Right for Philly? New conservative network

Ed Snider, Comcast-Spectacor chairman and chief of the 76ers and Flyers, has always been a big contributor to conservative politicians and causes — most visibly, when he welcomed Sarah Palin two years ago to drop a puck at the Wachovia Center during her vice-presidential run.

But this month, Snider’s newest conservative venture went online — or more appropriately, on the tube — as a new television network called Right Network began running a debut series targeting right-wing audiences.

“When we approached Ed,” explains David Jaget, the Las Vegas chiropractor who conceived the idea, “he said: ‘I have been waiting a long time for someone to come to me with this idea.’”

Actor Kelsey Grammer agreed to become the public face of the network earlier this year after Jaget blindly approached him in a Los Angeles restaurant.
Right Network is available on a few cable operators including Verizon Fios, Sky Angel and Blue Ridge.

But Derek Blaine, a media analyst at SNL Kagan, believes the network is going to have a hard time cracking into the crowded business of cable TV.

“It is very, very tough for any cable network to get carriage nowadays,” he said.

“Multichannel operators are of the view that there are too many linear channels on the air.”

While Right Network’s business plan is to target Fox News viewers, Blaine said that “even though Fox News is wildly popular, that popularity did not carry over to Fox Business.”