MSG Varsity, Cablevision Systems Corp.'s local high school service, is slated to come out of the box tonight with a highlights show.
High School SportsDesk will be the first thing Cablevision viewers see when they switch their dial to channel 14 tonight at 7 p.m., according to operator officials.
High School SportsDesk will be followed by High School Sports Showcase, with the telecast of prep football games split into four regions within the operator's territory in the New York DMA.
Long Island subscribers will see Farmingdale-Syosset, while New Jersey customers can espy Saint Anthony (Long Island) against Delbarton. Cablevision viewers in Connecticut/Westchester County and the Hudson Valley can watch Gorton (Yonkers) square off against powerhouse New Rochelle. In the Bronx/Brooklyn, it's a Catholic school confrontation: Cardinal Hayes visiting Cardinal Spellman.
The quartet of high school pigskin matches are four of the 400 live-to-tape games and events MSG Varsity plans to show this school year under the High School Sports Showcase banner.
In addition to professionally produced games, MSG Varsity, which will also put a focus on clubs and activities from other school groups, has a team of that will work with high schools to allow students and faculty to create their own TV and Web-video segments. Cablevision also will launch MSGVarsity.com, which will bring together essentially all of MSG Varsity's professional and school-generated content.
The site will have four subsections for each geographic region, as well as dedicated areas for partner schools.
Meanwhile, MSG Varsity Interactive will collate the professional and school-generated fare found on the Web site and serve it up to digital cable customers on channel 614.
At press time, MSG Varsity said it had working arrangements with 60 high schools, a total that is expected to grow significantly over time.
