DirecTV News: NCAA Basketball

[Chinatown]

DirecTV Nets March Madness Deal

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By R. Thomas Umstead 1/22/2007 6:53:00 PMDigg This | add to Del.icio.us |

DirecTV will be mad for college basketball for the rest of the decade.

The direct-broadcast satellite provider secured a multiyear deal to exclusively carry the NCAA Mega March Madness out-of-market men's college-basketball tournament as part of a broader deal with CBS that also included increased DirecTV distribution of CBS-owned college-sports cable network CSTV.

The DBS service will move CSTV to its Total Choice Plus tier from its sports tier, boosting the channel's DirecTV reach to 8 million subscribers from 2 million. Overall, CSTV is in front of 20 million subscribers.

DirecTV -- which has offered the NCAA March Madness out-of-market package since 1999 -- will provide subscribers with up to 37 tournament games, as well as interactive enhancement features, for a suggested retail price of $69.

CSTV will also continue to air NCAA March Madness tournament games via broadband as part of a partnership with CBS SportsLine.com and NCAAsports.com.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources close to the agreement said it runs through 2010.

"From its inception, exclusive sports programming has set DirecTV apart as the leading multichannel provider of the world's most important and exciting sporting events," CEO Chase Carey said in a prepared statement. "The NCAA Men's Basketball Championship is one of those unique events that capture the attention of sports fans throughout the country, and DirecTV will bring our customers every upset, buzzer-beater and Cinderella story."

[syrett4]

Ugh, I am getting so tired of these deals.  Why does it seem like everything sports will be only on Direct TV soon.  I'm tired of TWC and DTV.  Some days I wish I could just move to Montana, build myself a little shack and cook buffalo meat over an open fire the rest of my life.

[syrett4]

Ugh, I am getting so tired of these deals.  Why does it seem like everything sports will be only on Direct TV soon.  I am guessing the TWC multi-casting deal is over.  I'm tired of TWC (no HD) and DTV (exclusive deals).  Some days I wish I could just move to Montana, build myself a little shack and cook buffalo meat over an open fire the rest of my life.

[StarvingForHDTV]

Some days I wish I could just move to Montana, build myself a little shack and cook buffalo meat over an open fire the rest of my life.

You may enjoy these:  http://www.dickproenneke.com/

[Army82ndAB]

Tell me if I'm wrong but for some reason I remember watching games on the 58 subchannels last year??? Does this mean we won't get them OTA now??

[bubbaridesfast]

Tell me if I'm wrong but for some reason I remember watching games on the 58 subchannels last year??? Does this mean we won't get them OTA now??

D* had this same offer last year when 58 aired every game. I suspect that 58 will air all of the games on sub-channels again this year.

I know some folks don't like that because of the picture degradations but I would rather have every game available myself. I remember growing up and watching the Bucks games OTA in black and white with crappy reception so I can put up with multi-casting in this situation.