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2002 – Victory Sports, and the Minnesota Twins today announced a new telecast partnership providing for carriage of Minnesota Twins games on Victory Sports One beginning with the 2004 Major League Baseball season. The agreement grants Victory Sports the exclusive rights to telecast up to 145 Minnesota Twins baseball games. The agreement could take effect in 2003 depending on the outcome of the pending litigation between the Twins and current telecast rights holder, Fox Sports North. An affiliate of the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club, Victory Sports is the Upper Midwest’s newest regional sports network focusing its programming efforts on local athletic events across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas. Victory Sports is slated to launch its 24-hour network in 2003.
However, Victory Sports was unable to obtain carriage from the primary cable television providers in the Twin Cities, the rest of the state of Minnesota, and the Dakotas, or from DirecTV or Dish Network, though they did sign contracts with several smaller providers. During the 2004 season, the Twins quickly re-signed with Fox Sports North to placate viewers inconvenienced by the change, and were able to obtain a significant increase in cable revenue over their previous contract with FSN.
Cable dispute means most fans can’t watch games