With the seemingly insatiable appetite for sports viewing in America, the cable networks are digging deeper into the pool as they look for more content to offer their audiences. ESPNU (DIS) has made a deal with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), that extends to 2010.
The deal empowers the network to air at least eight of the conference's regular-season men's basketball games per year, according to Media Daily News.
With the CSTV channel scooping up a lot of the smaller college conferences and schools, ESPNU is scrambling to compete by going after the obscure college conferences. They will also have another competitor in the upstart American Channel that will be launched soon.
If this continues, there may be a channel representing just about every college conference in the U.S. as the hunt for content surges.
The American Channel has already landed agreements with eight smaller college conferences to begin coverage this fall.
Included with the ESPNU deal will be the ability for the network to distribute MAAC games across other platforms like ESPN360 (a broadband network), pay-per-view and VOD.
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