Филадельфия PRISM телеарнасының тарихы

Cable channel based in Philadelphia (1976–1997)

PRISM (Philadelphia Regional In home Sports and Movies) was an American regional premium cable television channel in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Launched in September 1976, PRISM was primarily distributed through area cable systems, although it was also available through a scrambled over the air signal on WWSG TV (channel 57, now WPSG) from 1983 to 1985. The channel's programming consisted primarily of theatrically released motion pictures, although it was better known for its telecasts of sporting events, particularly those featuring Philadelphia's Major League Baseball, NHL and NBA sports franchises. Due to broadcasting restrictions imposed by the three major sports leagues, as a cable channel, the network limited its distribution to within 125 mile (201 km) of Philadelphia proper (covering an area extending from west of Harrisburg to as far north as Scranton).

PRISM launched at 5:30 p. m. Eastern Time on September 1, 1976; it debuted with a message by announcer Hugh Gannon: "Good evening, everyone. PRISM, the pay television network, is on the air." 76ers telecasts on PRISM during the run of the channel featured several professional basketball coaches as analysts including Chuck Daly, Gene Shue, Hubie Brown, Matt Guokas and Jack Ramsay. and the children's program block "PRISM Kids" (which aired shows licensed from Saban Entertainment). The network acted as a loss leader in its early years of existence, consistently losing money throughout its first five years in operation, before finally turning its first profits in 1981. This only lasted for two years, ending when WWSG was sold to the Grant Broadcasting System in 1985 and was converted into a general entertainment independent station as WGBS TV. Although it operated as a premium service, beginning in the mid 1980s, PRISM took on the unconventional model of operating as a part advertiser supported/part commercial free service. Occurring during a tough year for the cable television industry that saw several cable channels (such as ESPN, USA Network, Lifetime and The Weather Channel) endure major profit losses, PRISM incorporated commercials into its sports telecasts in 1984, a decision that network management was forced to make on the basis that it could not increase its subscription rates at that time without potentially alienating the network's subscriber base. Movie telecasts continued to be presented without any commercial interruption whatsoever, while content during breaks between films continued to consist solely of promotions for upcoming film and event broadcasts (with promos for scheduled movie telecasts being sourced from theatrical trailers for the corresponding film) and behind the scenes featurettes. On January 1, 1990, Rainbow Media launched a companion basic cable channel to PRISM: SportsChannel Philadelphia, which also served as an affiliate of the company's SportsChannel network. On March 19, 1996, Comcast acquired PRISM's original (part )owner Spectacor and a 66% interest in its primary assets – the Flyers, The Spectrum and the then recently completed CoreStates Center – for $240 million and the assumption of a collective $170 million in debt; the new Comcast Spectacor (with Ed Snider appointed as its chairman) also immediately purchased a 66% interest in the 76ers. Immediately after the purchase was announced, speculation arose as to whether Comcast would let at least some of Spectacor's broadcasting contracts with Rainbow Media lapse, and create a sports network of its own to house at least some of the displaced professional franchises and college teams, thereby displacing both PRISM and SportsChannel Philadelphia from area systems (Comcast, however, had struck a ten year carriage agreement with Rainbow for the networks in the fall of 1995); buy the existing networks; or strike a complex deal with Rainbow to have both networks retain the sports broadcast rights. Comcast indicated that a new sports network was the route it would take, as it approached the Phillies about entering into a broadcast deal. With uncertainty looming over the future of the two networks, relations between PRISM/SportsChannel and Comcast Spectacor became somewhat strained. Negotiations to keep the Flyers television rights on the network nearly broke down, as Rainbow had offered a lower bid for the rights than what the Flyers asked for. By late September, the team announced plans to produce its home game broadcasts themselves and sell the local rights to individual cable providers should a deal not come to fruition. In September 1996, PRISM and SportsChannel lost the regional cable rights to Big 5 City Series basketball games, as there was no assurance that either network would be able to carry the full slate of games, and because of issues that arose during contract negotiations regarding whether Rainbow or the Big 5 would pay for the broadcast rights; this left the association to sell the local television contract to the City Series telecasts for the 1996–97 season (with some of the games ending up on The Comcast Network). Then on October 4, 1996, the day before its season home opener, the Flyers reached a one year contract extension with PRISM and SportsChannel, which would pay $5 million for the rights to televise the hockey team's matches.

On June 30, 1997, Fox/Liberty Networks (a joint venture between News Corporation and Liberty Media) purchased a 40% interest in Cablevision's sports properties for $850 million, with the primary intent of integrating the eight SportsChannel networks into its recently created Fox Sports Net group of regional sports networks. While the creation of the new Comcast sports network seemingly effectively drove a stake through the heart of PRISM and SportsChannel Philadelphia, the Fox/Liberty deal with Cablevision created the possibility of PRISM and/or SportsChannel becoming affiliates of Fox Sports Net. Even though Comcast had already snagged the Phillies' television rights, Fox announced that SportsChannel and PRISM would "continue to receive a heavy slate of Phillies and Sixers games". It then announced plans for the renamed SportsChannel Philadelphia to add national programs from Fox Sports Net, while PRISM would remain a premium service focused on movies and regional sports; although, there was some speculation that Fox and Comcast would possibly partner to aggregate their respective team broadcast rights onto a single channel. On July 21, 1997, Comcast acquired the local television rights to the 76ers from PRISM and SportsChannel, opting out of its joint contract with the two networks that was set to run until the 1999–2000 season. Comcast then reached agreements with Liberty Media and Rainbow Media that resulted in a major change to Philadelphia's cable television landscape; Rainbow officially shut down PRISM and SportsChannel on October 1, 1997, but both channels were given designated successors: PRISM was replaced with the Liberty owned premium movie channel Starz! (which at the time, was starting to expand its national pay television distribution beyond cable systems operated by then sister company Tele Communications, Inc.); for the final two months of its existence beginning on August 1, PRISM also carried select first run movies sourced from Starz! to occupy airtime. Rainbow also offered selected programming from another of its cable channels, MuchMusic USA (now Fuse), as filler during PRISM's final few months of operation. The new Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia (renamed NBC Sports Philadelphia in October 2017, and which would eventually become the flagship property of its own group of regional sports networks) also replaced SportsChannel Philadelphia on local cable systems within the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The shutdowns of PRISM and SportsChannel Philadelphia resulted in the layoffs of 38 full time employees.

PRISM's legacy is noteworthy because NBC Sports Philadelphia continues to distribute its signal to cable television providers through terrestrial infrastructure using only microwave and fiber optic relays, and is not uplinked to satellite. A controversial guideline imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (known as the "terrestrial exception"), that was implemented in 1992 to encourage investments in local programming, stated that a television channel does not have to make its programming available to satellite providers if it does not use satellites for their transmission. This guideline has allowed Comcast to block DirecTV and Dish Network from carrying Comcast SportsNet/NBC Sports Philadelphia. This issue resulted in DirecTV filing a complaint against Comcast with the FCC on September 23, 1997, claiming that it used unfair monopolistic control to keep Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia from being made available via satellite (in contrast, DirecTV had carried SportsChannel Philadelphia prior to its shutdown). Consequently, market penetration by direct broadcast satellite providers in the Philadelphia area is much lower than in other cities within the United States. Comcast eventually began offering the sports network to Verizon's FiOS service in eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and South Jersey in December 2006. The "terrestrial exception" loophole was closed by the FCC in a 4 1 vote on January 20, 2010; however, NBC Sports Philadelphia remains unavailable on direct broadcast satellite providers within the Philadelphia market or nationwide.