SportsTime Ohio: Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 18, 2008
SPORTSTIME OHIO ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF FULL-TIME HD CHANNEL
All Indians games plus over 2500 hours of HD Programming
CLEVELAND, OH - SportsTime Ohio today announced that along with all Cleveland Indians Baseball games being broadcast in High Definition, the network will have 24/7 HD programming available starting April 1, 2008.
This will be the first year that SportsTime Ohio will broadcast all Indians games and replays in HD, becoming the first Cleveland Professional sports team to do so. Last year, only Indians home games and away games on WKYC Channel 3 were available in HD.
The Indians join the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, White Sox, Cubs, and Rockies as teams projected to carry 100% of their games in HD in 2008. This is a great accomplishment for SportsTime Ohio, which will celebrate its 2nd birthday in March.
Beginning April 1, 2008 STO will have 24/7 HD programming available to is subscribers. All STO original programming will be shown in high definition. These programs include:
All Bets Are Off with Bruce Drennan Outdoors Ohio with D'Arcy Egan
The Tribe Report Browns 1-on-1
The Viking Basketball Report Browns Red Zone
Tee-It-Up Ohio Sunday Strategy
Plus more programs TBD
STO is currently working with cable and satellite affiliates to get a dedicated HD channel.
"We are pleased to announce that Armstrong, Buckeye CableSystem, Cox Communications, GLW Broadband, Insight Communications and most Time Warner Cable systems have agreed to carry STO HD full-time. All of our cable and satellite providers that carried our Indians games in HD last season will carry all STO HD Indians games in 2008, but the aforementioned cable systems have made the commitment to carry the full-time STO HD channel. We are working diligently with all of our cable and satellite affiliates to make STO HD a full-time channel," said Ed Niemi, VP of Affiliate Relations & Distribution for SportsTime Ohio.
"When SportsTime Ohio launched just two years ago we promised this would be a network that Northeast Ohio sports fans would come to claim as their own," said Jim Liberatore, President for SportsTime Ohio. "We began by programming the network exclusively with local teams, shows and events and have not stopped as STO is now the home to the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns, Ohio High School Athletic Association events, Cleveland State and many other local partnerships. Now we are proud to be one of the first Regional Sports Networks to offer 24/7 HD including all of the Indians games. Embracing HD is the best way we can show our appreciation to our viewers, the local sports fan."
For more programming information visit http://www.sportstimeohio.com/
About SportsTime Ohio
SportsTime Ohio is a Northern Ohio regional sports network reaching 2.7 million homes and designed to offer a variety of sports programming produced for the Ohio sports fan. STO's initial venture was the largest television package in Cleveland Indians team history. STO offers 150 Indians games annually with ALL games in HD starting in 2008. Beginning July 1, 2007 STO became the official cable home of the Cleveland Browns offering Browns fans 52 weeks of Browns coverage. STO is also the television home of the OHSAA football and basketball playoffs and championships. Additional programming is geared specifically toward Ohio-area sports fans and the passion that makes the region the greatest sports community. http://www.sportstimeohio.com/
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