KPDX, Fox12+ in Portland, will become Rose City Sports Net, a new network focused exclusively on women's sports. The announcement comes from the station and the new Portland Fire WNBA expansion team, of which former Seattle Storm TV analyst Elise Woodward will handle play-by-play duties. The new net can also be streamed for $5.99/mo.
KPDX is licensed to Vancouver, WA, BTW.
FYI Wayne, Gray, their parent, has developed several of these networks for groups of their stations around the country such as in Las Vegas and Phoenix. This one, though, is the only one which is singularly focused on women's sports which will be a nice case study to see if such a network will move the needle for ratings and thus advertisers. Should be interesting to watch.
ReplyDeleteGray has been quite aggressive about developing sports networks like this one. But this is the first one they've launched that is devoted exclusively to women's sports. Its a bold move, but one that may prove to be quite successful given the growing world of women's sports. I look forward to seeing how this develops.
DeleteSince this new network is directly replacing the existing Fox 12 Plus on the programming dial, I wonder what will happen to the long running 8pm to 10pm weeknight news block that currently airs there.
I have a feeling much on the channel will not change besides more sports being shown and the MyNetorkTV timeslot.
ReplyDeleteYou most likely will be right especially in the winter months when both of those teams, the WNBA and NWSL teams, are out of season. Perhaps something they might want to look at doing to fill time during that downtime is work with the OSAA (OR high school sports association) to broadcast Oregon girls' high school sports state championships
DeleteThe priority there should be saving the Blazers. Losing the NBA would not be good for the city.
ReplyDeleteYeah
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