CSTV mounts biggest deal
Sports net signs killer contract with Conference
That's a 40% hike from Mountain West's current deal with ESPN, which expires in the third quarter of 2006. But Brian Bedol, president and CEO of CSTV, said the deal "gives us all rights to all of the conference's sports across all technologies," such as video-on-demand, high definition and video streaming.
The highest-visibility programming in the deal is the men's football and men's basketball, but Bedol said CSTV will be able to "give more national exposure, year-round, to sports such as volleyball, gymnastics, lacrosse, hockey and softball."
Deal accords CSTV the right not only to run any games on its network but to sell Mountain West contests to regional sports networks and local TV stations if CSTV can make more money by doing so.
CSTV has carriage deals with the three biggest national distributors: Comcast, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable.
