TBN: Pegulas Starting a New Empire Sports Network?

[26CornerBlitz]

Pegulas taking steps to deal with TV and digital media issues involving Bills and Sabres

By Alan Pergament | News TV Critic

This is what I’m thinking: Rumors have been flying for months in media circles about the future television and radio plans of the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills.

There has been speculation that owners Kim and Terry Pegula are considering starting up a regional sports network akin to the Empire Sports Network to televise their games and that they may move the radio rights of the teams.

It all may be as much about wishful thinking as anything because nobody really knows what is going on.

But now there is something concrete to report.

Pegula Sports and Entertainment (PSE) has hired a consultant, Allen & Co., to deal with the team’s media issues.

Click to read more...

 

[TheMistyStranger]

x infinity

Been hoping so hard for this.

 

[Cirris]

Yeah, it would be nice.

MSG was not doing it for me.

You have nothing but NY city programming. The Sabres get a small pre-game and a little postgame and, *poof* right back to Boomer, etc. talking Jets, Giants, Knicks, Mets, Yankees.

Hopefully it would help secure better advertising clients with more revenue from games. I'm tired of smokers quit ads.

 

[Dex]

I think the idea has potential for sure.

As far as the Sabres go, I'd like to see them move to separate TV and radio play by play. The styles are so different and the radio coverage suffers as the on air personalities assume everyone is watching. RJ retains a little of the radio style but even his PbP is TV slanted more than ever.

I'm guessing we'd get to see more Amerks games either live or on delay if there is a conflict with Buffalo. I'd like to see longer pre and post game shows. I used to like the call in segments. More special programming too - like the Blue and Gold stuff.

I think they should at least consider having the network on a station that is both on the local satellite/cable systems basic packages as well as having HD over the air capability. Perhaps that would help with the Canadian fans - but I keep reading that the death knell for cable is sounding and that folks are using online services in combo with over the air.

We need to see/hear more of Brian Duff - for sure.

There is an opportunity for special programming for the Bills. Hopefully that could mean a pre and post game show as well.

I don't hate WGR as many here do - but an upgrade to the signal quality would be nice. WWKB is just sitting there but who knows if Entercom would consider selling as they would be introducing competition to their own stations. Maybe the best the Sabres can do is negotiate a deal for Sabres games to be on 1520 as well. Would certainly give them access to fans in a far wider area and into Canada. I think that there is an opportunity to have a Sabres produced pre and post game radio show as well. There is always FM though I am not familiar with what's available.

HUGE gap in summer material though. Wouldn't they need baseball or soccer to make this work? No offense to them, but I'm not referring to the Bisons when I say baseball.

I guess there would/could be opportunities with Harbor Center tournaments and games and local colleges like Canisius and UB - who knows?

 

[phantomlord]

I miss the old Empire Sports Network and have always resented being shoved on the NYC oriented MSG.

Bonus points if we're able to subscribe to the channel over the net, as the Sabres are the sole reason why I haven't cut the cable tv cord (yeah, I could do a VPN to get the feed from the NHL, but...)

 

[radar493]

I would love to see the Pegula's bring back an empire sports network type station. Can't stand WGR personalities. Terrible sports station. I do like Brian Duff and Rick on Sabres broadcast team. Dunleavy on television is acceptable but don't care at all for him on radio.

 

[Paxon]

When it comes to the games themselves, being on MSG doesn't really make a difference. The team produces the broadcast. It'd be identical on another channel. However, for me there are some downsides to the games being on MSG:
1.) We used to get Rangers games on MSG, which was cool. I used to watch them a lot as a kid. Now that MSG is split into zones for Sabres' rights, they don't air Rangers games. I wonder if they'd go back? It doesn't really matter now that I get every game from every team, but still...

2.) I'm a Knicks fan. Though I'd usually rather watch the Sabres if both are on (not last year, though, when the Knicks were good and the Sabres sucked), it'd be nice to be able to flip to the Knicks game or have it on TV while watching the Sabres GameCenter feed on my computer through VLC.

But that's just about the games themselves. Having an Empire-esque channel again would be awesome for the additional media opportunities. It could give them incentive to expand Beyond Blue & Gold to proper half hour or hour-long episodes. There could be a weekly round table type show for the Sabres and one for the Bills. They could run as many Amerks games on there as they wanted and everyone could see them, whereas now only Time Warner customers can get the Amerks game. I really hope this happens at some point.

 

[Bps21*]

Didn't Ted Black head up The Pittsburgh sports network? Or something along those lines? I've long assumed and frankly hoped that we'd be heading in this direction as the msg contract wore on. When he bought the Bills too it just seemed too obvious to do.

