NBC Sports Philadelphia


NBC Sports Philadelphia is an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by locally based cable television provider Comcast, and the Philadelphia Phillies. It is the flagship owned-and-operated outlet of NBC Sports Regional Networks. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional sports teams in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, as well as college sports events and original sports-related news, discussion and entertainment programming.
NBC Sports Philadelphia is available on cable, fiber optic, and streaming television providers throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan area, which includes southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and most of Delaware. The network is also available on IPTV providers in those areas as well as throughout the entire state of Pennsylvania.
Beginning in 2025, NBC Sports Philadelphia has been available via sister streaming service Peacock as an add-on feature.
The network maintains main studios and offices located inside the Xfinity Mobile Arena in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.

History

The network traces its history to March 19, 1996, when Comcast acquired a 66 percent stake in Spectacor, the parent company of the Philadelphia Flyers, The Spectrum and the then-recently completed CoreStates Center, for $240 million and the assumption of a collective $170 million in debt. Ed Snider, the previous majority owner of Spectacor, stayed on as the managing partner and chairman of the renamed Comcast Spectacor. On the day the deal closed, Comcast Spectacor immediately purchased a 66% interest in the Philadelphia 76ers.
Immediately after the purchase was announced, speculation arose as to whether Comcast would let at least some of Spectacor's television contracts with premium cable network PRISM and existing regional sports network SportsChannel Philadelphia run out, and create a sports network of its own, displacing both existing networks from Comcast and other cable providers in Southeastern Pennsylvania ; buy the existing networks; or reach a complex deal with Rainbow to have both networks retain the broadcast rights to the 76ers and Flyers.
Within days of the purchase, Comcast indicated that it was considering launching a new regional sports network, and approached the Philadelphia Phillies about entering into a broadcast deal. PRISM and SportsChannel Philadelphia's joint contract to carry most of the Flyers' NHL games was set to end that fall, while the Phillies' contract ended after the 1997 season, leaving them both open to enter negotiations with Comcast Spectacor.
After short-lived discussions between Rainbow Media and Comcast about the latter possibly becoming a part-owner in PRISM and SportsChannel Philadelphia, on April 25, 1996, Comcast Spectacor formally announced plans to create a new Philadelphia-centric sports network, which would carry both the Flyers and Sixers; it also signed a deal with the Phillies, giving the new network rights to most of their Major League Baseball games. The deal strained relations between Rainbow and Comcast Spectacor somewhat; Rainbow offered a lower bid for the Flyers telecast rights during negotiations for a one-year extension of its contract. Disagreements between the Flyers and Rainbow Media over the amount the team would receive for the 1996–97 season contract led the Flyers to announce plans in late September that it would assume production responsibilities for its home game broadcasts and sell the local rights to its game telecasts to individual cable providers as a backup plan if deal did not come to fruition. Rainbow and Comcast Spectacor finally reached a one-year, $5 million contract extension to keep its locally televised games on PRISM and SportsChannel on October 4, 1996, the day before its season home opener.
On July 21, 1997, Comcast acquired the local television rights to broadcast the 76ers' NBA games on the new Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, with the team choosing to opt out of its contract with PRISM and SportsChannel that was set to run until the 1999–2000 season. After much uncertainty, which included plans for PRISM and SportsChannel to become affiliates of Fox Sports Net, Comcast then reached agreements with Liberty and Rainbow Media to replace PRISM with the Liberty-owned premium movie channel Starz!.
Reports indicated that Comcast SportsNet initially would charge a per subscriber rate of $1.50 a month to participating cable providers, described as "one of the most expensive – if not the most expensive" basic cable channel in the United States ; SportsChannel Philadelphia, by comparison, charged providers that carried the network between 25¢ and 35¢ a month per subscriber. The company's demand that CSN Philadelphia be offered as a basic cable service resulted in complaints by some local providers because of the higher per subscriber rate; however, Jack Williams, who was appointed as the original president of CSN Philadelphia, said that the company would "not accept any arrangement other than running SportsNet as a basic channel." By September 1997, CSN had secured cable coverage reaching approximately 1.5 million households.
Williams promised that the network would carry more local programming than other regional sports networks, with an estimated seven to eight hours of live sports, and various news and discussion programs.
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia launched on October 1, 1997, replacing SportsChannel Philadelphia on local cable systems within the Philadelphia metropolitan area; with the launch, Comcast SportsNet became the Philadelphia affiliate of Fox Sports Net. Comcast expanded the Comcast SportsNet brand to other markets over the next several years, through the purchases of Fox Sports regional networks in San Francisco and Boston as well as the launches of new channels in markets such as Chicago, Houston and northern California.
With Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, Comcast SportsNet was also integrated into the new NBC Sports Group unit, culminating with the addition of the peacock logo and an updated graphics package to mirror that of its parent network. The updated graphics were implemented on CSN's live game coverage and all studio shows, with the exception of SportsNet Central. In September 2012, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia and its sister Comcast SportsNet outlets ceased carrying Fox Sports Networks-supplied programming, after failing to reach an agreement to continue carrying FSN's nationally distributed programs. On January 2, 2014, as part of an agreement reached on a 25-year broadcasting contract with the team, the Philadelphia Phillies acquired a 25% equity stake in Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.
Comcast rebranded the network as NBC Sports Philadelphia on October 2, 2017, as part of a larger rebranding of the Comcast SportsNet networks under the NBC Sports brand.

