March 8, 2007
Spartanburg, S.C. - The Southern Conference today announced a three-year partnership with SportSouth, which grants the network exclusive broadcast rights to select Southern Conference sporting events. Beginning with the 2007-08 school year, SportSouth will televise live a minimum of 24 SoCon athletic events:
· Six regular-season football games
· 10 regular-season men's basketball games
· Both semifinal men's basketball conference tournament games
· Two regular-season women's basketball games
· Both semifinal women's basketball conference tournament games
· Women's basketball tournament championship
· Baseball tournament championship
The broadcast agreement also includes the right to produce and televise a minimu8m of three ancillary programming featuring Southern Conference schools. Such additional programming would provide a unique, behind-the-scenes look inside Southern Conference athletics, with exclusive access to coaches, players and teams.
Part of the Fox Sports Net family, SportSouth is managed by FSN South, which has had a relationship with the Southern Conference since the network's inception in 1990.
"We're proud to be a partner with SportSouth and look forward to increasing the exposure of Southern Conference athletics," said Southern Conference Commissioner John Iamarino. "This is a significant step forward for the Southern Conference. The SportSouth coverage area perfectly matches the geography of the conference and eliminates many of the distribution problems we've experienced in the past, including an inability to provide some broadcasts to satellite dish owners."
"SportSouth's business model is to serve the interests of the grassroots sports fans across the Southeast with network-quality production values and unprecedented insight never before seen at the local level," said Jeff Genthner, vice president and general manager of FSN South and SportSouth. "Partnering with the Southern Conference will provide SportSouth's viewers with exceptional collegiate programming of local interest, while benefiting the conference's 11 member institutions with coverage of more games produced with SportSouth's network-quality production values and distributed to more than 8.2 million cable and satellite homes throughout six Southeastern states."
SportSouth reaches more than eight million cable and satellite subscribers across a six-state region comprised of Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and the central and western portions of North Carolina.
The SportSouth footprint includes seven of the nation's top 50 television markets (Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville, Birmingham, Memphis and Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem) and 15 of the country's top 100 markets.
Through its affiliates and other FNG-owned networks, FSN reaches more than 82 million homes through 22 regional networks. Headquartered in Los Angeles, FSN owned or affiliated regional sports networks serve as the TV home to 64 of the 82 MLB, NHL and NBA teams based in the United States.
|
|
 |
