It initially held rights to the Golden State Warriors and various college sporting events, including those from Pac 10 conference through its associate with Prime Network.

The new network was formed when both the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants reached an agreement with SportsChannel to televise their games.

[1] At launch, SportsChannel Bay Area was offered as a premium channel in-market and as a basic cable service in the outer market which included southern Oregon, Nevada, Hawaii, and Arizona.

Prior to the Cablevision decision to affiliate with Fox Sports, some FSN programming had been airing on BayTV, a local cable channel operated by KRON-TV and Liberty Media's sister company TCI; the deal which was signed in March 1997 was to last three years.

Fox Sports Bay Area aired only a limited number of games featuring local and state teams (usually when there was a scheduling conflict).

[9][10][11] The channel was then rebranded as Fox Sports Net Bay Area in 2000, as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner; subsequently in 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN Bay Area, through the networks' de-emphasis of the brand.

[12] Then on December 10, the San Francisco Giants acquired a 30% stake in FSN Bay Area,[13] with News Corporation becoming a minority partner in the network.

The revamp would also include in-depth interviews in addition to providing scores and highlights, and utilize CSN Bay Area's sports anchors and analysts.

[17] NBC Sports Bay Area holds the regional cable television rights to the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball and the NBA's Golden State Warriors.