YESNetwork

The Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network (or simply the YES Network) is an American regional sports network that is owned by Yankee Global Enterprises (the largest shareholder with 26%), Sinclair Broadcast Group (which owns 20%), Amazon (which owns 15%), and The Blackstone Group, RedBird Capital and Mubadala Investment Company, which each own 13%. Primarily serving New York City, New York and the surrounding metropolitan area, it broadcasts a variety of sports events, as well as magazine, documentary and discussion programs; however, its main emphasis is focused on games and team-related programs involving the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (owned by minority partner Yankee Global), the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, the WNBA's New York Liberty and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
YES Network's offices are based at the Chrysler Building in Midtown Manhattan. YES programs, including Yankees and Nets pre- and post-game shows, are produced in studios that are located in Stamford, Connecticut. The channel is available on cable and IPTV providers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and parts of Pennsylvania; it is available nationally on some cable systems (as part of a designated sports tier), via satellite on DirecTV, and regionally on Frontier, AT&T U-verse, Verizon Fios, and Cox Communications.
==History==
The YES Network was founded in 1999 known as YankeeNets, created out of a merger of the business operations of the Yankees and the New Jersey Nets. One of the reasons behind the operational merger was to allow both teams to gain better leverage over their own broadcast rights; each party believed that it would obtain better individual deals, if they negotiated the rights collectively.
In 1997, Cablevision, which at the time had owned the Nets' television broadcaster, SportsChannel New York, became the sole owner to the television rights of all seven Major League Baseball, NBA and NHL teams in the New York City market when it acquired the competing MSG Network, which had held the broadcast rights to the Yankees since 1989. This led to monopoly-like tactics, including the shift of some games to the cable-exclusive MSG Metro Channels, which had very limited distribution as Cablevision, Comcast and Time Warner Cable routinely fought over carriage agreements. Cablevision attempted to buy the Yankees outright, but could not agree to acceptable terms with George Steinbrenner and his partners.
To exit its MSG/Cablevision deal, the Yankees would have to give them the right to match any new right agreement and show a judge that a third party was willing to purchase their rights and launch a channel. Thus, new YankeeNets CEO Harvey Schiller hired IMG to provide a valuation for the prospective YankeeNets sport channel. IMG came back with an offer to partner on the channel with a guaranteed rights fees of $838 million. In 2000, YankeeNets and IMG proposed a forming a sports channel valued as high as $2.4 billion. Cablevision sued considering its valuing as "outlandish" to block the channel. In April 2001, the suite was settled such that in June 2001, YankeeNets paid to MSG to have the Yankee's TV right returned to them. IMG had been replaced by other investors, Goldman, Sachs & Company, the Quadrangle Group, Leo Hindery Jr., chief executive of the network, and Amos Hostetter Jr., a billionaire cable veteran, who in total had a 40% share of the channel.
In late 2003, the Yankees and Nets decided to part ways, with the Nets being sold to a group led by real estate developer Bruce Ratner. The sale did not include the Nets' ownership stake in YES (NJ Holdings), which remained with the pre-merger owners of the team. As part of the sale, the Nets signed a long-term deal to keep the team's game telecasts on YES. In 2004, YankeeNets was renamed Yankee Global Enterprises, which owns the Yankees and the minority share in YES as separate companies. Therefore, the Yankees technically do not own YES. The Yankees, however, receive a rights fee from YES that is somewhat higher than MSG previously paid.
In 2007, Goldman Sachs' and former Nets owner Ray Chambers' share in the network was put up for sale. In November 2012, News Corporation agreed to terms on acquiring a 49% stake in YES. As a consequence, each of the network's previous owners had their ownership stakes reduced. As a result of the sale to FOX, the Yankees agreed to keep their games on the network through 2041, which would be the network's 40th year of existence. News Corporation's interest in YES was transferred to 21st Century FOX, when the former company spun off its U.S. entertainment holdings into a separate company in July 2013.
In September 2013, rights to Fox Sports Networks' national programming were transferred to YES. On January 25, 2014, 21st Century FOX became the network's majority owner by purchasing an additional 31% share of YES Network from someone, increasing the company's ownership interest from 49% to 80%.
In 2014, the YES Network announced an average 223,000 households in Yankees game broadcasts.
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire 21st Century FOX following the divestiture of certain assets. While it originally included the FOX Sports Networks chain and YES Network, the Department of Justice ordered that they be sold on antitrust grounds due to Disney's ownership of ESPN.
Bloomberg News reported that the sale of stakes in YES to Fox contained a clause giving the Yankees rights to buy them back in the event of a change in ownership. On November 11, 2018, the New York Post reported that the Yankees had invoked the right of first refusal to acquire YES in the event that the sale of Fox Sports Networks to was successful, formally bidding nine days later in a joint deal with Blackstone Group to get the 80% stake back. The Yankees also appointed the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, RedBird Capital Partners, and Mubadala Investment Company to assist with their bid for the network. Amazon, who was expected to bid for other FSN networks, instead bid for the 80% stake that Yankees want back, desiring to provide streaming services for the network.
On March 8, 2019, FOX News reported that the Yankees had reached a deal to re-purchase FOX's share in the network for $3.5 billion, with Sinclair, Amazon.com, and The Blackstone Group holding minority shares. Mubadala Development Company, a United Arab Emirates’ sovereign wealth fund, and RedBird Capital were reported as minority investors. The deal closed on August 29, 2019.
On March 20, 2020, WCBS-TV began to present its local newscasts from the YES Network studio set, due to the closure of the CBS Broadcast Center in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
==Programming==
The YES Network mainly premieres New York Yankees baseball games and Brooklyn Nets basketball games. Other programs include The Mike Francesa Show, The Michael Kay Show, Yankees Classics, and Yankeeography.
==Staff==
*Michael Kay: Play-by-play narrator of Yankees games on main YES Network channel.
*John Sterling: Host of Yankeeography and Yankees Classics, play-by-play narrator of Yankees game on radio via 880 WFAN.
*Ken Singleton: Commentary during Yankees games. Sometimes does play-by-play narration during Yankees' road games.
*Paul O'Neill: Commentary during Yankees games.
*John Flaherty: Commentary during Yankees games. Assistant studio analyst.
*David Cone: Commentary during Yankees games.
*Bob Lorenz: Lead studio analyst. Sometimes does play-by-play narration during Yankees' road games.
*Chris Shearn: Batting practice host, alternate studio analyst.
*Nancy Newman: Batting practice host, alternate studio analyst.
*Meredith Marakovits: Sideline reporter.
*Jack Curry: Assistant studio analyst, alternate sideline reporter.
*Sarah Kustok: Alternate studio analyst, alternate sideline reporter.
==YouTube channel==
The YES Network joined YouTube on September 2, 2006. The channel posts various content, including post-game interviews, press conferences, clips from Center Stage with Michael Kay, etc.
==References==
Category:Sports YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2006