NBC boosts sports stable with WCSN

Tue Jun 17, 2008

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - NBC Sports is taking a
further step into Olympic sports with the acquisition of
World Championship Sports Network, a small television
network and online site that televises year-round
competitions.

The 3-year-old Los Angeles-based company, which is owned
by InterMedia Partners, will be known as Universal
Sports. NBC Universal has made an unspecified investment
in the company and will jointly control it with
InterMedia Partners. Universal Sports will continue to be
run by its management team, Claude Ruibal and Carlos
Silva.

WCSN has rights deals with most but not all Olympic
sports, including track and field, gymnastics, swimming,
World Cup skiing, beach volleyball and curling. It
doesn't have the rights to World Cup soccer, figure
skating or tennis, however.

The partnership kicks off Thursday and Friday with
coverage of early-round Olympics trials in gymnastics and
diving.

"The whole vision of this is that we can give the fans
24/7 access to these sports," Silva said.

The TV channel has about 2 million subscribers, with
coverage in such smaller markets as Buffalo, N.Y., and
Detroit. Ruibal said he hopes the association with NBC
Universal will help the channel to build distribution,
though it likely won't have a place in the extensive
coverage NBC Universal is planning for the Summer Games
in Beijing.

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