TNT to carry 10 Rockets games
Network releases tentative schedule of telecasts for NBA regular-season matchups
At the risk of sounding like your dad or your slightly dodgy uncle, I’m pretty sure that you’re all going to forget this by the time it becomes applicable.
Still, I’m going to remind you about the potential asterisk involved with this week’s news that TNT will air 10 Rockets games this season.
And get those kids off my lawn.
Presuming that the Rockets live up to the preseason hype, there’s a reasonable possibility that local viewers will be able to see all 10 Rockets games selected for telecast on
TNT with no issues.
TNT can offer six exclusive games in each market — exclusive meaning that the game can’t also be aired on the local regional sports network, in this case AT&T SportsNet Southwest. It can air three games that also air on the local RSN. And, in some cases, it can add a seventh exclusive appearance.
However, NBA television schedules are more subject to change than any of the major sports, so there’s always a chance that TNT could add an 11th Rockets game if circumstances call for it. If that happens, the game will be seen on AT&T SportsNet Southwest but will not air in Houston on TNT.
Got that? Do you all promise faithfully to remember it? Will I even remember it when the time comes next spring? And what are these kids still doing on my lawn?
As for particulars, the TNT games are at home against the Bucks on Oct. 24, at the Clippers on Dec. 19, at Oklahoma City on
Jan. 9, at the Lakers on
Feb. 6, at home for Boston on Feb. 11, at Golden State on Feb. 20, at home for the Clippers on March 5, at the Lakers on March 12, at Philadelphia on March 31 and at home for the Warriors on April 2.
TNT has scheduled 12 appearances each for the Lakers and Warriors, 11 for the Clippers and 10 each for the Bucks, Rockets, Celtics and Trail Blazers.
The never-ending story
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but we appear to be one step closer to a resumption of the longrunning Comcast SportsNet Houston bankruptcy case, which dates back to the fall of 2013 and the collapse of the doomed regional sports network owned by the Astros, Rockets and Comcast.
Nothing that transpires before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur will have any impact on AT&T SportsNet Southwest, which was launched in the fall of 2014 out of the remains of the bankrupt CSN Houston. But there are still significant dollars at stake.
As you may recall, Isgur ruled in 2014 that Comcast was not entitled to recover any of its $100 million secured loan that it used to launch the network in
2014. That decision enabled AT&T and DirecTV to buy the network for $1,000 and relaunch it with Astros and Rockets games, and it resulted in the Astros and Rockets losing several hundred million dollars’ worth of phantom equity in the failed enterprise.
Comcast appealed Isgur’s ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the court last year sent the case back to Isgur with instructions to re-examine whether he was correct in saying that Comcast was not owed money for its CSN Houston investment.
Isgur has spent the past several months deliberating how to re-hear the case and a couple of weeks ago laid down the groundwork for an upcoming hearing.
He will preside over another trial in which attorneys will argue about the valuation of the network when it was forced into involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013-14, and he will allow arguments concerning which valuation method will be used to determine the network’s value.
If Comcast prevails, it could stand to recover $73 million to $54 million, based on which measurement it decides to use. If the Astros and former Rockets owner Leslie Alexander, who retained his position with the bankrupt network even after he sold the team, prevail, Comcast will be owed nothing.
Under any circumstance, the case probably will go back to the 5th Circuit, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it eventually ends up in the Supreme Court of the United States.
And, once that’s concluded, there remain two other legal matters to be settled — a lawsuit filed against Comcast by the Astros and Alexander, and a lawsuit filed by the Astros against former Astros owner Drayton McLane, who put together the network plan with Alexander.
I’m guessing this is going to go on at least for another five years in some form or fashion, so we likely will have occasion to discuss the topic again. Money, however, is the only matter in issue, not access to Astros and Rockets games on AT&T SportsNet Southwest.
No ACC Network deal
Charter Communications, which owns the former Time Warner Cable markets under the brand name Spectrum, this week reached a new distribution agreement with Disney that will include the new ACC Network that launches Aug. 22.
Spring, Dickinson-Texas City and the BeaumontPort Arthur area are the primary markets in this portion of Southeast Texas that have Spectrum.
The Charter deal leaves Comcast, Dish Network, AT&T U-verse and Cox as major carriers that likely will not carry ACC Network when it launches. Dish Network, of course, is increasingly a black hole for sports networks. Comcast, however, is a major distributor in portions of the southeastern states in addition to Houston, so its potential absence will be an issue for ESPN if unresolved by next week.
Comcast, coincidentally or not, also is the only major carrier that does not offer ESPN’s Longhorn Network. Houston, however, is Comcast’s only significant market in Texas, while Comcast has hundreds of markets in ACC states like Florida, Georgia and Virginia. It will be interesting to see how that contretemps unfolds.
Four DVRs, no waiting
• ESPN’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary season of college football begins Saturday, Aug. 24, with the 90-minute documentary “Football is US: The College Game.”
• “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” returns at 10 p.m. Tuesday on HBO with a couple of segments of local interest. Soledad O’Brien reports on the incidence of heat strokes among high school football players, an unfortunately not-unfamiliar phenomenon in these parts, and on Justin Tucker, the former Texas Longhorns kicker, now with the Ravens, who can sing opera in seven languages.
Other segments include the return of Ryan Lochte to Olympic-caliber swimming and on the continued struggles of Ken Green, the golfer who attempted to return to the PGA Tour after losing a leg in an RV accident that killed his girlfriend, brother and dog . ...
• Former NFL player and coach Jack Del Rio has signed on with ESPN as a studio analyst. He debuts Friday . ... CBS tells Sports Business Daily that the network is pacing ahead of schedule for NFL ad sales. ...
• Former Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme will be the radio analyst this fall for 10 Carolina Panthers games, including the Panthers’ road game in Houston, according to the Charlotte Observer . ... Assorted media outlets report that HBO is considering a “Hard Knocks” style college series that would involve Alabama, Arizona State, Penn state and Washington State . ...
• ESPN Films’ next documentary is “Rodman: For Better or Worse,” on former NBA forward Dennis Rodman. Todd Kapostasy, who has directed documentaries on the George Brett pine tar furor and the 2016 Chicago Cubs, is the director . ...
• Ed Werder, who was laid off by ESPN in 2017, has been re-hired and will remain in Dallas as a reporter for ESPN . ...
• The Raiders continue to be popular fodder for HBO’s and NFL Films’ “Hard Knocks.” The second episode was watched by 887,000 viewers, the highest number since the finale of the 2015 series featuring the Texans during the glorious days of the Ryan Mallett era . ...
• CBS Sports says its NFL game teams this year will be Jim Nantz/Tony Romo, Ian Eagle/Dan Fouts, Greg Gumbel/Trent Green,
Kevin Harlan/Rich Gannon, Andrew Catalon/ James Lofton, Spero Dedes/Adam Archuleta, Tom McCarthy/Jay Feely and Beth Mowins/Tiki Barber . ...
• Finally, to whet your thirst during this dreadful stretch of summer, be advised that ESPN’s bowl game in Frisco, north of Dallas, will henceforth be known as the Tropical Smoothie Café Frisco Bowl.
A version of this story first appeared on txsportsnation.com, the Chronicle’s all-sports website. Sign up for the newsletter at houstonchronicle.com/ newsletters david.barron@chron.com twitter.com/dfbarron