Local cable provider has no contract to carry Sharks games
GILROY
Hank Provost received an unwelcomed surprise last week as he flipped to the channel where he had become accustomed to finding San Jose Sharks games. After realizing the game was nowhere to be found, however, Provost immediately went to the phone.
“I was furious,” Provost said. “I couldn’t believe it so I immediately called Charter. I had a frank discussion about Gilroy getting three games out of 85. It’s ridiculous.”
Charter Communications, one of the cable service providers in the area that serves about 26,000 customers in Gilroy, Hollister, Watsonville, Capitola and Morgan Hill, recently lost its rights to air Sharks games after Comcast moved the games to a different channel.
“We support the Sharks,” Provost said, “and to not be able to get the games is outrageous.”
Comcast, which used to carry the Sharks games on CSN — a channel to which Charter subscribers have access — decided to move the Sharks to a new station that became the home of the Oakland Athletics last season, Comcast SportsNet California. Charter does not have a contract with Comcast to carry that station.
“Comcast created this new station for themselves and they decided to move those games to that station,” said Christy Balzer, Charter’s government affairs manager. “It is a contractual issue.”
Comcast SportsNet California has been around since 2004 but served customers mostly in the Sacramento area with coverage of the Sacramento Kings.
Balzer said there have been numerous e-mails and phone calls to the Charter corporate offices alerting them of viewers’ displeasure.
“They are aware that there is a loud voice coming out of Gilroy,” Balzer said. “Rest assured that the corporate office is aware that customers in that area are not happy.”
Provost and other Sharks fans like him aren’t asking for much, though, just to watch the Sharks on television in the comfort of their own homes.
“At the corporate level, they are working on negotiations with Comcast to carry that new channel that they’ve created where the Sharks games are, but it’s a negotiation in process,” Balzer said. “Other than that there is no way for us to know how it will all get sorted out.
“We are hopeful that it will be resolved positively and that we will add that channel. But at this point we can’t commit to anything that we don’t know.”
Vice president of communications for Comcast SportsNet, Tim Fitzpatrick, corroborated with Balzer and said there are talks between Comcast SportsNet and Charter to resolve the issue and provide the Sharks’ games to viewers in the Gilroy System market who do not have access.
“We share the frustrations of fans that are unable to see the team play,” Fitzpatrick said. “We are in negotiations with Charter. There are 11 other television providers that carry the network, most of them on terms that are comparable to those being offered to Charter. We’re doing everything we can on our end to have the channel added to Charter’s lineup.
“That’s why we are in this business,” Fitzpatrick added. “Sports fans are among the most passionate viewers on television and we recognize people want to watch the Sharks. No one wants this channel fully distributed more than we do.”
