Comcast Corp. said Thursday that its fourth regional sports network, serving the Northern California region, will launch Nov. 2.
Sacramento-based Comcast SportsNet West will initially be available to approximately 700,000 of the MSO’s subscribers throughout central California.
The network will be anchored by games from the National Basketball Association’s Sacramento Kings and the Women’s NBA’s Sacramento Monarchs.
It will also feature extensive college-sports coverage, including Sacramento State University football; University of California, Davis football and basketball; and Fresno State football, as well as selected games from the Western Athletic Conference, Big Sky Conference and Mountain West Conference.
The MSO reached a 10-year deal with the Kings to air 58 preseason and regular-season contests annually, including 54 that were not available on TV anywhere.
The network will be carried on Comcast’s expanded-basic tier, and HDTV coverage of games will be available on the MSO’s video-on-demand service, Comcast On Demand.
Comcast said Comcast SportsNet West will be made available to all cable and satellite operators in the area.
Its coverage area will expand into the San Francisco Bay area by January, but NBA restrictions prevent the airing of Kings and Monarchs games in that area.
The other three Comcast SportsNet regional sports networks cover the Philadelphia; Washington, D.C./Baltimore; and Chicago television markets.
