of its limited availability, DBS providers DirecTV and Dish Network realized far slower penetration into the Philadelphia market. Craig Moffett, a senior analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. L.L.C., estimated the number of potential customers lost due to the loophole at 450,000.

On January 20, 2010, the FCC voted 4-1 to close the terrestrial loophole. Lawyers for DirecTV and Dish Network had attempted to show that Comcast Corporation, who owns both CSN Philadelphia along with most of the cable systems in the Philadelphia market, acted in restraint of trade because it did not uplink CSN Philadelphia to satellite. Comcast does not plan to appeal the decision, so DirecTV and Dish can negotiate immediately to add the channel to their lineups. Both providers formally asked for access to the channel on June 25, 2010. On July 28, 2010, it was reported that Comcast is in talks with DirecTV and Dish Network for carriage of CSN Philadelphia. Two days later, after accusing Comcast of refusing to negotiate in good faith, Dish Network said it will file a complaint with the FCC. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the FCC's original ruling on June 10, 2011. Despite this ruling, Comcast has yet to offer CSN Philadelphia on competing satellite providers.

As of April 2, 2014, last update on Galaxy 17 at 91.0°W at 3920 H -transponder 11 CSN Philly can be received across the United States via a Cisco PowerVu receiver with authorization.

Cable
Cable companies other than Comcast within the designated CSN Philadelphia market do have access to the channel. In December 2006, Comcast even made a deal to place CSN Philadelphia on Verizon's competing FiOS systems.

In 1998, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia almost became available to New York City area Comcast subscribers in southern Middlesex County in the municipalities of Plainsboro, South Brunswick, Monroe, Cranbury, Jamesburg, Helmetta, Spotswood and East Brunswick, who previously had access to PRISM. But days before it was set to be added, the NBA stepped in with a cease and desist order to block the distribution of 76ers games in Middlesex County in spite of the fact that the NBA allowed New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets games to be aired on both Comcast and TKR (now Cablevision) in a part of the Philadelphia market in Mercer County on MSG Network and Fox Sports New York. Unwilling to distribute the channel with 76ers games blacked out, Comcast backed down. Despite this, CSN Philadelphia is available to New York market Comcast Xfinity and Verizon FiOS subscribers in Ocean County, to Cablevision customers in nearby Allentown in Monmouth County, Comcast's Lambertville area system in Hunterdon County and Service Electric's Phillipsburg area system in Warren County.

MLB Extra Innings
Phillies games used to be unavailable on the satellite version of MLB Extra Innings. Beginning in 2007, both the cable and satellite version of MLB Extra Innings began to use the CSN Philadelphia feed for some games and in 2008, when MLB Extra Innings began showing both feeds of most games, all Phillies games shown on CSN Philadelphia became available to all subscribers. In 2010, Phillies games on WPHL-TV (which are produced by CSN Philadelphia) were also shown on Extra Innings. Residents in the Philadelphia area cannot view these games due to blackout restrictions.

Highlight packages
Because of the network's distribution exclusively in the Delaware Valley, for any highlights for teams which air on CSN Philadelphia, ESPN must contract with co-owned local ABC owned-and-operated station WPVI-TV (channel 6, owned by ESPN's majority owner The Walt Disney Company) to provide them recordings of CSN Philadelphia telecasts for Sportscenter, NBA Fastbreak and Baseball Tonight highlight packages, which until 2012 were only provided in 480i SD video, when they began to send them in 720p. As a consequence, national sports broadcasts have typically chosen to broadcast clips from the HD "away" feed and avoid the CSN "home" Philadelphia broadcast feed. However MLB Network and NBA TV have full access to the HD feed of CSN Philadelphia since the network must, as the rights holder, provide full-quality video to the properties of each league for their internet and cable operations, while Comcast provides full HD access to CSN Philadelphia to sister operations NBC Sports Network and NHL Network, which both carry NHL games nationally.

High definition
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia HD is a 1080i high definition simulcast feed of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. Programming broadcast in HD includes live sports and series. CSN Philadelphia shows all Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Union and Philadelphia 76ers games in HD. Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia also broadcasts their live studio shows in high definition, such as Philly Sports Talk, SportsNet Central, and Post Game Live shows.