“It’s about time,” are the words from many Historically Black College and University fans across the nation.
ESPN has entered into a programming agreement with the HBCU Network. The Network will be solely focused on HBCU colleges and universities.
Curtis Symonds, chief executive of this project said, “the network would launch in August 2011.
“The network will not only feature sports, HBCU net will broadcast entertainment, culture and lifestyles programming. The network will be modeled after the Big Ten Network, sports will only be 28 percent of the programming.
Before working for the HBCU Network, Symonds was the head of affiliate sales and marketing at Viacom Inc. Black Entertainment Television cable network.
ESPN owns the rights to majority of the historically black colleges and universities, which include conferences of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Southwestern Athletic Conference, Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
The programming rights will be shared between both ESPN and HBCU networks. ESPN has the option to take the first swoop of games, then the HBCU Network will follow.
The universities themselves will own 20 percent of the equity in the network, Symonds said. It has not been determined how these ownership stakes will be divided among the colleges.
“We hope to launch in 10 million homes, and over the next five years, we hope to be in close to 50 million homes,” Symonds said. The network is scheduled to launch in August 2011, with a possible “soft launch” during Black History Month next February
The network’s primary target will be in 20 states where HBCUs are located, and they are proposing a 7.5 cent per subscriber monthly carriage fee, much lower than rates for other college sports networks.
According to SNL Kagan, Big 10 Network has a carriage fee of 36 cents, Fox College Sports has a fee of 34 cents, CBS College Sports Network has a fee of 19 cents and ESPNU has a monthly fee of 16 cents.