SportsNet Pittsburgh

SportsNet Pittsburgh (SNP) is an American regional sports network serving Greater Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania. Jointly owned by Fenway Sports Group and Robert Nutting via the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Pirates respectively, it serves as the regional broadcaster of both teams. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with some of its operations handled from the facilities of sister network NESN in Watertown, Massachusetts.

The channel was first launched by Tele-Communications Inc in April 1986 as the KBL Entertainment Network, which featured a mixture of sports and entertainment programming. After being transferred to TCI subsidiary Liberty Media, KBL was rebranded as part of its Prime Sports chain of regional sports networks in 1994, and subsequently became a charter member of Fox Sports Net upon its establishment in 1996.

After a corporate restructuring that brought Liberty's networks under DirecTV, the channel was rebranded as Root Sports Pittsburgh in 2011, and then AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh under the AT&T SportsNet brand after DirecTV was acquired by AT&T. In 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would sell or shut down its regional sports networks: in August 2023, it was announced that the Penguins would acquire the network and rebrand it as SportsNet Pittsburgh in October 2023, with NESN—a sister via the Penguins' parent company Fenway Sports Group—assuming day-to-day operations. Prior to their 2024 season, the Pirates also acquired a stake in the network.

As of, SportsNet Pittsburgh is available on cable providers throughout nearly all of Pennsylvania (outside the Philadelphia market), almost all of West Virginia, western Maryland, eastern Ohio, southwestern border areas of New York and Ashland, Kentucky, reaching more than 2.4 million homes; it is also available in the Columbus, Ohio, market through DirecTV Stream, though Penguins broadcasts are blacked out due to the presence of the Columbus Blue Jackets.[1] It is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.

History

The channel launched on April 13, 1986, as Pirates Cable Network, exclusively serving the Pittsburgh metropolitan area; its first sports event telecast on that date was a Major League Baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs from Three Rivers Stadium, announced by Mike Lange, in which the Pirates shut out the Cubs, 8–0.

The network commenced full-time broadcasts on April 24, 1986, as the KBL Entertainment Network, in order to allow other sports besides the Pirates to be included on the network. Its first regular broadcast was a Pirates home game against the New York Mets.[2] The network was initially owned by Tele-Communications Inc. (now part of Comcast), then the largest cable television provider in the Pittsburgh market. KBL quickly expanded its cable coverage. As early as May 9, 1986, its cable footprint roughly approximated its present six-state coverage area.

While it primarily carried sports-related programming, KBL also served as a general entertainment cable channel while under TCI ownership, essentially filling the void left after independent station WPGH-TV (channel 53) became a charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company

Programming

SportsNet Pittsburgh carries Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Pittsburgh Pirates baseball, and other area professional, collegiate, and high-school sporting events. To fill out its schedule outside local sports, the network carries live coverage of the Professional Women's Hockey League, college ice hockey, and the British Basketball League, as well as tape-delayed coverage of pro footvolley, kickboxing, poker, MMA, boxing, padel, jai alai, and World Chase Tag. The network also airs golf programming, sports betting programs, Savannah Bananas baseball, regional outdoor programming, and several documentary and discussion-based shows, including Sports Stars of Tomorrow and In Depth with Graham Bensinger.

On-air staff

External links