DirecTV Nets March Madness Deal
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 1/22/2007 1:53:00 PM
DirecTV will be mad for college basketball for the rest of the decade.
The direct-broadcast satellite provider secured a multiyear deal to exclusively carry the NCAA Mega March Madness out-of-market men's college-basketball tournament as part of a broader deal with CBS that also included increased DirecTV distribution of CBS-owned college-sports cable network CSTV.
The DBS service will move CSTV to its Total Choice Plus tier from its sports tier, boosting the channel's DirecTV reach to 8 million subscribers from 2 million. Overall, CSTV is in front of 20 million subscribers.
DirecTV -- which has offered the NCAA March Madness out-of-market package since 1999 -- will provide subscribers with up to 37 tournament games, as well as interactive enhancement features, for a suggested retail price of $69.
CSTV will also continue to air NCAA March Madness tournament games via broadband as part of a partnership with CBS SportsLine.com and NCAAsports.com.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources close to the agreement said it runs through 2010.
“From its inception, exclusive sports programming has set DirecTV apart as the leading multichannel provider of the world’s most important and exciting sporting events,” CEO Chase Carey said in a prepared statement. “The NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship is one of those unique events that capture the attention of sports fans throughout the country, and DirecTV will bring our customers every upset, buzzer-beater and Cinderella story.”
In other DirecTV sports news, company executives would not comment on its pursuit of an exclusive distribution deal with Major League Baseball for the league's Extra Innings out-of-market package.
The satellite service is trying to steal the package away from cable, which has offered the $170 MLB Extra Innings package -- which provides as many as 900 games per year -- since 2001. Executives from In Demand -- which is negotiating with baseball on behalf of the cable industry -- also would not comment on talks with the league.
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