Launching this week, College Sports Television will provide the most in-depth sports coverage of 1,200 universities and colleges across all of the major conferences at every level of college sports.
The proposed $15m (£9.65m) deal with Coca-Cola includes a $10m equity stake and $5m to be dedicated to integrated marketing and promotional activities, which may include advertising, special events, retail and consumer marketing, out-of-home entertainment and other initiatives.
Brian Bedol, president and CEO of College Sports Television, said: "Our partnership with Coca-Cola will enable us to provide more value to our affiliates, viewers and programming partners. Coca-Cola's national presence and deep roots in the college market will be a tremendous asset as we build the network into the ultimate home of college sports."
CSTV has long-term programming and marketing agreements with all the major US college sporting organisations. CSTV will broadcast live regular season and championship events across a broad spectrum of men's and women's college sports, including ice hockey and lacrosse, as well as those already mentioned.
Chuck Fruit, senior vice-president of worldwide media and alliances at Coca-Cola, said: "In addition to our equity investment, we will work closely with the network management team in developing new and non-traditional joint marketing opportunities, combining the vision and expertise of CSTV with Coca-Cola's reach, distribution and network of consumer connections."
As part of the deal, CSTV and Coca-Cola say they expect to develop new television programming, joint advertising and consumer marketing initiatives designed to reach all those interested in college sports, including fans, student athletes and millions of college alumni.
In addition, the two will create new initiatives to complement Coca-Cola's recently announced 11-year sponsorship of the NCAA and its 87 national championship events.
In the first event involving Coca-Cola, the drinks giant will be the presenting sponsor of CSTV's Sunday night Notre Dame sports programming.
CSTV was co-founded by president and CEO Brian Bedol, chairman Stephen Greenberg and executive vice-president Chris Bevilacqua. Bedol and Greenberg co-founded Classic Sports Network, which they sold to ESPN and is now ESPN Classic. Bevilacqua is a former senior executive with Nike, where he headed the company's successful foray into the college market.
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