This is what was recently posted on the AJC website:
With Braves, Peachtree TV raises profile
By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/28/08
When he calls a baseball game on TBS, Chip Caray is supposed to play the role of neutral, national broadcaster. But when he calls a game on Peachtree TV, Caray is free to play the role of loyal, local broadcaster.
"I've got to remember which logo is on the shirt each day," Caray said, "and approach the broadcast that way."
This Major League Baseball season brings big change for Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting, whose three-decade tradition of televising Braves games nationally on TBS ended last year.
This year, Turner will televise 45 regular-season Braves games — plus exhibition games tonight and Saturday — on Peachtree TV, which is seen in the 55-county metro Atlanta television market. Nationally, Turner will televise 26 leaguewide Sunday afternoon games on TBS, starting with reigning World Series champ Boston vs. Toronto on April 6.
Caray is scheduled to call play-by-play on most of the Peachtree TV games and all the TBS games. His bosses say the approach will be different.
After struggling — sometimes clumsily and controversially — to present neutral telecasts of Braves games on TBS in recent years, Turner won't fret about the issue on Peachtree TV.
"The games are going to be branded, positioned and produced as local Atlanta broadcasts, but with [a] national production quality," said Jonathan Katz, senior vice president and general manager of Peachtree TV. "We're proud Braves fans, and we're proud to take that point of view. I'd sum up the difference as being very, very local."
Another difference: scheduling philosophy.
TBS, which televised about 70 Braves games per season in recent years, increasingly picked games that wouldn't air in prime time — an acknowledgement that the telecasts had become less popular nationally as the TV landscape evolved.
Peachtree TV, on the other hand, will air 41 of its 45 regular-season Braves games in prime time, starting with the home opener Monday night against Pittsburgh.
The channel, which launched last fall with a lineup of movies and sitcoms, is counting on the team to build awareness.
"The Braves ... are a huge priority for Peachtree TV, our most important local programming," Katz said. "For us, the Braves are critical — for brand value, for scale of viewers. ... The games are a tremendous platform [to reach] people who have not sampled Peachtree TV."
Because the channel is available only in the Atlanta market, Turner has been grappling for months with how to simulcast the games in other parts of the Southeast in the team's "television territory" as defined by Major League Baseball.
As of Thursday, the company said it was in the process of finalizing contracts with numerous cable and satellite providers that cover South Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and the Carolinas.
"It's a lot of logistics, but we want to make the games available to as many Braves fans outside the [Peachtree TV] footprint as possible," said Coleman Breland, vice president of Turner Network Sales.
The carriers that reach agreements with Turner will simulcast Peachtree TV's Braves telecasts on another local or regional channel. Deals already are completed with Comcast (which will show the games on Comcast Sports Southeast outside Atlanta) and Time Warner Cable, among others.
Aside from the games on Peachtree TV, an additional 106 Braves games will be televised on Fox-owned regional cable networks SportSouth and FSN South. Both are available in Atlanta and across the Southeast.
Jeff Genthner, vice president and general manager of SportSouth and FSN South, said his networks would have been happy to carry the Peachtree TV telecasts outside the Atlanta market.
"We brought the issue up with the Braves and suggested we would be a very viable solution for the team and for Turner to get maximum distribution of those games with minimal operational challenges," he said.
"Turner owned the games and decided to go another route."
Turner has chosen games for TBS' first eight MLB game-of-the-week telecasts, and one involves the Braves: April 20 at Turner Field vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"That's when you have to put on both hats," Caray said, "and be as neutral as you possibly can."