Houston gets separate Fox Sports Channel, more Astros

"Houston has its regional sports network back.

• Fox Sports Houston launches Monday as a 24-hour standalone program feed

• separate from the main Fox Sports Southwest feed that services the rest of Texas and the surrounding five states....

• FSN Houston will remain in its current location at Comcast channel 37 and, at the moment for Rockets and Astros games only, at DirecTV channel 678. Channel selection will continue to vary on Dish Network, based on that company’s nightly programming load. ...

• • Beginning Tuesday, FSH will expand its Rockets (and, in season) Astros nightly game replays. A 30-minute condensed version of each game will air at midnight, followed by a replay of the live postgame show and then a two-hour condensed game replay. The 30-minute replay and postgame repeat at 7 a.m., and the two-hour replay re-airs at noon.

• FSH will continue to migrate more Astros games toward cable. As many as 150 games will air on the network in 2009,

• leaving only a dozen or so to air on KTXH (Channel 20)....

FSN Houston is an outgrowth of the decision in November 2004 to strike new deals with the Astros and Rockets

• rather than allow the teams to launch their own regional sports network....

“The games and the teams – the Astros and Rockets, plus our relationship with the Texans – is the oxygen for the network here,” he said."...via Radio Daily News

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