While they will still compete to some extent, Time Warner Cable’s Metro Sports Channel and CBS affiliate KCTV are teaming up to capture Kansas City sports viewers.
Beginning Monday, the regional sports network will report, edit and present daily local-sports newscasts for the Meredith Broadcasting Corp. station.
In what the parties believe is an industry first, The Metro Sports Report will originate live from Time Warner Cable’s studios in Kansas City and air as KCTV’s sports segment at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Monday-Saturday and at 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday.
Under the three-year deal, Metro Sports will also produce a number of specials covering the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs, games of which air on KCTV, as well as Kansas and Missouri universities.
Although monetary terms were not disclosed, Metro Sports vice president Carol Rothwell said the regional sports network will receive production fees from the station, which will retain all of the advertising inventory.
Metro Sports counts more than 400,000 subscribers -- 305,000 through Time Warner and another 100,000 from Comcast Corp., according to Rothwell.
The regional -- which carries 100 Kansas City Royals Major League Baseball games, Major League Soccer’s Kansas City Wiz, Chiefs pregame and postgame shows and an array of high-school action -- will continue its one-hour Metro Sports Talk at 6 p.m. and 30-minute Metro Sports Zone sportscasts at 10 p.m.
For more on Kansas City, please see Mike Reynolds’ story on page 8 of Monday’s edition of Multichannel News.
