CBS will pay $325 million in stock to buy CSTV Networks, Inc., including the Mountain West Conference contract, in a deal MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said is “without a doubt the most monumental trans- action in our short history. It way overshadows (Utah’s) BCS bowl win.”
The MWC took a chance when it ended its relationship with ESPN and signed with upstart CSTV a year ago. Thompson said Thursday he anticipated all along that CSTV, a two-year-old enterprise of college sports cable outlets and a network of websites, would be sold to an established media giant.
“We (just) didn’t anticipate it would be sold before it started,” he said.
The MWC’s seven-year agreement with CSTV begins in August along with the launch of an MWC regional network. CSTV founder Brian Bedol will continue to operate CSTV. Dave Checketts, who helped broker the original MWC deal, stays as co-chairman of the MWC regional network.
CBS parent company Viacom owns Comedy Central, MTV, BET and UPN.
“I don’t think there will be an issue of finding a platform,” Thompson said, referring to the MWC’s inability to get Saturday’s Colorado State-Texas Christian game on TV.
The MWC contract with CSTV calls for six football games and six basketball games to be sold each year to an over-the-air network or cable outlet with 75 million households.
The MWC raised eyebrows a year ago when it bolted ESPN for an unknown entity. The MWC was dissatisfied with ESPN’s slotting of its games.
“It still revolves around a bold decision (by MWC presidents) there be no Tuesday or Wednesday football games,” Thompson said. “I’m sitting there thinking I’m trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat, and perhaps on this we pulled two out of a hat.”
The heightened exposure offered by CBS can’t help but assist the MWC’s ultimate goal of gaining automatic qualifying status to the BCS, Thompson thinks. Meanwhile, the Big East now is playing Wednesday night football.
The CBS deal is pending regulatory agency approval.
