2014’s Five Worst Moments In Houston Sports
Apr 14, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; CSN broadcaster Sebastian Salazar interviews Houston Dynamo midfielder Brad Davis (11) after a match against the Chicago Fire at BBVA Compass Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
“Great Station Goes Bye-Bye”
5. The Demise Of CSN Houston
This moment in Houston sports was truly bittersweet — Houston sports fans got what they wanted but at the expense of this top-notch sports network to close their doors.
Although a great idea in theory, this channel was the cutting-edge of wall-to-wall Houston sports coverage equivalent to a mini-ESPN Houston-version.
The problem was that only 40 percent of H-Town could actually watch this channel.
Mar 23, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; CSN broadcaster Sebastian Salazar prepares for a match between the Houston Dynamo and the Vancouver Whitecaps at BBVA Compass Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
A joint venture of the Houston Astros, Houston Rockets and Comcast Sports Group — these entities opened up their war chest to get the network launched two years ago and was expected to be a lucrative venture for all parties involved.
However, the ownership failed to strike carriage deals with major telecom providers leaving only fans that had Comcast cable and other minor providers the only ones that could see such a superior product.
Their asking price was simply too high — so the financial windfall that they were expected to get was nowhere near what was projected.
This resulted in the network to start hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate forcing the network to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2013.
Corporate greed gone wild.
At one point this year even after the filing, the network was still losing money at a rate of $9 million per month in excess of nearly $100 million.
The writing on the wall became clear — there is no way a business could survive with those financials.
So AT&T/DirecTV, one of the networks that refused to acquiesce to CSN Houston’s high subscriber fees, seemed to be waiting in the wings poised to scoop up the beleaguered network on the cheap.
And that’s exactly what they did — they only paid $5,000 to acquire it through bankruptcy court and will invest $50 million in the development of it.
Yes, that’s it, $5,000.
Feb 12, 2014; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden (13) is interviewed after a game against the Washington Wizards at Toyota Center. The Rockets defeated the Wizards 113-112. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
What a stark contrast considering it cost $100 million to launch CSN Houston in the first place.
Now that AT&T/DirecTV has ownership, they’ve re-branded it with their ROOT Sports banner with the channel morphing into what we know now as ROOT Sports Southwest.
With AT&T/DirecTV having a combined presence of 44 percent in Houston area households coupled with Comcast’s 40 percent, this definitely meant that a majority of Houston sports could finally watch their favorite sports teams on television — something they weren’t able to do for the past two years.
It was at the unfortunate expense of about 100 hard-working people who lost their jobs as AT&T/DirecTV did not have a desire to operate a network that was of CSN Houston’s size.
I’m a long-time Comcast subscriber — and it was truly a stellar product because of the unwavering, one-of-a-kind, award-winning cluster of on-air talent that the network had.
These group of fine people were perennial winners at the Lone Star Emmys.
I still to this day miss CSN Houston and I wish nothing but the best for all involved as they transition to other areas as they continue their careers.
But ROOT Sports is here to stay and it’s safe to say that fans are happy now this mess has been resolved.