College Sports Television network promises the Mountain West Conference it will quadruple national telecasts in basketball and football and provide significant coverage to 17 other sports within two years.
CSTV has 700 days to get in a position to deliver. That is when the MWC's contract with ESPN expires. CSTV's bid of $82 million over seven years more than doubles the existing financial package by ESPN and will mean more than $1 million per year to each MWC school.
"The board of directors felt we needed excellent exposure but sensitivity to fans and the student athlete and we needed to enter into a direct partnership that provides that," BYU president Cecil Samuelson said Thursday during a press conference staged by the MWC and CSTV. "We are excited with this agreement."
ESPN refused to match CSTV's bid for MWC rights during negotiations this summer.
CSTV executive vice president Chris Bevilacqua told reporters Thursday his cable network was the fastest growing program provider in the country. While he could not name specific markets where CSTV currently provides programming within the MWC boundaries, he promised in two years the coverage would be extensive after new agreements are formed and he would personally deliver current market names to the media upon request.
That coverage would include partnerships beyond current ties with Comcast, Direct TV, and Time Warner Cable. Future growth could involve agreements with Cox, the main cable provider to the MWC's largest markets in Las Vegas and San Diego.
"We are very excited about the possibilities and growth," MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said. "The agreement incorporates all conference-related media and marketing rights, including all TV, national over-the-air and satellite radio, video-on-demand, Internet streaming, online and broadband platforms and other technology that hasn't even been invented yet."
For instance, in the Utah market, CSTV could involve a partnership with a sports provider like SportsWest, USD-TV and local affiliates already contractually tied to covering MWC sports. Bevilacqua confirmed during Thursday's teleconference with reporters that JetBlue executive Dave Checketts, the former Utah Jazz and New York Knicks general manager, is playing a chief role in the MWC agreement and has been a key negotiator.
When asked if CSTV had coverage broad enough to match coverage given by ESPN's estimated 90 million viewers, Bevilacqua said 25 years ago people thought ESPN was crazy for launching a 24-hour sports network. "CSTV is growing, announcing new agreements every week."
He said CSTV's agreements and distributors are now in 52 million homes and expanding.
"There are a lot of homes that still do not have ESPN," Thompson said.
Said the commissioner: "This is an ideal college sports match. This partnership will provide the Mountain West Conference more exposure over a variety of mediums than any other conference. Day-to-day, MWC fans will relish the additional exposures provided to all our championship sports."
ESPN provided 19 national exposures to basketball and football this past year. Thompson said CSTV's plans could take that past 30. It also involves broadcast of other sports including volleyball, baseball, track and field and golf for both men and women and league championships.
In football, CSTV will not request Tuesday and Wednesday broadcasts as ESPN proposed but there will be Thursday and Friday programming.
The latest game for football or basketball would be 8 p.m. But the model for football broadcasts would be Saturdays.
Thompson said MWC teams don't need to fear recruits not getting the exposure previously through ESPN. "No, more kids will see us play than ever before. No, we're not giving up exposure, it will mean much more to every sport, especially football and basketball.
"One analogy," Thompson said, "is NFL Fox. When they got a piece of the NFL, they didn't even have a sports department. What CSTV has done in a short track record so far fits in with us, trying to be new, trying to be fresh and on the cutting edge of progress."
The MWC pace with CSTV is the first major conference signed by the network. Bevilacqua said his company is negotiating with 20 to 30 college conferences.
"I'm proud to say CSTV is the fastest independent cable network in the country. The response from cable and advertising is terrific. I'm confident at this time when this begins, we will have the distribution, through a variety of platforms, to reach more people with more sports than anybody else."
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com