We can see the light at the end of the tunnel in the seemingly neverending drama surrounding the embattled CSN Houston. Federal bankruptcy judge Marvin Isgur has approved a Chapter 11 reorganization plan, green lighting AT&T and DirecTV’s purchase of CSN Houston. The network would relaunch this month as Root Sports Houston, and gain carriage on UVerse and DirecTV.
Naturally, Comcast has appealed the ruling, delaying the launch even further.
The bankruptcy talk over the last year has resulted in a lot of legalese, and Comcast’s appeal is loaded with even more of that sort of language. The details of the appeal acquired by the Houston Chronicle’s David Barron (who has done an amazing job covering this story from day one) essentially tell me that Comcast feels that Isgur was discriminatory towards their interests in the network while not being discriminatory towards the Astros, Rockets, AT&T, or DirecTV.
If Comcast’s appeal is upheld and a stay is granted, the launch of Root Sports Houston could end up getting bumped into 2015. That’s not good news for the Rockets, who will be two-plus months into the regular season by then. The sooner this gets done, the sooner they can get into a better situation locally, and the sooner they can start receiving their rights fees again.