Programming

Sports coverage

NBC Sports Philadelphia holds the regional television rights to the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, NHL's Philadelphia Flyers, and the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball. In addition to live game telecasts, the network carries pre-game and post-game shows under the Pregame Live and Postgame Live banners that bookend 76ers, Phillies, Flyers telecasts. Since 2010, the network has also produced the Phillies' Opening Day game and other select Phillies regular season games for NBC-owned-and-operated sister station WCAU. Although it does not hold the regional rights to NFL games involving the Philadelphia Eagles, the network produces pre-game and post-game shows before and after every Eagles game.
The network formerly broadcast select Major League Soccer matches involving the Philadelphia Union until 2023, when the entire league switched to MLS Season Pass for all regular season match broadcasts. The network also served as the broadcaster for American Hockey League games involving the Philadelphia Phantoms until the team relocated to Glens Falls, New York as the Adirondack Phantoms in 2009. It also carried indoor soccer matches involving the Philadelphia KiXX from 1998 until the National Professional Soccer League folded in 2001; as well as National Lacrosse League games featuring the Philadelphia Wings until that team relocated to Uncasville, Connecticut as the New England Black Wolves in 2014.
NBC Sports Philadelphia also maintains the television rights to the Philadelphia Big 5, carrying select games of the annual Big 5 Classic tournament. It also broadcasts numerous men's and women's college sporting events sanctioned by the Atlantic 10 Conference, the Ivy League, and the Coastal Athletic Association. Beginning in 2022, NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcasts college football and men's and women's college basketball home games for Monmouth University. Until Comcast SportsNet discontinued its relationship with its competing RSN in September 2012, the network also carried collegiate sports events from Conference USA, the Pac-12 Conference and the Big 12 Conference, as well as primetime Major League Baseball games on Thursdays distributed by Fox Sports Networks.

Other programming

News

  • SportsNet Central
Talk
  • ''Unfiltered with Ricky Bo & Bill Colarulo''

    Phillies

  • Phillies Clubhouse
  • Phillies Nation
Eagles
  • ''Birds Huddle''

    Golf

  • Inside Golf
  • ''Winning Golf''

    Former

  • Daily News Live
  • ''Philly Sports Talk''

    On-air staff

Current on-air staff

  • Alaa Abdelnaby – 76ers color commentator
  • Rubén Amaro Jr. – Phillies color commentator, Phillies Pregame Live and Phillies Postgame Live analyst
  • Jason Avant – Eagles Pregame Live and Eagles Postgame Live analyst
  • Michael Barkann – Eagles Pregame Live and Eagles Postgame Live host, Phillies Pregame Live and Phillies Postgame Live host
  • Ricky Bottalico – Phillies Pregame Live and Phillies Postgame Live analyst
  • Brian Boucher – Flyers color commentator
  • Barrett Brooks – Birds Huddle host, Eagles Pregame Live and Eagles Postgame Live analyst
  • Ben Davis – Phillies color commentator, Phillies Pregame Live and Phillies Postgame Live analyst
  • Scott Hartnell – Flyers color commentator, Flyers Pregame Live and Flyers Postgame Live analyst
  • Jim Jackson – Flyers play-by-play announcer
  • Marc Jackson – Sixers Pregame Live and Sixers Postgame Live analyst
  • Ron Jaworski – Eagles Pregame Live and Eagles Postgame Live analyst
  • John Kruk – Phillies color commentator
  • Jim Lynam – Sixers Pregame Live and Sixers Postgame Live analyst
  • Tom McCarthy – Phillies play-by-play announcer
  • Al Morganti – Flyers Pregame Live and Flyers Postgame Live analyst
  • Kate Scott – 76ers play-by-play announcer