Charlotte Bobcats Tip Off with FSN South, Time Warner Cable

National Basketball Association Team Moves Games to Regional Sports Network, Announces Arena-Naming-Rights Deal with Cable Operator

By Robert Marich -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/8/2008 5:56:00 PM

The National Basketball Association’s Charlotte Bobcats switched its games to FSN South and, separately, Time Warner Cable took naming rights to the team’s arena.

FSN South, with 12 million TV households, represents a 40% increase in homes reached over the team’s prior TV berth, which was Time Warner’s News 14. FSN South will telecast a minimum of 70 home and away games next season (out of 82 total games). The channel change takes immediate effect for the final five games of this season.

On arena-naming rights, no financial terms or length of agreement was announced. The renamed Time Warner Cable Arena was previously called Charlotte Bobcats Arena.

“A joint partnership with Time Warner Cable and FSN South represents a special and unique relationship that will join two dynamic media and entertainment companies in partnership with the Bobcats,” Robert Johnson, majority owner of Bobcats Sports & Entertainment, said in a statement.

Charlotte is the nation’s No. 27 metro market and a midsized city for a professional-sports franchise. In comparable-sized NBA markets, naming-rights deals are in place already for Arco Arena with the Sacramento Kings and Conseco Fieldhouse with the Indiana Pacers (Indianapolis).