Seventy-five of the 115 Comcast SportsNet Houston employees yesterday were informed that “their jobs will be eliminated if a bankruptcy judge approves a plan backed by the Astros and Rockets to sell the financially troubled network to DirecTV and AT&T,” according to David Barron of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Details in letters prepared for city and state officials show that 40 employees "were notified their jobs will be retained by the AT&T/DirecTV partnership, which will rebrand CSN Houston as Root Sports Houston under a Chapter 11 reorganization plan." Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur is "scheduled to decide Oct. 2 whether to approve the plan, which is opposed by Comcast." If the reorganization is not approved, the Astros-Rockets-Comcast partnership "will be liquidated and all jobs eliminated." Most employees who “will be retained for Root Sports Houston are employed in game production" along with Rockets broadcasters Bill Worrell, Matt Bullard and Calvin Murphy; Astros field reporter Julia Morales; and anchors Bart Enis and Kevin Eschenfelder. Astros announcers Bill Brown, Alan Ashby and Geoff Blum and Rockets analyst Clyde Drexler are "team employees and are not affected." According to court documents, among those whose contracts “are not being retained by AT&T/DirecTV” include reporters and anchors Tiffany Blackmon, Steve Bunin, Howard Chen, Bill Doleman, Sara Eckert, Cory Hepola, Kelli Johnson, John Kelly, James Palmer, Marius Payton, Leila Rahimi and Sebastian Salazar. Several of those "likely will be offered jobs with other NBC Sports Group networks." Root Sports will "include distribution on DirecTV and AT&T U-verse in addition to Comcast" (CHRON.com, 9/16).
