New Indians Network: SportsTime Ohio
-- Multichannel News, 2/23/2006 5:43:00 PM
Fastball Sports Productions LLC has a name for its new regional sports network.
SportsTime Ohio will air 130 Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball games and eight spring-training games, with all home games available in HD. An additional 20 regular-season Indians games will be shown on Cleveland station WKYC, according to AP.
So far, the network’s only distribution deal is with Time Warner Cable, the dominant distributor in the inner Cleveland market.
Liberatore said earlier this week that he has been talking with distributors in Ohio and other service areas. “I am confident by Opening Day to have at least 90% of the Cleveland area covered,” he told AP.
Fastball is controlled by the family of Cleveland lawyer Larry Dolan, the team’s owner.
Indians rights were previously held by FSN Ohio, which offered $35 million per year to keep them. Then the Dolans decided to form their own sports network, built around the Indians.
The network is trying to get programming such as Mid-American Conference athletics and Cleveland State University basketball games, and it has talked with some top local high schools about airing football games, AP reported.
