CBS College Sports Pushes Alt Games VOD

17 Affiliates On Board For College Championship Action

Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 6/21/2009 9:28:12 AM EDT

CBS College Sports Network and 17 affiliates will give sports fans alternative views this summer.
Featuring action from the 2009 Alt Games that played out in Copper Mountain, Colo., San Diego and Riverside, Calif., the exclusive VOD content, available for the second straight year, begins July 8 and will be accessible through September.
The Alt Games event roster includes snowboarding, wakeboarding, flowboarding, beach volleyball, freeskiing and competitive eating, plus a" Best Tricks, Crashes and Girls of the Alt Games: College Action Sports Championship" segment. It features more than 500 competitors from 45 different colleges and universities. Jonny Moseley, the 1998 Winter Olympic gold medalist in freestyle skiing, along with entertainment reporter Adrianna Costa, host the coverage.
All told, CBS College Sports is offering seven, 10-minute highlight segments from the aforementioned grouping, and a single "Best of Show" feature, spanning 44 minutes. The programming is available in both the standard- and high-definition formats.
The Alt Games VOD distribution roster comprises Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, Verizon Communications' FiOS, Insight Communications, Mediacom Communications, Bresnan Communications, RCN, Metrocast, Advanced Broadband, HTC, Sunflower Broadband, Service Electric Cablevision, Click! Network, Sky Angel and Comcast, in select markets.
"The Alt Games provides our clients precisely the type of on-demand content they are looking for - compelling high-definition sports action, which features local schools," said CBS Sports Network senior vice president of affiliate marketing Ellen Schned.
To that end, Time Warner Texas is featuring the University of Texas Longhorns, winners in several of the sports, on both its Sports on Demand application and BE-VOD, the operator's exclusive UT on-demand channel
In Gainesville, Fla., Cox is spotlighting the wakeboarding champion Florida Gators, while Comcast Colorado is celebrating all of the Colorado schools that competed in the skiing and snowboarding events at Copper Mountain.
For its part, DirecTV will promote Alt Games on demand fare as part of its back-to-school push for September.
As part of the local programming, CBS College Sports is providing customized cross-channel spots featuring local championship teams, Web banners and VOD barker channel promotions.
"Localism is a high priority, and we're working with operators to provide customized spots and Web banners promoting the local schools and participants." Schned noted.