I sure hope you’re a fan of NBC, because they’re about to get all up in our faces.
According to a report in MediaPost, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia will soon rebrand itself as NBC Sports Philadelphia (or something similar) in the near future, likely before next hockey season.
NBC Sports is going local. Comcast plans to place the “NBC Sports” brand on its collection of regional sports networks that stretch from Boston to Portland.
“Something like ‘NBC Sports Philadelphia,’ ‘NBC Sports Chicago,’ etc.,” said Dick Ebersol, the head of NBC Sports.
The move drops the Comcast and now “CSN” brand from the regional networks, where the main programming is local pro sports teams.
Versus, by the way, will be changed very, very soon. Versus.com doesn’t even exist anymore. It’s assumed that the CSN networks around the country will be changed sooner rather than later, then.
In terms of what this means for Flyers telecasts on CSN or NSP (Nevada State Prison?) or whatever the hell we’re going to call it, it doesn’t really mean all that much. It’ll still be Jim Jackson and Steve Coates and everybody we know on the network (sorry… Tom McCarthy is sticking around), but it’ll just feel like it’s under more of a national umbrella.
This move has nothing to do, really, with the NHL’s new TV deal with NBC. It’s more directly tied to the Comcast-NBC merger, and the takeover of Versus and all the local CSN networks by the NBC Sports brand.
I do believe it’s good for the NHL and for us, though, because there will be much more synergy with the national broadcasts and our local broadcasts. If they take the good pieces of what we experience every game on CSN and incorporate that into the national telecasts (and vice versa), I’ll be happy.
