In 1979, the Yankees put their games on cable television for the first time, on SportsChannel, which was later bought out by the Madison Square Garden Corporation, and converted into what's now called MSG Plus. In 1989, the Yankees moved to MSG Network proper.
But team owner George Steinbrenner wanted to all the Yankees' TV revenue for himself, and saw that other teams that regional or even nationwide "superstations": The Atlanta Braves had been on TBS since 1976, the Chicago Cubs on WGN since 1982, the Boston Red Sox on New England Sports Network (NESN) since 1984, and the Baltimore Orioles on Home Team Sports (HTS) since that same year. (In 2007, it took on the Washington Nationals, and became Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, or MASN.) By 2002, various other cities with regional versions of Fox Sports.
One of the first thing the network did was record Yankee Stadium public address announcer Bob Sheppard making an introduction: "Your attention please, ladies and gentlemen, you're watching YES, the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network." They knew he was in his 90s, and wouldn't be around forever, so they wanted those words spoken in what Reggie Jackson called "The Voice of God."
YES Network advertised itself, and still does, as "The Home of Champions." This was undermined early on, or so I thought, by broadcasting games of the NBA's New Jersey Nets, although the Nets did reach the NBA Finals in their 1st 2 seasons on the network.
Among the Yankee-themed programming was Yankeeography, hosted by Yankee radio anchor John Sterling, which tended to gloss over the less seemly parts of players' lives, unless it could then show that those players had overcome adversity to help the Yankees win. In other words, when it was Joe DiMaggio's turn, they mentioned his injuries, but only gave brief mention to his marriage to Marilyn Monroe, and didn't mention why the split up. Joe's alleged connections to organized crime were also omitted.
There is also Yankees Classics. The fact that most Yankee games prior to the 1976 renovation of the old Yankee Stadium were simply recorded over, due to the high cost of videotape, means that there is precious little material of the team before that, beyond World Series highlight films. But pretty much any big moment from Chris Chambliss' 1976 Pennant-winning home run onward can be seen in the context of its entire game.
Unlike the Mets, who put various meaningless regular-season wins over the Yankees on their Mets Classics broadcasts on Sportsnet New York, founded in 2006, a regular-season Yankees Classic usually has some deeper meaning. The Yankees' 13-inning battle with the Boston Red Sox on July 1, 2004 was an epic game, but it probably wouldn't be on Yankees Classics if it wasn't against the arch-rivals. If it were an Interleague game with the Mets, it wouldn't be shown. Even if it were a very good game against the Red Sox that had gone the standard 9 innings, it probably wouldn't be shown. The September 14, 1977 game against the Red Sox was won in the bottom of the 9th by a home run by Reggie Jackson, and all but assured the Yankees would win the American League Eastern Division title, but they never show it.
Michael Kay has been the lead broadcaster for Yankee games on YES since the 2002 debut. He also hosts a talk show on the network, CenterStage. Not every guest is involved with sports, but every guest is asked about their experiences as fans and (if applicable) athletes.
Later, YES got on the international soccer bandwagon. The 1st Premier League team with games they broadcast, on a two-day delay, with Manchester United. Later, they moved on to North London team Arsenal. In 2015, they got together with Manchester City, to form the Major League Soccer team New York City FC. The Yankees own 20 percent of NYCFC, and broadcast their games live on YES.
In spite of that "Home of Champions" name, in the first 19 years of yes's existence, the only Championship won by any human that play on it was the 19th bus the 2009 World Series won by the year. Then, finally, in 2021, NYC FC won the MLS Cup to make the designation a little less ridiculous.
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March 19, 2002 was a Tuesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 10 games played in the NBA that night:
* The New York Knicks beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 101-92 at the Great American Pyramid in Memphis.
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, 100-97 at the Gund Arena in Cleveland (now the Rocket Arena).
* The Orlando Magic beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 101-91 at the TD Waterhouse Centre in Orlando. Tracy McGrady led all scorers on the night, with 48 points.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Miami Heat, 91-79 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami (now the Kaseya Center).
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Chicago Bulls, 102-96 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Toronto Raptors, 112-80 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 114-98 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Utah Jazz, 94-87 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
* The Sacramento Kings beat the Houston Rockets, 110-87 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento (now the Sleep Train Arena).
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Golden State Warriors, 110-93 at the KeyArena in Seattle.
There were 7 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New York Islanders lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto (now the Scotiabank Arena). Cory Cross scored the winning goal, with 2:49 left in overtime.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-2 at the FleetCenter in Boston (now the TD Garden).
* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-1 at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo (now the KeyBank Center).
* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Nashville Predators, 5-1 at the Savvis Center in St. Louis (now the Enterprise Center).
* And the Washington Capitals beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-0 at the Pepsi Center in Denver (now the Ball Arena).
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