CBS Sports Network - Cbs Sports Network

The CBS Sports Network is an American digital cable and satellite television network that is owned by the CBS Corporation. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television a.k.a. CSTV), it operated as a multi-platform media brand which also included its primary website, collegesports.com, and a network of websites operated for the athletic departments of 215 colleges and universities.

After CSTV was acquired by CBS in 2008, the network was re-branded as the CBS College Sports Network. The network initially maintained its college sports focus, but in February 2011, the service was re-branded as CBS Sports Network to re-position it as a mainstream sports service. The network continues to have a particular focus on college sports, along with coverage of smaller leagues and events, simulcasts of sports radio shows from CBS-owned stations, and studio and analysis programming.

History

The network's roots began in 1999 when Chris Bevilacqua approached the co-founders of the Classic Sports Network, Brian Bedol and Stephen D. Greenberg (son of Hank Greenberg) â€" at that time, running Fusient Media Ventures, a New York-based sports and media company â€" with the idea for a cable network featuring college sports 24 hours a day. Under the leadership of Bedol as CEO, the network was originally named the National College Sports Network in June 2002, was subsequently renamed College Sports Television (CSTV) and launched on February 23, 2003. From their headquarters and studio operations at Chelsea Piers in New York City, CSTV was the first independent cable channel to be distributed nationwide, having been carried on satellite provider DirecTV at launch.

In November 2005, College Sports Television was purchased by CBS Corporation (which had just recently split from Viacom at the time) for $325 million. On January 3, 2008, it was announced that CSTV would be integrated into CBS Sports, with the sports division's executive vice president and executive producer, Tony Petitti, taking over day-to-day operational management of CSTV, which would be overseen by CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus. CSTV co-founder Brian Bedol would become a senior advisor to CBS Corporation president and CEO Leslie Moonves (Petitti has since left CBS to take on the same role for the MLB Network).

In the fall of 2006, CSTV launched more than 100 broadband channels dedicated to college sports, which feature more than 10,000 live events. The subscription/pay-per-view service, called CBS College Sports XXL, and its portfolio of broadband channels in its All-Access suite, include coverage of Notre Dame, Southern California, Kansas, Ohio State and North Carolina.

CBS reorganization

On February 12, 2008, CBS Corporation announced that, as part of the ongoing integration of CSTV into CBS Sports, that the network would be renamed the CBS College Sports Network on March 16, coinciding with the start of CBS's coverage of the NCAA's basketball tournament. Studio shows moved from the original Chelsea Piers headquarters to the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in 2012. As part of the relaunch, the network added a new news program, College Sports Tonight. That program was canceled in 2010, however other studio shows (including Inside College Football and Inside College Basketball) still originate from the Chelsea Piers location.

On February 15, 2011, CBS announced that the network would be relaunched as CBS Sports Network on April 4 (coinciding with the end of the 2011 NCAA basketball tournament), repositioning it as a mainstream sports network.

High definition

CBS Sports Network HD is a 1080i high definition simulcast feed of CBS Sports Network that launched in August 2008. Prior to the launch of the feed, the two NCAA basketball tournament games that aired in March 2008, which were presented in HD on CBS, were converted to a standard definition feed. CBS Sports Network uses the AFD #10 broadcast flag to present programming on its standard definition feed in letterboxed widescreen for viewers watching on cable television through 4:3 television sets.

Programming

Since airing its first game, CBS Sports Network has televised thousands of hours of original programming, features, talk shows and documentaries as well as extensive women’s sports coverage. Its regular season and championship event coverage draws from every major collegiate athletic conference and division, in addition to nine NCAA championships. CBS Sports Network televises 35 men's and women's college sports including football, basketball, baseball, ultimate, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, wrestling and volleyball from every major conference. The network holds multi-media and marketing rights for the Mountain West Conference, the Atlantic 10 Conference, Conference USA, the Patriot League, Army football and Navy football.

In April 2006, the network organized the first Collegiate Nationals, a festival of championships dedicated to crowning champions in a wide variety of collegiate action sports such as snowboarding, wakeboarding and beach volleyball. More than 1,000 competitors converged on Reno-Tahoe to compete, the largest number ever for an event of its kind. For its second installment in 2007, the Collegiate Nationals added sports and other events such as national film and music competitions, as well as a second venue â€" San Diego. The third year, 2008, brought further changes, as the winter sports events were moved to the Keystone Resort near Boulder, Colorado and competitive eating was added.

