Sling TV to Launch Live College Sports Channel

5 Oct, 2015 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Sling TV Oct. 5 announced the pending debut of “College Insiders,” an add-on channel showcasing live college sports, including the inaugural Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl, Dec. 29, featuring football teams from the Mountain West Conference, Conference USA or Sun Belt Conference.

The channel, which will stream soon in a partnership with Silver Chalice Networks, is part of “Sports Extra,” a $5 monthly surcharge to Sling’s $20 monthly subscription.

Live sports heretofore remains a mainstay and benchmark of pay-TV. Over-the-top video pioneer Netflix has continually said it has no interest in pursuing live sports programming. Yet, CBS, which operates SVOD service CBS All Access, has expressed interest in streaming NFL games as part of its NFL Thursday broadcasts, according to CEO Les Moonves.

Sling TV, which is owned and operated by satellite TV operator Dish Network, was the first to stream sports when it launched with Disney-owned ESPN and Time Warner's TNT.

“We have seen incredible viewership on sports channels every Saturday, as college football ramps up. ‘Campus Insiders’ deepens our college sports offering with conferences that, until today, have been underserved when it comes to watching games live,” Roger Lynch, CEO of Sling TV, said in a statement.

Indeed, with most of the nation’s top-ranked college football games already broadcast on TV, “College Insiders” focuses on delivering games digitally, including lesser known college conferences’ (Mountain West, Patriot League, West Coast Conference and CIAA schools) football, basketball, baseball, volleyball and soccer games nationwide.

“With our commitment to covering the world of college sports and delivering the live games of our conference partners to a wider audience, Campus Insiders’ growth is a testament to the insatiable appetite of the more than 100 million Americans who call themselves college sports fans,” Brooks Boyer, CEO of Silver Chalice, said in a statement.

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