US college sports organisation the Atlantic 10 Conference has bolstered its broadcast reach by agreeing a multi-year partnership with media company Sinclair Networks Group.
Under the deal, Sinclair’s new college sports platform American Sports Network will annually televise at least 52 A-10 events across seven sports. This includes coverage of both men’s and women’s basketball, and championship exposure in baseball, men’s and women’s soccer, softball and volleyball.
The agreement, which begins in the autumn of 2015, augments the A-10’s existing partnerships with sports broadcaster ESPN and pay-television broadcasters CBS Sports Network and NBCSN.
The coverage brings the projected total number of televised A-10 controlled men’s basketball games to approximately 174 starting in 2015-16. ASN will carry a minimum of 32 men’s basketball games. It will also produce and air a minimum of nine women’s basketball games, including the Women’s Basketball Championship quarterfinals.
ASN’s Olympic sport championship coverage will include the final match of men’s and women’s soccer championships and the semifinals and final of the baseball, softball and volleyball championships. All events will also be distributed digitally via AmericanSportsNet.com.
ASN will also produce and air two weekly 30-minute studio shows, specifically dedicated to the Atlantic 10, from November to March.
ASN is composed of 161 Sinclair-owned and operated television stations in the United States, 23 of which are located in Atlantic 10 Conference markets, which combine to reach approximately 43 million households nationwide. ASN has also developed an affiliate network of regional sports networks to increase the per-game potential distribution to more than 60 million households.