CBS College Sports Network
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| CBS College Sports Network | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Launched | April, 2003 |
| Owned by | CBS Corporation |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Country | United States |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Formerly called | College Sports Television (CSTV) (until March, 2008) |
| Sister channel(s) | CBS Sports MountainWest Sports Network |
| Website | http://www.collegesports.com/ |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| DirecTV | Channel 610/610 |
| Dish Network | Channel 152 |
| Cable | |
| Available on many cable systems | Check local listings for channels |
CBS College Sports Network (usually promoted with the "Network" portion excised from the branding) is a multimedia network and the first dedicated exclusively to college sports 24 hours a day. It consists of CBS College Sports Network, a digital television service seen in more than 20 million homes via cable and satellite, and collegesports.com and its network of 215 official college websites.
The network planted its roots in 1999 when Chris Bevilacqua approached co-founders of Classic Sports Network Brian Bedol and Stephen D. Greenberg – at that time, running Fusient Media Ventures, a New York-based sports and media company – came up with the idea for a network featuring all college sports all the time. In November 2005, it was purchased by CBS Corporation for $325 million.
Contents |
[edit] History
The network launched as the National College Sports Network in June, 2002 and was then renamed College Sports Television (CSTV) in February, 2003. From their headquarters and studio operations at Chelsea Piers in New York City, CSTV was the first independent cable channel to appear nationwide, on the DirecTV satellite system, at launch. In 2006, CSTV was purchased by CBS and became the 24-hour college sports network from CBS Sports. On January 3, 2008, it was announced that CSTV would be integrated into CBS Sports, with Tony Petitti , executive vice president and executive producer of CBS Sports taking over operational day-to-day management of CSTV, which would be overseen by Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports. CSTV co-founder Brian Bedol would become a senior advisor to CBS Corporation president and CEO Leslie Moonves.
[edit] CBS reorganization
On February 12, 2008, it was announced that, as part of the ongoing integration of CSTV into CBS Sports, that the network, in March 2008, would be renamed the CBS College Sports Network in order to tie in with the parent network's coverage of the NCAA Basketball Tournament (and the network's airing of several games during the opening round in addition to CBS). The graphical styling of the network changed to that of CBS Sports, and set changes will also be instituted. However, the studio shows are still based at Chelsea Piers, and did not move to the CBS Broadcast Center or to another location in Manhattan. One original program scheduled to air as part of changes being made at the network is a twice-nightly sports news program entitled College Sports Tonight.[1]
The renaming occurred on March 16 in order to take advantage of the momentum from the parent CBS network's 2008 NCAA Tournament Selection Show.[2] The graphics first appeared at 5 p.m. Eastern time. The first original show on CBS College Sports was Bracket Breakdown at 7 p.m., with contributions from CBS Sports hosts like Jim Nantz and Greg Gumbel in addition to the regulars of the former CSTV.
[edit] Additional program notes
- No programs on CBS College Sports are available in high definition. Even the two NCAA tourney games in 2008, which were in HD on the broadcast network, were converted to a standard definition feed.
- College Sports Tonight has not aired since May 26, 2008; the exact status of this show and the reasons for its disappearance are not known. When this program aired, the anchors were Greg Amsinger, Adam Zucker, and Dara McIntosh.
[edit] The cable network
Since airing that first game, CBS College Sports Network has televised thousands of hours of original programming, features, talk shows and documentaries as well as extensive women’s sports coverage. Its regular season and championship event coverage draws from every major collegiate athletic conference and division, in addition to nine NCAA championships. CBS College Sports Network televises 35 men’s and women’s college sports including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, wrestling and volleyball from every major conference. The network holds multi-media and marketing rights for the Mountain West Conference, the Atlantic 10 Conference, Conference USA, the Big West Conference, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Navy athletics.
CBS College Sports Network has compiled a roster of broadcasters including basketball analysts Pete Gillen, who led Virginia, Xavier and Providence to the NCAA tournament, and Steve Lappas, the former Manhattan, UMass and Villanova coach. On the football side, former NFL players Trev Alberts and Brian Jones provide analysis. Renowned author and college sports insider Brian Curtis, along with Greg Amsinger and Adam Zucker anchor CBS College Sports Network’s coverage from the studio.
In April 2006, CBS College Sports Network (then CSTV) launched the first annual Collegiate Nationals, a festival of championships dedicated to crowning champions in a wide variety of collegiate action sports such as snowboarding, wakeboarding, and beach volleyball. More than 1,000 competitors converged on Reno-Tahoe to compete, the largest amount ever for an event of its kind. For its second installment in 2007, the Collegiate Nationals added sports and other events such as national film and music competitions, as well as a second venue – San Diego. The third year, 2008, brought further changes, as the winter sports events were moved to the Keystone Resort near Boulder, Colorado and competitive eating was added.
In the fall of 2006, CSTV and Comcast launched the MountainWest Sports Network (colloquially known as mtn.) dedicated to the coverage of one college conference featuring wall-to-wall coverage of the Mountain West Conference schools (Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, TCU, UNLV, Utah, and Wyoming). However, in its first two years of existence, the mtn. network is not available to most fans in Utah and other areas because it is only carried on cable. However, DIRECTV will launch the mtn. on a nationwide basis in 2008 on a date no later than September 1st.1 Dish Network has not been able to negotiate the rights to show it, and MWC games are no longer carried by any broadcast stations. The relationship with the Mountain West also gave CSTV exclusive online and broadcasting rights to Notre Dame’s game at Air Force on November 11, 2006.
CBS College Sports Network is available on cable systems across the country, including Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Cablevision, Charter, Insight, Bright House Networks, Mediacom, RCN, Advanced Cable and Bresnan. It is also available on DirecTV's Total Choice Premier Package Channel 610 and Dish Network's America's Top 120 Package Channel 152.
In the fall of 2006, CSTV launched more than 100 broadband channels dedicated to college sports, which feature more than 10,000 live events. The subscription service, CSTV XXL, and its portfolio of broadband channels in its All-Access suite, include coverage of Notre Dame, USC, Kansas, Ohio State and North Carolina. CBS College Sports Network also offers additional collegiate contests online on a pay-per-view basis in the form of CSTV PPV.
[edit] Corporate responsibility
CBS College Sports Network is partnered with The Boys & Girls Clubs of America in the establishment of The Fields & Dreams Foundation, dedicated to helping underserved high school students increase achievement through athletics. Co-chaired by former U.S. Senator, Rhodes Scholar and basketball icon Bill Bradley, the Foundation created the first national telethon based around a live college football game in raising funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina, as well as SAT preparation courses for communities around the country.
[edit] Official athletic partnerships
In addition to their own website, CBS College Sports Network also operates athletics websites for many college athletics organizations.
[edit] Competitors
[edit] References
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