In the fall of 2006, CSTV and Comcast launched the MountainWest Sports Network (colloquially known as The Mtn.), a network focusing exclusively on the Mountain West Conference. The relation with the network also gave CSTV exclusive online and broadcasting rights to Notre Dame's game at Air Force on November 11, 2006 â€" which caused controversy since CSTV did not have carriage as widely distributed as other networks that have aired Notre Dame games. The Irish did not revisit a Mountain West team until a 2013 game at Air Force, which once again aired on CBSSN.

On April 3, 2012, CBS Sports Network premiered Rome, a sports news and talk program hosted by nationally syndicated radio host Jim Rome; Rome had recently left ESPN and his previous show, Jim Rome Is Burning, after signing on a new contract with CBS Sports.

On June 7, 2012, CBS Sports Network began to air the remaining games of the American Hockey League's 2012 Calder Cup Final between the Norfolk Admirals and the Toronto Marlies, starting with Game 3. On July 26, 2012, the network signed a deal with the United Football League â€" a second-tier professional football league that began play in October 2009 â€" to televise its games for the 2012 season. The UFL paid for all production expenses and received no rights fee from CBS Sports Network for the broadcasts. The league lasted approximately four weeks on CBS Sports Network before suspending operations halfway through the season.

In September 2012, CBS Sports Network introduced NFL Monday QB, a weekly NFL recap show. In September 2013, the network expanded its supplemental NFL coverage with That Other Pre-Game Show, a four-hour "fan-focused" program positioned as an interactive, "casual" counterpart to other pre-game shows, hosted by Adam Schein, Bart Scott, Amy Trask, and Brandon Tierney. On April 26, 2013, the network announced that it had signed a deal with the GEICO Motorcycle AMA Pro Road Racing Series for the remainder of the 2013 and the 2014 seasons. The network will air flag to flag coverage for the races as well as live coverage for several of the races. The network broadcast the FIA WTCC Race of the United States from Sonoma Raceway on September 8, 2013.

On December 2, 2013, CBS Sports Network announced that it will begin simulcasting the Boomer and Carton morning show from co-owned sports talk radio station WFAN in New York City in January 2014.

In August 2014, CBSSN announced a new original talk show, We Need To Talk, which features an all-female cast of personalities.

In August 2015, the network premiered Time to Schein, a new program hosted by Adam Schein.

Sports broadcast rights

• College Football on CBSSN (2005â€"present)
  • Conference USA
  • Mountain West Conference
  • American Athletic Conference (sublicensed from ESPN)
  • Mid-American Conference (subliscensed from ESPN)
  • Army and Navy
  • Cure Bowl (2015â€"present)
• College Basketball on CBSSN (2006â€"present)
  • American Athletic Conference (sublicensed from ESPN)
  • Atlantic 10 Conference
  • Big East Conference (sublicensed from Fox Sports)
  • Cancún Challenge
  • College Basketball Invitational
  • CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament
  • Conference USA
  • Great Alaska Shootout
  • Mid-American Conference (subliscensed from ESPN)
  • Missouri Valley Conference (subliscensed from ESPN)
  • Mountain West Conference
  • Ohio Valley Conference
  • Patriot League
  • Southland Conference women's basketball championship
  • Women's National Invitation Tournament
• College Hockey on CBSSN (2002â€"present)
  • Friday & Saturday college hockey
  • NCHC Championship
• Lacrosse on CBSSN
  • Major League Lacrosse (2012â€"present)
  • College lacrosse
• PGA Tour on CBS (2012â€"present)
  • PGA Championship on the Range (2012â€"present)
  • Masters on the Range (2013â€"present)
• Professional Bull Riders on CBS (2012â€"present)
  • Weekly coverage
• NBA D-League on CBSSN (2013â€"2014) (2013â€"present)
  • 12 regular season-games
  • NBA D-League Playoffs
  • NBA D-League Final
• NFL on CBS (2013â€"present)
  • NFL Monday QB
  • That Other Pre-Game Show (2013â€"present)
• Arena Football on CBS (2013â€"present)
  • 14 regular season games
  • AFL Playoffs
• World's Strongest Man (2013â€"present)
  • Full coverage of competitions, beginning in 2013.
  • Reruns of past World's Strongest Man competitions
• World of Outlaws (2013â€"present)
  • Tape delayed coverage of the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, World of Outlaws Late Model Series & Super DIRTcar Series
  • Races televised in 2013 and 2014 include the National Open (Sprint at Williams Grove), Syracuse 200 (Super DiRTcar at NYSF) and the World of Outlaws World Finals (all three series at The Dirt Track at Charlotte)
• AVP on CBSSN (2013â€"present)
  • Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, St. Petersburg, Santa Barbara, Huntington Beach
• Minor League Baseball on CBSSN (2014â€"present)
  • 15 regular season games
• North American Soccer League (2016)
• ARCA Racing Series (2014â€"2015)
  • 3 races were shown live on CBS Sports Network in 2014. Those races were Elko, Winchester & Madison.
  • 3 races will be also shown live on the network in 2015. Those races being Toledo, Winchester & Springfield.
• Torque.TV on CBSSN (2015â€"present)
  • Pirelli World Challenge (will feature live coverage, only race known so far is Detroit)
  • Blancpain Endurance Series (already was with the network in 2014), (Spa 24 Hours will be shown live in 2015)
  • Blancpain Sprint Series (already was with the network in 2014)
  • British Touring Car Championship
  • Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (already was with the network in 2014)
  • MotoAmerica
  • SKUSA Superkarts
  • V8 Supercars
• Trans-Am Series (2015â€"present)
• National Finals Rodeo (2014â€"present)
• Boxing on CBS (2015â€"present)
  • Premier Boxing Champions
  • Encore presentations of Showtime Championship Boxing
  • Supplemental programming for Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao
• Speed Energy Formula Off-Road (2015â€"present)

