SNY Scores Big East Football, Basketball Rights

Multiyear Pact Provides RSN Exclusivity In New York Metro Area

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 7/23/2008 2:10:00 PM

SportsNet New York, the cable television home to Major League Baseball’s New York Mets, has bulked up its fall and winter lineups via a multiyear deal with the Big East covering both college football and basketball.

Previously, Big East games in the New York area also aired on competing regional sports networks MSG and YES.

The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, gives SNY, which televises 120 Mets games and 250 hours of New York Jets-related National Football League fare, a 16-game Big East football slate in the New York area. In addition to the “game of the week” coverage, SNY will produce pre-, halftime and post-game shows, as well as an array of football coaches shows.

Moreover, SNY, owned by a company affiliated with the Mets, Time Warner Cable and Comcast, which operates the service, will become “the exclusive” home to Rutgers football, with exclusive encore game rights, a weekly sit-down with coach Greg Schiano and his Monday press conferences.

As for hoops, SNY will air more than 100 Big East basketball contests per season, including both men’s and women “game of the week” action, weekly coaches shows, including St. John’s Rutgers, and Seton Hall, plus in-depth pre-, halftime and post-game shows surrounding all intra-conference primetime matchups.

“We’re thrilled to have this landmark partnership with the Big East, the preeminent collegiate conference in the New York area,” said SNY president Steve Raab in a statement. “The Big East is now a major programming pillar for SNY, and further solidifies our commitment to providing New York sport fans with the most inclusive year-round sports coverage.

Added Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese: “The New York Metropolitan area has always been so important to the Big East. It’s great to have our fans know that SNY is the place for Big East football and men’s and women’s basketball.  We’re delighted that SNY is our partner

Madison Square Garden Network will also maintain a Big East basketball presences with 16 games from the conference, largely St. John’s games, along with select Rutgers and Seton Hall contests.

MSGN and sister service MSG+, which have heavy fall/winter/spring commitments with the Cablevision Systems Corp.-owned NBA New York Knicks and the NHL New York Rangers, as well as hockey’s New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders, will televise some 100 college football and basketball games in the upcoming seasons, according to network officials.