Setting the stage for expansion beyond college sports, CBS said it would re-brand its cable sports outlet
CBC College Sports Network and call it CBS Sports Network. It had been CSTV when the company bought it. Three years ago, it became CBS College Sports Network.
The network is in 40 million homes. The re-branding is to happen in April as March Madness ends on CBS.
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CBS rebrands sports cable network: Cabler aims for higher profile, by Jon Weisman, Variety
CBS College Sports Network has rebranded itself as CBS Sports Network, signaling an intention to elevate the cabler's profile in a sports TV world led by ESPN.
The move comes one week after Sean McManus shed his CBS News president responsibilities to focus solely on CBS Sports as its chairman. He leads the network into this rebranding with David Berson, CBS Sports exec veep and CBS Sports Network prexy.
Berson came to CBS in January after 16 years at ESPN, where he most recently shared programming topper duties.
CBS Sports Network is seen in approximately 40 million homes.
"We're happy with the product, and it's turned into a nice business," Berson told Variety. "We just see
it as a greater opportunity for growth. This is the first step of more closely aligning ourselves with the very successful CBS Sports brand."
While making no claim to challenge ESPN at this point, CBS is undoubtedly keen on building the relationship between its flagship network sports properties -- which include the NFL, the PGA Tour and NCAA football and basketball -- and those of its sports cable outlet, similar to the synergy shared by ABC and ESPN.
"That's a pretty tall order," said Berson of competing directly with ESPN. "That's a pretty lofty goal. I wouldn't say that right now, but I do think there's tons of sport content out there (and) tons of ideas to generate more sports content. ... There's plenty of room for a lot of folks out there.
"It's a first step in a pretty aggressive push forward to be more relevant in the sports media world."
CBS did not announce any new programming initiatives for CBS Sports Network, which covers more than 250 live events per year in 15 men's and women's sports. The network's marquee content in recent months has been Mountain West Conference games in football between Texas Christian and Utah, and basketball between San Diego State and Brigham Young. The teams were ranked in the top 10 nationally at the time, but in general events of mass appeal have not been frequent on the cabler.
In the future, CBS Sports Network could provide a platform for expanded coverage of existing CBS Sports properties (including such Showtime Sports properties as "Inside the NFL") as well as for new acquisitions.
"It's a little premature to go down that road," Berson said. "Today's announcement is about the brand change, but those are certainly things we'll look at."
This is not the first name change for CBS Sports Network: It was known as College Sports TV when CBS acquired it in 2006, then changed to CBS College Sports Network in 2008. Though the CBS name has been part of the title, Berson said that the branding of the network relative to CBS Sports has been "more distinct than it could be, should be or will be moving forward."