Russell has seen the effect of television collegiate sports before.
“The University of Hawaii has a relationship with the local NBC affiliate in Honolulu and frequently broadcasts collegiate games in water polo, volleyball, swimming, etc. When my teams have visited Hawaii in the past, my athletes have very much enjoyed watching their game versus Hawaii on television later that evening,” Russel said.
It is no secret that women’s sports generally receive less coverage in media, and Russell feels CSTV can help change this trend.
“Frankly, almost anything we can do to increase exposure for women’s collegiate athletics is okay in my book,” Russell said. Young female athletes, starting as young as five, six, or seven years old, need role-models just like their peers who are boys. If a young boy wants to grow up to be the next Michael Jordan or Babe Ruth, who does a young girl want to grow up and be the ‘next?’”
Nike will also benefit from the development of a market for collegiate athletics. The company announced that it was forming a new programming, marketing and advertising relationship with CSTV on Oct. 27.
Nike will be sponsoring a new program on CSTV, called Nike Training Camp, which features various college coaches. The program will get such coaching celebrities as Maryland’s Gary Williams, Indiana’s Mike Davis and North Carolina’s Anson Dorrance.
Furthermore, CSTV will also play an integral marketing role next month in the introduction of the new Nike Training initiative, and will have its programming incorporated into Nike’s Football Rivalry Series this fall.
CSTV affirms that it is committed to providing national exposure for student-athletes participating in more than 25 sports at over 1,300 colleges while maintaining the integrity of intercollegiate athletics.
Still, the intimacy of the internet and the monopoly of CSTV over collegiate exposure will enable marketers to increase their advertising. But Harvard director of sports communication Chuck Sullivan does not think it will infiltrate the Crimson athletic website extensively.
“I don’t anticipate much more advertising,” Sullivan said. “We’re not one to go overboard in the way of advertising.”
Currently, gocrimson.ocsn.com has a link where users can purchase merchandise from the Harvard Varsity Shop. The revenue from these sales support Harvard Atheltics. There are links to ocsn.com and collegesports.com (which is owned by OCSN), but there are otherwise no advertisements for outside retailers. Whether CSTV will change this remains to be seen.
CSTV’s own website (www.cstv.com) is largely self-promoting, but does not include many outside advertisements either. But, there is a link to NCAAsports.com where patrons can purchase tickets to college events, and the Coca-Cola logo can be seen in a flashy promotion for a CSTV Sweepstakes.
Currently, CSTV is a little more than halfway to their goal of 100,000 names on the petition with 55,515 people.
“The more exposure college sports receive the better,” Harvard fencing coach Peter Brand said. “I have no problem with CSTV’s reliance on advertising. This is a win-win proposition to all concerned.”