• Multichannel News, Wednesday, January 24, 2007 11:45 AM

DirecTV has signed a multiyear deal to exclusively carry the NCAA "March Madness" out-of-market men's college-basketball tournament as part of a broader deal with CBS that includes higher distribution of the Tiffany Network's college-sports cable channel CSTV.

The satellite service will move CSTV to its Total Choice Plus tier from its sports tier, boosting its DirecTV reach to 8 million subscribers from 2 million. Overall, CSTV has about 20 million subscribers.

DirecTV--which has offered an NCAA March Madness out-of-market package since 1999--will provide up to 37 games, as well as interactive features, for $69. CSTV will also continue to air NCAA tournament games via broadband as part of its partnership with CBS SportsLine and NCAAsports.com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but insiders say it runs through 2010.

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