[外電] Turner South set for change in name, …
Turner South set for change in name, format
By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/04/06
Five months after paying $375 million for Turner South, Fox Cable
Networks has a new name — and a new game plan — for the channel.
It'll be relaunched and rebranded on Oct. 13 as SportSouth, a
regional sports network that will be built around heavy doses of
Braves, Hawks and Thrashers programming.
It'll be the second Atlanta-based, Fox-owned, all-sports network,
joining FSN South. The key difference: While FSN South includes
national programming, such as Fox's "Best Damn Sports Show,"
SportSouth aims to be entirely local.
SportSouth will televise 61 Thrashers games and 45 Hawks games during
the 2006-07 seasons and 55 Braves games in 2007. SportSouth's Braves
telecasts will increase to 80 games in 2008, when TBS cuts back its
telecasts.
Aside from games, SportSouth will emphasize programs focusing on
off-the-field, behind-the-scenes "storytelling" about Southern pro
and college sports, said Jeff Genthner, vice president and general
manager of FSN South and, now, SportSouth.
The new name might sound familiar.
That's because SportSouth, not coincidentally, was the original name
of what now is FSN South.
The path from that SportSouth to this SportSouth involves no small
amount of corporate circuitousness.
When launched in 1990, the original SportSouth was jointly owned by
Turner Broadcasting and Liberty Media. It changed hands in 1997,
becoming part of Fox's lineup of regional sports networks as a
condition of Time Warner's acquisition of Turner Broadcasting. Fox
renamed the channel Fox Sports South and, more recently, FSN South.
Turner Broadcasting proceeded to launch Turner South, largely as a
vehicle for Braves telecasts.
Fast-forward to 2006. Fox bought Turner South from Time Warner in
May, and as part of the deal got the local television rights to all
Hawks and Thrashers games and most Braves games.
And add this twist: Turner Broadcasting's partner in the original
SportSouth, Liberty Media, is in the process of buying the Braves.
Small world.
After considering "800 to 1,000" names for Turner South — Genthner's
count — Fox chose one from 16 years ago.
"We wrestled with it," Genthner said. "SportSouth was such a natural,
immediate choice, but we had to go through the exercise of learning
what resonates with fans."
SportSouth will reach about 8.2 million cable and satellite
subscribers in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, South
Carolina and parts of North Carolina.
SportSouth, which will officially premiere with a Thrashers-Carolina
Hurricanes game Oct. 13, will carry far more Hawks and Thrashers
games this season (45 and 61, respectively) than Turner South carried
last season (nine and 46, respectively).
SportSouth will "evolve gradually," Genthner said. As the channel
fills 24 hours a day with locally oriented programming, expect to
see reruns of games in overnight and weekday hours.
SportSouth's three programming pillars, Genthner said, will be to
"raise the bar on event production," to create a big-event atmosphere
around telecasts of major local games and to create original
programming "that is in-depth, insightful, access-driven." As an
example of the latter, Genthner cites a program currently in the
works on Hawks rookie Shelden Williams' introduction to the NBA.
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