It began with Bay Area and California earlier this year when they rebranded from Comcast SportsNet to NBC Sports. Now, the rest of the Comcast SportsNet regional sports networks will incorporate the NBC Sports brand starting on October 2. The move will affect seven networks that currently use the “CSN” brand.
This is a move that been under consideration since 2011 since Comcast took over NBCUniversal and brought its regional sports networks under the auspices of NBC Sports.
David Preschlack, the President of NBC Sports Regional Networks and NBC Sports Group Platform and Content Strategy made the announcement:
“We’re excited to complete the brand evolution of our remaining RSNs, which will now include the iconic NBC Sports name on all of our networks,” said Preschlack. “This development is a reaffirmation of our continued commitment to provide the best, most compelling local sports coverage to our fans across the country.”
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The rebranding will not change the on-air studio shows, games or other programming on the Comcast SportsNets, they’ll remain the same. The networks will feature new logos (the NBC peacock remains, of course) and get new graphics packages.
So networks in Chicago, the Northwest and Philadelphia will be known as NBC Sports Chicago, NBC Sports Northwest and NBC Sports Philadelphia respectively. The Comcast Network in Philadelphia will change to NBC Sports Philadelphia+.
For Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic and Comcast SportsNet New England, they’ll adopt their city names so they’ll become NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Boston.
The New York-based SNY will not rebrand.
This move is on a par with the Fox Sports regional sports network strategy and puts the NBC Sports brand on seven local sports networks.