GiantsVision was a

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

television service for

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

games featuring the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

. GiantsVision was in operation for four seasons (

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

–

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

). Prior to this, the team's only local television outlet was

KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division along ...

, which had been broadcasting Giants games since

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

Background

GiantsVision was managed by San Jose-based Bay Area Interconnect. It was headed by Robert Hartzell and Mike Shapiro. Subscription costs began at $5.95 per game, with a full 45-game package available for $154. GiantsVision garnered an average viewership of 22,000 per game through the first two months of the 1988 season. GiantsVision was shut down at the conclusion of the 1989 season when it was purchased by

SportsChannel SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC. Operating from March 1, ...

and floated as SportsChannel Bay Area after the merger. By

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, at least 105 San Francisco Giants games had been televised, far more than the approximately 55 games that GiantsVision offered.

Commentators

Joe Morgan Joe Leonard Morgan (September 19, 1943 – October 11, 2020) was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Houston Colt .45s / Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Fran ...

Duane Kuiper Duane Eugene Kuiper (born June 19, 1950), nicknamed "Kuip", is an American sportscaster and former professional baseball player. As a player, he was a second baseman for the Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (M ...

, and Phil Stone were the principal announcers for GiantsVision. Kuiper's brother, Jeff, was the producer of the broadcasts. David Koppett produced features for GiantsVision and later SportsChannel telecasts of Giants games. He also served as associate producer and graphics operator on Giants telecasts.

References

{{Sports television in the United States American subscription television services Major League Baseball on television Television channels and stations established in 1986 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1989 Defunct local cable stations in the United States 1986 establishments in California 1989 disestablishments in California Television stations in the San Francisco Bay Area Sports in San Francisco SportsChannel