It was a quick rebrand and happened with little to no fanfare. Viewers of Root Sports Pittsburgh and Root Sportse Southwest noticed a new bug in the right hand corner of the TV screen. Instead of the familiar “Root Sports” logo in the upper right, it was a new “AT&T Sports Networks” bug.
Root Sports operates four regional sports networks, Northwest, Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain and Southwest. It has rights to MLB teams in Colorado, Pittsburgh and Seattle, the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, NBA’s Utah Jazz and MLS teams in Portland and Seattle. It has previously branded under “DirecTV Sports Networks,” but with the AT&T purchase of DirecTV and the rebranding of the satellite service under AT&T, it was a matter of time that Root Sports would be under the AT&T umbrella as well.
Root Sports Pittsburgh issued the following statement about the rebrand:
“The corporate parent company has been rebranded from DIRECTV Sports Networks to AT&T Sports Networks. We’ll use the ROOT SPORTS brand as it is used today in marketing except that we will also communicate to viewers that ROOT SPORTS is now part of AT&T Sports Networks and this will be done via the bug and Network IDs.”
Viewers in the Root Sports regional footprints should not notice any changes in programming or in personnel. The Root Sports Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain and Northwest were once under the Fox Sports Net umbrella but were sold to Liberty Media in 2008 which later came under the auspices of DirecTV. And now they’re under AT&T.
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