Future home to MWC sports could be sold

There's no confirmation from either party yet, but there's widespread speculation that CSTV is about to be sold to media giant Viacom. And that the soon-to-be home of the Mountain West Conference will be operated by CBS Sports.

The industry trade publication Mediaweek is reporting the deal could be closed by the end of the week. Speculation puts the price at somewhere in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars.

If — and it's still a big if — the deal is consummated, it could be good for a couple of reasons right off the bat. First, with resources of Viacom behind CSTV, there's no question that the cable network will have enough money to make good on its seven-year, $82 million contract.

That, of course, is good news to MWC members, including BYU and Utah.

And second, with Viacom's muscle behind it, CSTV's distribution seems certain to expand. (It's currently available in only about 15 million homes, as compared to ESPN and ESPN2, which are both available in more than 90 million homes.)

Hey, if Viacom can force Nicktoons onto cable and satellite systems, it can probably do the same with CSTV.

CBS and CSTV have a history. CSTV has streaming media deals with CBS SportsLine.com for various events (including the NCAA men's basketball tournament) and will produce an NCAA tourney highlights package.

And CSTV's founders, Brian Bedol and Steve Greenberg, have a history with deals like this. They started the Classic Sports Network, which they later sold to ESPN (which rebranded it ESPN Classic) for a tidy profit.

What all this would mean to Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts — who invested in CSTV, folded his SportsWest TV company into CSTV and is CSTV's co-chairman — remains to be seen.

MILESTONES: Friday marks the on-air debut of the rebranded Fox Sports Net-Utah, which will unveil the on-air logo during the Jazz-at-Kings game at 8:30 p.m.

(Not all programming on the local FSN will carry that monicker, however. A lot of it will still be FSN-Rocky Mountain; even FSN-Arizona for Phoenix Coyote games.)

Friday's Utah-Golden State game will also by FSN's first high-definition broadcast of the Jazz.

Oh, and Monday's FSN telecast of the Jazz-at-Hornets game (5:30 p.m.) will be the first that cable provider Comcast won't be carrying, what with its refusal to pay what FSN is asking for 13 games in the 40-game cable package.