Wednesday, March 17, 2004

CSTV COMPLETES ACQUISITON OF OFFICIAL COLLEGE SPORTS NETWORK (OCSN)



CSTV COMPLETES ACQUISITON OF OFFICIAL COLLEGE SPORTS NETWORK (OCSN), MOST-TRAFFICKED COLLEGE SPORTS DESTINATION ON THE WEB

CollegeSports.com And Its Network of 150 Official College Athletic Sites Generate Two Billion Page Views Annually

NEW YORK, March 16, 2004 - CSTV: College Sports Television (www.collegesports.com), the fastest-growing independent cable network, has completed its acquisition of the Official College Sports Network (OCSN), which will be re-branded CollegeSports.com. CollegeSports.com includes the www.collegesports.com Web site and its network of 150 official athletic sites for top colleges, universities and athletic associations.

CollegeSports.com is the number one online source for college sports news, information, scores and analysis, generating more than two billion page views annually. It produces and manages official athletic sites for institutions such as Notre Dame, Ohio State, Miami (Fla.), Tennessee, Stanford and the Pac-10 and Atlantic Coast Conferences.

CollegeSports.com generated a single-day record of more than 23 million page views last Friday, March 12, as fans logged on for coverage of the conference basketball tournaments. CollegeSports.com produces the official athletic sites for 28 colleges competing in the NCAA Men's Division I basketball tournament and 30 colleges competing in the NCAA Women's Division I basketball tournament.

CollegeSports.com also provides audio and video of games, coaches' shows and press conferences for more than 50 schools through its "College Sports Pass" subscription service with RealNetworks, Inc. "College Sports Pass" subscribers have access to more than 2,000 live events, including football, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball, baseball and other sports. CollegeSports.com delivers scores and headlines across a number of wireless platforms, and more than 1,000 collegiate correspondents around the nation continuously feed news, information and statistics to CollegeSports.com sites.

"We are excited about partnering with schools and conferences that recognize the value of utilizing interactive technologies to build and strengthen relationships with alumni, students and fans," said Brian Bedol, president and CEO, CSTV. "The addition of CollegeSports.com to our portfolio, and its broad and deep coverage of intercollegiate athletics, enables us to provide unparalleled value to our distribution, programming and marketing partners."

CollegeSports.com
Attracts more than 8 million unique users and more than 220 million page views per month

Ranks #1 among online sports destinations in composition of users with a household income of greater than $150,000

Ranks #1 among online sports destinations in composition of users with undergraduate and graduate degrees

More than 72% of users access CollegeSports.com via high-speed connections, compared to the general Internet audience average of 44%

Counts more than 325 advertisers, including American Express, AT&T, Discover Card, EA Sports, Forbes, Ford, Microsoft, Nextel, Sony and UPS

With annual revenue of approximately $11 billion, the college sports category is as large as the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball combined. More than 120 million people in the United States have either graduated from college or attended college, creating a massive, passionate and loyal audience for CSTV programming.

CollegeSports.com at the NCAA Basketball Tournaments
CollegeSports.com is serving up the most in-depth online coverage of the NCAA men's and women's tournaments as part of CSTV's "32 Days of Madness, 64 Hours a Day" initiative. In addition to exclusive news, information and commentary, CollegeSports.com features streaming video of tournament post-game press conferences, GameTracker real-time statistics and scores for every tournament game, streaming live audio of select NCAA games and other exclusive broadband content. CollegeSports.com, along with AOL, will stream live audio from CSTV's live Tourney Talk call-in show throughout the NCAA tournaments, as well.

CollegeSports.com provides its partner schools, conferences and athletic associations with a full suite of products and services which increase promotion and revenue. These resources include: Netitor, the industry-leading publishing platform; FanBase, its new customer relationship management system; e-commerce services including online stores, ticketing, auctions (with partner eBay) and fundraising; and extensive advertising sales and support. In addition, CollegeSports.com's "College Sports Pass" subscription audio and video package provides its partners with enhanced national exposure and an additional revenue stream.

College Sports TV's distribution partners will benefit as CollegeSports.com extends the College Sports TV reach into local market college and distribution affiliate communities. "College Sports Pass" provides exclusive audio and video content for operators seeking compelling broadband programming to sell their digital products.

Marketers seeking to create a one-to-one marketing experience can tap into and activate millions of passionate college sports fans and alumni with integrated and customized national, local and school-specific marketing programs.

The Internet & Broadband Landscape
The U.S. online population now numbers 150 million

26 million homes have access to high-speed Internet access, with the number expected to reach 62 million by 2007

Broadband Internet customers spend 50% more time and 64% more money shopping online than dial-up customers

Online advertising revenue increased 20% in 2003 to $7.2 billion

2003 saw a 200% increase in the use of rich media advertisements - ads using animation, audio, video or other interactive elements

College Sports TV is available to more than 15 million homes nationally on cable and satellite. The network is available on Time Warner, Adelphia and Insight cable systems, among others, and is also available on DirecTV (channel 610). For information on CSTV availability in particular markets, consumers can log on to www.collegesports.com or call their cable or satellite operator.

CSTV is the number one company in college sports, with two primary business units: College Sports TV and CollegeSports.com. College Sports TV televises regular season and championship event coverage from every major collegiate athletic conference, and televises nine NCAA Championships. In addition, the network has a programming and marketing agreement with the U.S. Olympic Committee. CollegeSports.com, the most-trafficked college sports Web site, and its network of 150 official athletic sites for top colleges, universities and athletic associations, are the number one online source for college sports news, information, scores and analysis.

College Sports TV was co-founded by President/CEO Brian Bedol, Chairman Stephen Greenberg and Executive Vice President Chris Bevilacqua. Bedol and Greenberg co-founded Classic Sports Network, which they sold to ESPN and which is now ESPN Classic. Bevilacqua is a former senior executive with Nike Inc., where he headed the company's successful foray into the college market.

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Eric Handler
CSTV: College Sports Television
212-342-8760
ehandler@cstv.com