New TV Deal For Conference- USA

[50's PONY]

C-USA Announces New TV Agreements with ESPN & CSTV
Tuesday January 11, 2:32 pm ET
ESPN Extends Partnership into 2011
Will Televise C-USA Football Championship Game
CSTV Agreement creates an extensive multi-media and marketing partnership featuring all C-USA sports


IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 11, 2005-- Conference USA has entered into long-term agreements with ESPN, Inc. (ESPN) and College Sports Television Networks, Inc. (CSTV), Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced today. The new agreements contain six-year initial terms to begin July 1, 2005 and conclude June 30, 2011.
"We are very pleased with these new agreements," said Banowsky. "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 more.

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

"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 agreement with CSTV is comprehensive in nature and includes significant national and regional exposure for football, men's and women's basketball, and all other Conference USA sports. Additionally, 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 website production through CSTV Online, a subsidiary of CSTV.

"The CSTV component is key," said Banowsky. "CSTV has a dynamic vision and an excellent management team. The potential of this partnership is staggering. CSTV will be a major player in this industry, there is no doubt about that."

"CSTV is proud to be a major player in this transformation of Conference USA," said CSTV President & CEO Brian Bedol. "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."

Conference USA is preparing for a transition to a new membership model. Beginning in 2005-06, C-USA will consist of 12 member institutions that all participate in football and men's and women's basketball - East Carolina, Houston, Marshall, Memphis, Rice, SMU, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, UCF and UTEP. The league will span nine states and include significant television markets such as Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans and Orlando.

ABOUT ESPN

ESPN, Inc. is the world's leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring a portfolio of over 50 multimedia sports assets. The company is comprised of seven domestic television networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU (launching March 2005), ESPN Today), ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN International (networks and syndication), ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, ESPN The Magazine, SportsTicker, ESPN Enterprises, ESPN Zones (sports-themed restaurants), and other growing new businesses including ESPN360 (formerly ESPN Broadband), ESPN Wireless, ESPN Video-on-Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN PPV. Based in Bristol, Conn., ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.

ESPN FACT SHEET

TERM: Initial term through the 2010-11 basketball season

EVENTS DISTRIBUTED:

10 Regular Season Football Games on ESPN or ESPN2
C-USA Football Championship game
Six Regular Season Men's Basketball Games on ESPN or ESPN2 and the Men's Basketball Championship Final
Three Regular Season Women's Basketball Games on ESPN or ESPN2 and the Women's Basketball Championship Final
Other ESPN Outlets: coverage of Conference USA across ESPN's other platforms, including 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 more.
ABOUT CSTV

CSTV, which launched April 7, 2003, is a multi-media company that consists of the first-ever 24-hour college sports television network, College Sports TV; the leading college sports online network, CollegeSports.com; and the first ever 24-hour college sports radio network, SIRIUS College Sports Radio. Through its numerous platforms, CSTV provides more live college sports games, events, news, information, analysis and broadband content, and reaches more college sports fans, than any other company.

CSTV, the fastest-growing independent cable network, has agreements with distributors that serve more than 65 million households nationwide. It has deals with the top six distributors - Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and Adelphia, among others. CSTV is expected to be available on cable in all Conference USA markets when the partnership commences this August. The network currently is available on cable in Conference USA markets Houston, Orlando, Birmingham, New Orleans, Memphis, Charleston-Huntington, W.V.

CSTV FACT SHEET

TERM: Initial term through the 2010-11 spring sports season

EVENTS DISTRIBUTED:

The new partnership provides CSTV with exclusive rights to regular season Conference USA football and regular season and post-season men's and women's basketball, as well as exclusive rights for all other regular season, post-season and championship Conference USA sports: baseball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field for men, and cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and volleyball for women.
Regular Season package of Football Games
Regular Season package of Men's Basketball Games
Regular Season package of Women's Basketball Games
Championship Games in Volleyball, Baseball, Softball, Women's Soccer and Men's Soccer
Early round coverage of the Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments
Coverage of all 19 regular season Olympic sports events, including significant coverage of C-USA women's sports
Comprehensive coverage in CSTV's news, scores and highlights programming as well as coaches shows, original series and documentary style programs
Educational, distance learning and cultural programming from C-USA Member Institutions
The agreement includes conference-related media and marketing rights, including television, national over-the-air and satellite radio, video-on-demand, Internet, broadband, wireless and exclusive corporate sponsorship and rights.
CSTV's CSTV Online business unit produces the www.CollegeSports.com Web site. The agreement will provide the rights for CSTV Online to produce the official site of the Conference USA and the individual member websites with exclusive rights to all video and audio streaming. CSTV Online currently produces the official athletic sites Houston, Memphis, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB

[EastStang]

No $$$$ announced. That is not good. It sounds like there's nothing to brag about. We get Monday Tues. and Wed. games. Good luck getting a crowd for those games especially against ECU. We split time with ESPN and CSTV and cannot be carried on ESPN-U. Hopefully that threat made CSTV pony up some dollars for ESPN leftovers. CSTV is going to cover Olympic sports of CUSA. That means coverage of soccer, baseball, and swimming which might give us some exposure. The DMN meet might get televised. All in all not what I hoped, but better than nothing. Hopefully, we'll be in a stronger posture as a conference 5 years from now.

[Dooby]

Stay tuned for East Carolina at SMU....Next on THE OCHO!!!

[PlanoStang]

The OCHO beats channel IFtyTwo any day.

Is CSTV the same thing as what the Mountain West is going to do?

[UConn/SMU]

Isn't this what we expected of C-USA? Not much money, but lots of exposure with weeknight games? Louisville was able to parlay that into a pretty good program. They played weeknight games for years and it helped them tremendously.

Maybe that can happen here. I'm not counting on it, but who knows?

[Col. Nathan R. Jessep]

If you can 'dodge a wrench', you too can be on the "Ocho"

[StangEsq]

To me this is great news... no matter what the payoff. I was expecting ESPN to drop the conference altogether. Big thumbs up.

[Mustangs35SMU]

Must agree with StangEsq

Great great news. I wonder if they'll show SMU vs TCU or SMU vs Baylor? ooo that'd be good

[Ponymon]

Who cares about the money right now? The exposure is what the program needs. The money will come later as the conference proves itself to the viewing public. Plus primetime weekday football brings stronger ratings although I do prefer Saturday afternoons for my teams games.

[Dooby]

If you can 'dodge a wrench', you too can be on the "Ocho"

Am I the only one, when Dodgeball was over, that thought, "What? No cameo by Ralph Machio?"

Quit? Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't anything to regret for the rest of their life. Well good luck to you Peter. I'm sure this decision won't haunt you forever.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I JUST HOPE IF WE ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO GET A WEEK NIGHT GAME, THAT IT IS ON THE ROAD.