• by August 11, 2003

College Sports Television Network made two big announcements Monday, announcing its first distribution deal with a big cable company and a programming pact with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The distribution deal will boost CSTV's stature, adding an as-yet-undetermined amount of digital-tier subscribers from among Insight Communications' Midwest cable systems. CSTV had previously been available to digital-sports subscribers on DirectTV's satellite service and a small number of locally owned cable systems.

CSTV already has programming agreements with Division I athletic conferences like the Big East, Big Ten, Atlantic 10 and the Ivy League. Sports coverage includes basketball, baseball, soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse. The deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee brings 39 more Olympic-caliber sports to CSTV.

Insight has more than 1.4 million subscribers in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. An Insight spokeswoman said Monday afternoon that it hadn't been determined whether CSTV would be offered in the digital-tier sports package, a premium service, throughout the system or just in selected parts. It also wasn't clear when the channel would become available. Insight is the ninth largest cable operator in the United States.

CSTV went on the air in April and plans to rachet up programming even further in the next few weeks, introducing nine new programs in 13 days. CSTV said its games of the week in football, soccer and volleyball would be joined by original programming featuring sports, student-athletes, schools and conferences. Kicking off in September is a partnership with iN DEMAND that will bring Division I college football games to its 24-hour high-definition network INHD.

The U.S. Olympic Committee gave CSTV the rights to national and international championships in 39 Olympic sports. CSTV will also continue its focus on college scholar-athletes with a year-round block of Olympic sports events called U.S. Olympic Pursuit. The events culminate in the 2004 Summer Olympics, which will be held about a year from now in Athens.

CSTV is not the only network that serves the college population, although CSTV has staked out not only current college students but also graduates who happen to be rabid sports fans. Last year, Viacom purchased the College Television Network under its MTV Networks banner. College Television Network reaches 8.2 million students a week with music and other programming.