It is a he, and I would assume he would have a hearing fairly quickly. The projected time frame is to have Root up and running by mid November, a hearing in the next couple of weeks shouldn't affect that. Since there is no stay in place, they are free to make preparations for the switchover.
[rQUOTEr]Attorneys cleared the way Friday to begin the transition from Comcast SportsNet Houston to Root Sports Houston, which could take to the airwaves within two weeks as the new television home for Rockets and Astros games. After Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur on Thursday approved a Chapter 11 reorganization plan that will sell the Astros-Rockets-Comcast-owned network to AT&T and DirecTV, attorneys met into the night to map out the means by which CSN Houston will stay on the air until the new Root Sports channel is ready to be launched. That plan includes the payment of $2.2 million to a Comcast subsidiary that manages its regional sports networks. Isgur will decide later this month if Comcast should be paid an additional $1.5 million for past network services. Also Friday, Isgur denied a request by Comcast to stay his decision to confirm the reorganization plan, which is backed by the Astros and Rockets and opposed by Comcast. That decision cleared the way for Comcast to request a stay from U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes pending its appeal of the case. Comcast said in documents filed with the court it would appeal Isgur’s order on six points, including confirmation of the reorganization plan, its treatment of Comcast’s $100 million secured loan and post-bankruptcy guarantees against liability that were granted to the Astros, Rockets, DirecTV, AT&T and members of the CSN Houston board but not to Comcast. Attorneys indicated they could seek a hearing before Judge Hughes as early as next Wednesday. CSN Houston’s telecast schedule has been updated through Nov. 9, but attorneys said Thursday that Root Sports Houston might not launch until Nov. 14. The new channel will be available on DirecTV and AT&T U-verse in addition to Comcast cable. http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2014/10/transition-begins-to-root-sports-comcast-plans-appeal/[/rQUOTEr]
By all accounts, that's not happening. Not after laying off 90+ and virtually the entire on-air staff.
Those people were laid off by csn, not root. There is a chance that some of those individuals will be rehired by root.
That's not happening anytime soon. Root told CSN who they wanted to keep. Many of the staff have already taken jobs elsewhere. (I know this by reliable 2nd hand information)
David Barron indicated in one of his articles that some of the staff will likely be rehired. I don't think it was a matter of root picking who they wanted as much as it was picking the minimum people necessary to run the shows while this all plays out. But no, I don't expect them to put on full programming blocks.
Not at first. The short term goal is to turn a profit while,obtaining as much carriage as possible. Once carriage is obtained in Dish, Suddenlink and other small providers...then they may be able to expand the programming. It all depends on what the revenue numbers end up being.
I believe he said he thought those people MIGHT get picked up by other CSN networks around the country, if I'm not mistaken. Certainly Root may hire down the road, but there's no indication it'll be anywhere close to the 90 they laid off since they've never done sports news programming. It would have been easy for them to keep the infrastructure in place to do so here and they would have owned the market in terms of sports news coverage, but they chose not to. They'll do what's most important and that's get the games on the air for more eyes to see.
I don't think there's anyway they will get Dish or Suddenlink on board. They can't lower rates because it would cost them revenues from Comcast thanks to the MFN, and I doublt any of these other networks are going to pay the inflated rates. I think their strategy will be that Comcast has an extra expense of $30+/yr just to cover CSN, so they can compete on price for all the people that really don't care that much about the Rockets and Astros.
*He and I guess. I'd refer all questions to smarter, more knowledgeable folks like MadMax and Refman, who have been great throughout all of this.
Judge Hughes is male. Judge Hughes can approve a stay pending appeal. The Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure provides that the stay can be requested from the District Court, but the requesting party must show why they didn't get a stay from the bankruptcy court. Asking the bankruptcy court and getting it denied will be part of what Comcast states in its motion to Judge Hughes.
I don't know why I thought that was a female name lol. Okay, but from the sounds of it. Seem like a pretty slim chance the appeal is accepted?
If Judge Hughes denies the stay (and the appeal), how high can this be appealed? Can this go all the to the SCOTUS?
His first name is Lynn. My first instinct would be to think of Lynn as a woman's name too even though I know men have it as well (Nolan Ryan's real first name is Lynn).
