Viacom is ready to cut a deal to acquire College Sports Television, according to sources close to the negotiations.
While neither side offered official confirmation Tuesday, the deal could be closed before the end of the week. If all goes through as planned, Viacom’s CBS Sports unit would take control of CSTV, the independent collegiate sports net launched in 2003 by cofounders Brian Bedol and Steve Greenberg.
Bedol and Greenberg have been down this road before, developing Classic Sports Network in 1995, and turning around and selling it to ESPN two years later for $200 million. Classic Sports was then rebranded as ESPN Classic.
A Bloomberg News story published Tuesday said CSTV could be worth about $500 million, which translates into another tidy profit for the network founders, which put up $100 million to get CSTV up and running.
CSTV and CBS already have a business relationship, as CSTV has secured streaming media deals with CBS SportsLine.com and has negotiated the rights to produce an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament highlights package that was carried by Viacom’s Spike TV.
While Viacom co-COO Les Moonves was noncommittal about the possibility of picking up CSTV during the company’s third quarter conference call Tuesday, he conceded that if “there’s something that fits with some of the businesses that we’re already in, we would consider that.”
Another hint that a deal with CSTV may be in the offing came earlier in the week when newly appointed executive vp of CBS Sports Tony Petitti said that he would look to acquire new programming, particularly in the collegiate sports arena.
At present, CSTV reaches about 15 million cable and direct-broadcast satellite households, having distribution agreements with Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and EchoStar’s DISH Network.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/cabletv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001393622
While neither side offered official confirmation Tuesday, the deal could be closed before the end of the week. If all goes through as planned, Viacom’s CBS Sports unit would take control of CSTV, the independent collegiate sports net launched in 2003 by cofounders Brian Bedol and Steve Greenberg.
Bedol and Greenberg have been down this road before, developing Classic Sports Network in 1995, and turning around and selling it to ESPN two years later for $200 million. Classic Sports was then rebranded as ESPN Classic.
A Bloomberg News story published Tuesday said CSTV could be worth about $500 million, which translates into another tidy profit for the network founders, which put up $100 million to get CSTV up and running.
CSTV and CBS already have a business relationship, as CSTV has secured streaming media deals with CBS SportsLine.com and has negotiated the rights to produce an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament highlights package that was carried by Viacom’s Spike TV.
While Viacom co-COO Les Moonves was noncommittal about the possibility of picking up CSTV during the company’s third quarter conference call Tuesday, he conceded that if “there’s something that fits with some of the businesses that we’re already in, we would consider that.”
Another hint that a deal with CSTV may be in the offing came earlier in the week when newly appointed executive vp of CBS Sports Tony Petitti said that he would look to acquire new programming, particularly in the collegiate sports arena.
At present, CSTV reaches about 15 million cable and direct-broadcast satellite households, having distribution agreements with Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and EchoStar’s DISH Network.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/cabletv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001393622