Carriage

CBS Sports Network is available nationally on satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network, and regionally on fiber optic television provider Verizon FiOS, and cable providers such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Cablevision, Charter Communications, Insight Communications, Bright House Networks, Blue Ridge Communications, Mediacom, RCN Corporation, Advanced Cable Communications and Bresnan.

In Canada, Rogers Cable began carrying CBS Sports Network on October 9, 2008. Satellite provider Bell TV started carrying the channel on September 3, 2009 and stopped on August 21, 2014 (they subsequently brought the channel back August 2015). Certain programs aired by the network (particularly NFL and NCAA basketball tournament related programs and other programs whose rights are owned by other broadcasters) are blacked out in Canada, and replaced with reruns of other events or studio programs. CBS Sports Network is the only U.S.-based mainstream sports service that is carried on pay television in Canada.

In late February 2009, CBS Sports Network reached a new carriage agreement with DirecTV, which allowed the satellite provider to move the channel from its add on "Sports Pack" to its "Choice Xtra" base package; the move became effective on February 25, 2009, expanding the channel's distribution to 30 million subscribers.

On July 7, 2009, Cox Communications announced that it would add the channel to its systems in Orange County, California and Arizona on August 1, 2009. AT&T U-verse added the network on February 17, 2010. On August 1, 2011, Cable One added the network in select markets.

On-air staff

Source:

Announcers, reporters and hosts

• Brad Nessler â€" play-by-play (2016â€"present)
• Adam Zucker - host (2003â€"present)
• Tracy Wolfson - host and reporter (2003â€"present)
• Brent Stover - host (2003â€"present)
• Grant Boone - reporter (2011â€"present)
• Dave Ryan - play-by-play (2006â€"present)
• Jason Knapp - play-by-play (2008â€"present)
• Tom McCarthy - host (2012â€"present)
• Matt Shepard - play-by-play (2008â€"present)
• Krista Blunk - reporter (2008â€"present)
• Lauren Gardner - reporter (2008â€"present)
• Ben Holden - play-by-play (2008â€"present)
• Jim Rome - host (2012â€"present)
• John Sadak - play-by-play (2012â€"present)
• Carter Blackburn - play-by-play (2014â€"present)
• Ron Pitts - play-by-play (2014â€"present)
• Andrew Catalon - play-by-play (2009â€"present)
• Brad Johansen - play-by-play (2012â€"present)
• Allie LaForce - host and reporter (2012â€"present)
• Adam Schein - host (2012â€"present)

Football

• Doug Chapman - analyst (2003â€"present)
• Randy Cross - analyst (2008â€"present)
• Brian Jones - analyst (2003â€"present)
• Tom Lemming - analyst (2010â€"present)
• Houston Nutt - analyst (2011â€"present)
• Brian Jones - analyst (2003â€"present)
• Aaron Taylor - analyst (2009â€"present)
• Ron Zook - analyst (2008â€"present)

Basketball

• Mateen Cleaves - analyst (2008â€"present)
• Seth Davis - analyst (2003â€"present)
• Pete Gillen - analyst (2008â€"present)
• Doug Gottlieb - analyst (2011â€"present)
• Steve Lappas - analyst (2008â€"present)
• Jon Rothstein - analyst (2003â€"present)
• Wally Szczerbiak - analyst (2003â€"present)
• Alaa Abdelnaby - analyst (2012â€"present)

Official athletic partnerships

In addition to its own website, CBS Sports Network also operates athletics websites for many college athletics organizations under its CBSSports.com College Network service.

References

External links

• CBSSportsNetwork.com â€" CBS Sports Network official website
• CBSSports.com â€" CBS Sports official website