The Lenfest Group's Suburban Cable operation will
debut a new local-programming channel this month with a series of minor-league-baseball
games.
Suburban's Friday Night Baseball game of the
week will feature games from the Harrisburg (Pa.) Senators of the Class AA Eastern League
and the Wilmington (Del.) Blue Rocks of the Class A Carolina League, said Tom Gailey,
assistant vice president of communications for Suburban.
The 16-game summer schedule will be offered to the
system's 925,000 customers in southeast New Jersey, central Pennsylvania and northern
Delaware.
Gailey said minor-league baseball is popular in the area,
and the system has distributed games from the Blue Rocks -- an affiliate of Major League
Baseball's Kansas City Royals -- for years. The Senators are affiliated with
MLB's Montreal Expos.
"The Blue Rocks games have done well,
ratingswise," Gailey said. "It will be interesting to see how the games will be
received in our other markets."
Along with viewing the games, subscribers can interact with
the telecast through the Internet at onair.suburban.com, the company's Web
site for local programming. The site includes programming updates, channel lineups and
chat rooms, Gailey said.
The games are part of the system's newly developed
regional-programming network, which will focus on information and events in the
company's service area. Gailey said Suburban is developing other programs for the
channel, including a morning news and information show called Daily Living.
Debra Krzywicki, executive vice president for Suburban,
said the development of the local channel is an important project for the operator.
"Local programming is very important to Suburban
Cable, and our baseball coverage is only first base in our efforts," Krzywicki said,
in a prepared statement. "We hope that our customers will sit back and enjoy the
excitement of minor-league action."
