Charter Tier Blends Sports TV, Web Content
by Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 3/9/2009 2:00:00 AM
Charter Communications, in one of the first attempts to blend TV and Web-video access into a single bundle, is offering a $10-per-month package that includes a sports cable TV tier and access to additional “premium-level” sports content on the Internet.
However, Charter's Sports View Plus package won't let subscribers watch live sports events online — for example, absent from the lineup is ESPN's ESPN360.com, which broadcasts more than 3,000 live events per year.
Major League Baseball's MLB.com and the National Hockey League will offer “condensed” games for replay, and NASCAR.com will deliver “driver-pit crew communication” during live races. In addition, subscribers can access news videos and interviews on FoxSports.com.
On TV, the Sports View Plus package provides the lineup in Charter's digital Sports View tier, which includes CBS College Sports Network, Tennis Channel, ESPNews, Fox College Sports, Fox Soccer Channel, Fuel TV, Mav TV, Outdoor Channel and TVG.
Previously, Charter's list price for Sports View was $5 per month. Purchased separately, according to Charter, the online services would cost $32 per month.
Sports View Plus is available only to customers who subscribe to both Charter's digital-cable and high-speed Internet services.
“Online video is growing in popularity and we want to provide our customers the very best. Our new Sports View Plus package brings our sports fan the best of both worlds — TV sports programming and premium online sports content,” Charter vice president of product management Rich DiGeronimo said in a statement.
Synacor is providing support, content-aggregation services and the account-authentication platform for Charter's Sports View Plus.