 

[Husko]

God I would love and radio alternative to WGR. If they could pluck WGR's best guys (Howard, Matthew) and leave the afternoon crew there to keep appealing to the lowest common denominator of fans... awesome.

 

[Bps21*]

Lowest common denominator of fans? I thought people hated Schopp because he came off as elitist.

Lowest common denominator is hockey hotline. Unpolished mouth breather throwing absolute **** against the wall.

 

[Chad Thundercock]

I'm indifferent since Pegula owns all sports here and thus it would be all programming like Hockey Hotline and John Murphy on WGR currently.

But it would piss off WGR, and Schopp would return to making snippy jealous remarks about the local teams, that would be funny.

 

[Husko]

Lowest common denominator of fans? I thought people hated Schopp because he came off as elitist.

Lowest common denominator is hockey hotline. Unpolished mouth breather throwing absolute **** against the wall.

Sure, he does. But listen to the people that call in and how out to lunch they are and how mean he is to them. It's very obvious S&B aren't playing to the people reading advanced stats.

And no disagreement on HH.

 

[Beerz]

Maybe we wouldnt have to listen to Terry about the dangers of smoking. That would be a plus.

 

[stokes84]

Sure, he does. But listen to the people that call in and how out to lunch they are and how mean he is to them. It's very obvious S&B aren't playing to the people reading advanced stats.

And no disagreement on HH.

We are talking about people who call into radio shows here. By definition, you aren't getting the cream of the crop.

 

[The Red Helmet]

How awesome would it be to have Sabres post game shows on TV like they were in the 90's with Robitaille and Blessing? Bills, Sabres, Bisons, UB sports! A new regional sports network has the potential to be amazing.

 

[sfoote]

I would love to see the Pegula's bring back an empire sports network type station. Can't stand WGR personalities.

The problem is that they would probably hire on-air personalities from WGR. Art Wander anyone? I like Simon but he's the only one.

 

[SilverNitro23]

I hope this gives an option to watch games legally for people like me who do not have TV cable, and only subscribe for Internet connection.

Gamecenter does not work due to local TV blackouts.

 

[Chad Thundercock]

Sure, he does. But listen to the people that call in and how out to lunch they are and how mean he is to them. It's very obvious S&B aren't playing to the people reading advanced stats.

And no disagreement on HH.

They purposely take calls from idiots. But, no matter if you're intelligent or not, Schopp will be a jerk to you. That's his shtick.

 

[Sports Enthusiast]

MSG does not care about Buffalo and at the same time I don't care that they don't. I don't know the terms of the deal and nor do I care. But I also know that its not like they were showing the upstate stuff in the city. They have their own teams. I never understood why MSG agreed to put them on as if it was their problem to fix or something. I hate the guide saying this college basketball game or whatever will be on MSG and then its a buffalo hockey game. It would be good to have things like that back.

 

[Sports Enthusiast]

Didn't Ted Black head up The Pittsburgh sports network? Or something along those lines? I've long assumed and frankly hoped that we'd be heading in this direction as the msg contract wore on. When he bought the Bills too it just seemed too obvious to do.

There's no Pittsburgh sports network that I know of. Its called Root sports and they have Root sports in a few other places in the country.

 

[ZZamboni]

They purposely take calls from idiots. But, no matter if you're intelligent or not, Schopp will be a jerk to you. That's his shtick.

You slam WGR all the time (and rightfully so) ... But don't you listen (your choice) to several WGR shows thru the day all week while at work?

If callers are idiots... What are avid listeners?

 

[Jim Bob]

Look at all the complaints about the on-air talent that the Sabres have employed recently (Peters & Sylvester anyone?) and why are people thinking there will be some huge improvement over what is out there today if they start their own network?

 

[sabregoat]

I have been hoping for a return of a local sports network for a long time. It would benefit local sports immensely. When the ESN was around, they would televise some Bison games. Because of being on TV, interest in them was also higher and they would year after year draw over 1,000,000 fans. Now the crowds are a lot smaller. If fans would see them on TV, they would go to the games. We also have a D-1 football program that we did not have when ESN was around. There are 4 D-1 basketball teams now and we now have 2 D-1 hockey programs. Between the men and womens teams, college sports can take up a lot of the air time. And now with canalside, the beer league curling matchec can also be televised.

 

[TehDoak]

To me it would be a bit silly to create a new TV channel given the availability of online streaming.

They basically have a dedicated radio station to the bills/sabres already (WGR)

I would understand them wanting to do a onebuffalo production company to make content for sabres.com and buffalobills.com.

I could even see them hosting a daily podcast similar (or even replacing) the daily Sabres radio show on WGR.

In short:

More content, better production, and more fan interaction...heck yes

A dedicated TV station? Un-needed.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

I'm good:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1749931&highlight=