Prime Network
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prime Network was a cable sports network owned by Liberty Media that served several regionalized areas between 1983 and late-1997. While Liberty owned many of these stations, some were affiliates and owned by another company. Affiliates also had the choice of what Prime programming they wanted to air and when.
Affiliates included:
- Prime Sports Arizona (now FSN Arizona)
- Prime Sports Midwest (now FSN Midwest)
- Prime Sports Rocky Mountain (now FSN Rocky Mountain)
- SportSouth (now FSN South)
- Prime Sports Southwest (formerly Home Sports Entertainment (HSE), now FSN Southwest)
- KBL (now FSN Pittsburgh)
- PASS (Pro-Am Sports Systems; now FSN Detroit)
- Prime Sports Northwest (now FSN Northwest)
- Prime Ticket (now FSN West)
- Empire Sports Network
- Sunshine Network (currently Sun Sports)
- Home Team Sports (currently Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic)
- Midwest Sports Channel (currently FSN North)
- NESN
In 1993, Liberty, NBC and Cablevision created a new venture called Prime SportsChannels America sharing programming and sales agreements between Prime and SportsChannel America. In 1996 Liberty Media sold 50 percent of their regional Prime Sports channels to News Corporation creating FOX Sports Net and a new company, FOX/Liberty Networks. In 1997, FOX/Liberty merged with SportsChannel America creating National Sports Partners, and the Prime Network and SportsChannel names were dropped for the FSN name nationwide.
