SportsTime Ohio (STO) (also sometimes referred to on-air as Fox SportsTime Ohio) is an American regional sports network that is owned by Fox Cable Networks, a unit of the Fox Entertainment Group division of 21st Century Fox, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel, which is a sister network to Fox Sports Ohio, broadcasts statewide coverage of professional, collegiate and high school sports events throughout northern Ohio, including the Cleveland area.
SportsTime Ohio is available from most cable providers in Northeast Ohio and select providers in other portions of Ohio (including Columbus), Northwest Pennsylvania, and extreme Western New York. It is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV, as well as outside Ohio on AT&T U-verse.
Video SportsTime Ohio
History
SportsTime Ohio was launched on March 12, 2006; it was founded by the family of Cleveland Indians owner Larry Dolan, becoming the second regional sports network in the Cleveland area, after Fox Sports Ohio (which launched in February 1989 as SportsChannel Ohio). SportsTime Ohio assumed the regional cable television rights to Major League Baseball games involving the Indians from Fox Sports Ohio, which had served as the exclusive local broadcaster of the Indians from 2002 to 2005, when it was majority-owned by Cablevision Systems Corporation (a New York-based company owned by Dolan's brother, Charles) until an asset trade with then-Fox Sports Net parent News Corporation.
Starting off as rivals with Gannett-owned WKYC providing studio operations for the cable channel, the two networks would soon become corporate sisters, when on December 3, 2012, the Indians announced that it would sell SportsTime Ohio to Fox Sports Ohio parent Fox Entertainment Group. The deal was finalized four weeks later on December 28. Fox retained SportsTime Ohio's existing staff despite coming under common ownership with Fox Sports Ohio, with Katie Witham becoming a traveling reporter with the team.
In April 2013, at the beginning of the 2013 Major League Baseball season, SportsTime Ohio began incorporating the Fox Sports branding, imagery and programming used on the other Fox Sports regional networks.Also on June 29, 2015, leaser of SportsTime Ohio's operations WKYC's parent company, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and home video media. WKYC was retained by the latter company, named TEGNA.
On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports networks from 21st Century Fox, including SportsTime Ohio, sister network Fox Sports Ohio, and Fox's 50% stake in the network's Cincinnati sub-feed. However, on June 27, 2018, the Justice Department ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership of ESPN. It is unknown whether the networks will be divested to other parties, or be retained by the proposed "New Fox" (which will consist of the assets excluded from Disney's purchase, including the Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, and the remainder of the Fox Sports division).
Maps SportsTime Ohio
Programming
Professional sports
SportsTime Ohio holds the exclusive regional cable television rights to the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball and is the cable outlet of the Cleveland Browns. The channel produces Indians Live, a pre-game and post-game show bookending the channel's Indians telecasts or any national games airing on another network. The network also shares coverage of Cleveland Monsters hockey with sister network Fox Sports Ohio.
Original programming
- Current
- Beer Money - Hosted by Jensen Lewis and Gabriella Kruez, a sports trivia game show taped at various Ohio bars, in which patrons are asked trivia questions about local sports teams and figures to win cash prizes.
- Drennan Live - a Monday-Thursday call-in show hosted by Bruce Drennan and Ashley Collins
- Training Camp Dialy - a daily 30 minute program which airs during Browns training camp
- Red Zone - A weekly Cleveland Browns oriented program with WKYC sports director/Browns radio announcer Jim Donovan, Former Browns left tackle and current radio analyst Doug Dieken, and WKNR Browns/NFL analyst Tony Grossi
- The Tribe Report - A weekly show reviewing the previous week's Indians games and headlines, and previewing upcoming team games and events.
- Buckeye Weekly - produced by sister network BTN exclusively for STO, this seasonal weekly show centers around the Ohio State Buckeyes football team; hosted by longtime BTN personality Rick Pizzo and former OSU linebacker James Laurinitis
- Swing Clinic - a golf instructional show hosted by local PGA pro Jimmy Hanlin; is a part of the national Fox Sports Networks schedule
- 18 Holes - a tour of various national golf courses hosted by Jimmy Hanlin and former LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis; is a part of the national Fox Sports Networks schedule
Current on-air staff
- Jock Callander
- Doug Dieken
- Jim Donovan
- Bruce Drennan
- Tony Grossi
- Jensen Lewis
- Rick Manning
- Matt Underwood
- Matt Wilhelm
References
External links
- Official website
- List of SportsTime Ohio cable affiliates and channels (from STO partner WKYC)
Source of article : Wikipedia
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