Turner Sports and the National Collegiate Athletic
Association have inked a 14-year digital agreement under which Turner will run
NCAA's digital portfolio and establish NCAA Digital, which will encompass
NCAA.com and the college association's other digital efforts for mobile, Web
and other devices. As part of the agreement, Turner will also be significantly
enhancing the digital coverage of all 88 NCAA men's and women's championships.
"The agreement will enable Turner and the NCAA to
enhance the coverage of all 88 NCAA championships across multiple digital
platforms," said Greg Shaheen, NCAA interim executive vice president for championships
and business strategies, in a statement. "NCAA Digital will provide fans,
student-athletes and their families with reliable, in-depth resources to engage
with NCAA championship events both live and on demand. In addition, NCAA.com
will showcase the tremendous, everyday accomplishments of NCAA student-athletes
on the court, in the classroom and in the community."
Under the deal, Turner will expand the NCAA's
editorial coverage on digital platforms with live video streams, stats,
highlights and social media and will manage ad sales for NCAA's digital
platforms.
Much of the focus for the digital effort will be on
the NCAA championships for men's and women's teams in 23 sports and NCAA
Digital will provide original programming, studio shows and live video for both
men's and women's teams for those tournaments.
Turner is planning to re-launch the NCAA's digital
efforts in the first quarter of 2011.
The new digital agreement spans the same time
period as the 14-year deal the NCAA, Turner and CBS reached earlier this year
for the Division I Men's Basketball Championship. Under that deal, which begins
in 2011, CBS and Turner got television, Internet and wireless rights for the
championship, with the tournament airing on CBS and across Turner's television
networks--TBS, TNT and truTV.
Turner will have operational oversight of NCAA
March Madness on Demand (MMOD) on broadband, as well as the March Madness
mobile efforts, but Turner and CBS will share sponsorship sales for MMOD and
mobile.
The new digital agreement expands the portfolio of
digital sporting assets already managed by Turner Sports. Besides NCAA Digital,
Turner currently runs such official league sites as NASCAR.com, PGAtour.com and
PGA.com, and jointly manages NBA Digital.
