November 3, 2005
CBS Agrees to Buy CSTV
CHN Staff Report
NEW YORK — College Sports TV (CSTV), which introduced the first national Game of the Week to college hockey fans two years ago, has agreed to be purchased by CBS Corp. for $325 million in stock.
CBS is in the process of splitting from media conglomerate Viacom.
CSTV founder Brian Bedol, who also founded Classic Sports Network before selling it to ESPN, will continue to operate the network, under the terms of the deal, and report to CBS chairman Leslie Moonves.
CSTV, which reaches 15 million homes through cable and satellite, first went on the air around the 2003 Frozen Four. Its mission has been to cover all college sports, including those overlooked by the bigger networks — hockey and lacrosse being the most prominent, but also with emphasis on the mid-major football and basketball conferences.
The deal also includes a network of more than 250 official college sports Web sites that are operated for their respective schools by CSTV, as well as CSTV's own Web site, http://www.CSTV.com.
Viacom has said it expects its breakup plan to be complete by the end of the year, pending regulatory approvals. Assuming it does, the newly created CBS Corp. will own the TV network, a major radio broadcaster, a group of TV stations and other properties. The new Viacom Inc. will own MTV and a stable of other cable networks as well as the Paramount movie studio.
