C-Set no longer

C-Set no longer exists.


Posted on Fri, Jul. 01, 2005





C-SET signs off after nine months


THE CHARLOTTE Bobcats have pulled the plug on C-SET. It signed off Thursday night.

Launched in October to showcase Bobcats basketball as well as sports events in the Carolinas, the digital cable channel had trouble attracting advertising dollars and cable systems. Only Time Warner had agreed to carry C-SET, which aired in Columbia on channel 148 and also was seen in Charlotte and Raleigh.

According to bizjournals.com, the channel lost more than $15 million during its nine months of operation.

From the very beginning, C-SET was a gamble. It entered a cable landscape crowded with general-interest sports channels such as ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Sports Net, College Sports TV and Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (not available in Columbia) and specialty services such as The Golf Channel, Outdoor Life and Speed.

Other than live telecasts of the Bobcats and some I-AA college games in football, basketball and baseball, C-SET had no access to major sports events that would have interested viewers in the Carolinas. Key ACC and SEC pairings already were contractually tied to other cable channels.

“You would have to have strong programming involving those two conferences to be successful in this area,” said Dan Santelle, vice-president of marketing Time Warner Columbia.

C-SET tried minor league baseball this spring, but there weren’t enough people interested in watching the Durham Bulls on video tape delay.

Bobcats president Ed Tapscott thought C-SET had “a terrific look but it didn’t reach the critical mass” the Bobcats need to build a fan base. Tapscott said the team will try to offer a package of games to basic cable and over-the-air TV during the 2005-06 season.

Santelle said there are no immediate plans to replace C-SET with another service.

 

They shut it off during half time of the Charlotte Sting game. Showed the 1st half, but not the 2nd.

 

I heard that. I'm guessing a disgruntled laid off master control operator decided to shut down the channel a bit early just because he could. If he did, that whips a lot of ass.

 

I think it's more likely that C-SET wanted to sign off by doing one great act of community service.

 

Good point. How the hell has the WNBA lasted this long?