Posted: 11/5/03

Victory Sports One launches regional sports network

Joe Drennan
Sports Editor

Sports fans in Minnesota smiled a little bigger Friday when Victory Sports One began broadcasting, but Forest Lake viewers were left in the dark.

While nine cable distributors in Minnesota have signed on to carry Victory Sports One in 17 communities, none of those communities are in the Metro area. VS1 as it is being called, hopes to expand that coverage to cable customers who do not receive the channel. Victory Sports One president Kevin Cattoor says that the best way for viewers to speed up the process of added the channel to their programming is to call their local cable or satellite provider.

ìWe have been out there with the contract since February,î Cattoor said. ìWe have been having discussions with cable operators across the state to this point, and so far nine of them have signed on with us.î

U.S. Cable, the cable provider that services Forest Lake, says they are currently in negotiations with Victory Sports One, but there is no indication as to when they might add the channel, or if they will. Negotiations are still ongoing with satellite providers, but Cattoor says the problems with negotiating with them is that their home offices are spread out across the country and such deals take time.

The issue that is slowing negotiations down between Victory Sports One and cable providers is that Victory Sports One wants to charge each customer about $2.00 for the channel. The price is comparable to other sports channels like ESPN and Fox Sport North. Cable providers would like to carry Victory Sports One as a premium channel like HBO, but Cattoor wants the broadest distribution possible.

Cattoor said that after the station is up and running, cable and satellite providers will see that Victory Sports One is a station that customers will want and demand. Once enough customers demand the station, Cattoor feels that will help speed up the negotiating process and get deals done so more people can watch Victory Sports One.

Line up

Victory Sports One will be carrying over 100 Twins games during the 2004 season, University of Minnesota basketball games, up to four University of Minnesota football games next season, up to 30 St. Cloud State and University of Minnesota State University - Mankato hockey and football games, as well as up to two high school basketball and/or hockey games a week. Victory Sports One also plans on carrying ESPNNEWS and NCAA Championship events from Division I regional hockey championships to Division I wrestling.

ìWe are confident in our continued progress toward securing further distribution on the cable and satellite systems,î Cattoor said. ìBetween Twins baseball and Gopher basketball, Victory will have over 80 percent of the total regional sports viewership in the upper Midwest. Without high school sports initiative, MSU and SCSU hockey and football and additional regional programming, we believe we've built a sports channel viewers throughout the Upper Midwest will demand.î

Victory Sports One's high school initiative program aims to heighten the coverage of high school sports.

ìIt's not about commercializing high school sports,î Cattoor said. ìIt's about televising good games. It's not just about doing a game between the lines, it will be about what is going on in the feature high schools as well, from academics to the town the school is in.î

Gopher's head basketball coach Dan Monson is upset that most Gopher fanswon't see his team's games. Victory Sports One will carry about 19 Gopher games this season, and eight games will be on national TV. With the Gopher season beginning Nov. 17, Cattoor doesn't think many more cable carriers will have picked up the station, but when the Big Ten season beginns in January Cattoor hopes most, if not some, carriers will have picked up Victory Sports One.

If you wish to get Victory Sports One, call U.S. Cable or your satellite provider. U.S. Cable can be reached at 800-783-2356, Dish Network at 800-333-3474, and Direct TV at 800-494-4388.

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