• January 12, 2005

Football fans will surely rejoice in Conference USA's new long-term agreements with ESPN and College Sports Television Networks that contain six-year initial terms to begin July 1, 2005 and conclude June 30, 2011.

"We are very pleased with these new agreements," said Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky in a teleconference Tuesday afternoon. "The Conference's financial goals will be met, and we will have more events distributed to a broader audience than ever before. This is a great day for Conference USA."

The agreement with ESPN extends the conference's current regular season football package to include the broadcast of the conference's Football Championship Game, starting with the inaugural game in 2005. It also encompasses distribution of men's basketball and women's basketball on ESPN/ESPN2 and both tournament championship games.

The C-USA content granted to ESPN may also be available through the collection of ESPN entities such as ESPN Mobile (wireless), ESPN Interactive, ESPN Broadband (ESPN 360), ESPN.com, ESPN Pay-Per-View, ESPN Video-on-Demand, ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, ESPN Deportes, and just about any other media outlet ESPN can think of.

"ESPN continues to be a great partner, and their strength provides a showcase of Conference USA's football and basketball to a massive audience," Banowsky said.

"With this agreement, fans will continue to enjoy the very best Conference USA action on the ESPN networks, including the exciting, new football championship," said John Wildhack, ESPN senior vice president, programming. "We look forward to advancing our strong association with our friends at the conference level as well as the member schools by using the array of ESPN entities to deliver Conference USA-related content to college sports enthusiasts wherever they are."

The CSTV agreement includes video-on-demand, Internet, broadband, national over-the-air and satellite radio, and wireless distribution as well as corporate marketing rights, and Web site production through CSTV Online, a subsidiary of CSTV.

"For us, this partnership continues our building process as the leading digital sports media company, with our sole mission focused on reaching the maximum number of college sports fans across all technology platforms--whenever, however, and whatever they want," said Brian Bedol, CSTV's president and CEO.