Mountain West holds back TV details

CORONADO, Calif. -- The Mountain West and CSTV reached anagreement with distributors to broadcast league sporting events,according to commissioner Craig Thompson, but details of just how farthe coverage goes could not be explained.

The perplexing announcement by Thompson on Tuesday came with aguarantee -- that the league's football games would be availablewithin all MWC footprint cities by the start of the football seasonin 54 days. Thompson said he was legally bound to limit hisdiscussion of the agreement to those simple details.

The Deseret Morning News, however, reported Tuesday that theforthcoming announcement will involve Comcast, the nation's largestcable provider.

Thompson said he had a personal drop-dead deadline of July 30 tofinish adding distribution partners with CSTV and wouldn't besurprised if he had further news within four to five days.

The CSTV pact with the MWC is an $80 million deal that replaced acontract with ESPN. A selling point with the MWC for CSTV is keepingmost of its football games on Saturdays. Thompson said 48 of 56 MWCgames this fall will be on Saturday -- avoiding mid-week and Fridaybroadcasts, which became routine on ESPN.

Thompson said the current agreement hammered out late Monday wouldcover half the MWC footprint. It is speculated that coverage wouldextend to all the markets but San Diego and Las Vegas. Thompsonpromised those other markets would be included in days to come.

For fans across the country who wonder what CSTV coverage meansfor them, Thompson said through cable and satellite subscriptionservices, games should be available.

"The days of free television broadcasts are over," he said. "Ifyou want to see college football on ESPN through Gameday, it's goingto cost you $70. These days, those who want to see college footballand basketball pay for it like you pay for your phone service --that's just the way it is.

"You may be able to pick up ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX with some rabbitears and some tin foil on your TV set, but if you want programmingand access to most sporting events, you will need to subscribe andpay."

Thompson said he envisions the day when the CSTV network should bepart of a basic package -- that people would not have to buy apremium service on their cable or satellite dish.

Frustrated that he could not deliver more detailed news aboutCSTV's coverage, Thompson said he had been holed up at the CoronadoMarriott since his arrival on Saturday, making phone calls to legalcounsel, university presidents and athletic directors.

"It's been an hour-by-hour conversation," Thompson said. "I wish Ihad more to tell you because that is how I like to operate, but thiswill have to do for now."

CSTV expects to have a partnership with an exclusive Mountain Westsports network called The mtn., which will be available in many cableand satellite packages -- for a price. But that network does notexist on the air right now.

"If you tuned in to channel 89 on your cable station, you'd see ablue screen," Thompson said. "But by Sept. 1, it should be availablebecause that is when it will be available."

Other options for seeing MWC football include Internet streamingvideo, the same technology used by Major League Baseball.

E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com