CBS Sports Network

CBS Sports Network is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Skydance Corporation. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known as CSTV), it operated as a multi-platform media brand which also included its primary website, collegesports.com, and a network of websites operated for the athletic departments of 215 colleges and universities.

After CSTV was acquired by CBS in 2006 (handed over from Viacom who purchased the network the previous year), the network was re-branded as the CBS College Sports Network in 2008. The network initially maintained its college sports focus, but in February 2011, the service was re-branded as CBS Sports Network to re-position it as a mainstream sports service. The network continues to have a particular focus on college sports, along with coverage of smaller leagues and events, simulcasts of sports radio shows from both the Infinity Sports Network network and Audacy's WFAN (formerly owned outright by CBS), and studio and analysis programming.

As of May 2015, CBS Sports Network was available to approximately 61 million pay television households (66.1% of households with cable television) in the United States. Updated figures are unknown as they have not been released by Paramount in nearly a decade.

The network's roots began in 1999 when Chris Bevilacqua approached the co-founders of the Classic Sports Network, Brian Bedol and Stephen Greenberg—at that time, running Fusient Media Ventures, a New York-based sports and media company—with the idea for a subscription network featuring college sports 24 hours a day. Under the leadership of Bedol as CEO, the network was originally named the National College Sports Network in June 2002, was subsequently renamed College Sports Television (CSTV) and launched on February 23, 2003. From their headquarters and studio operations at Chelsea Piers in New York City, CSTV was the first independent pay-television channel to be distributed nationwide, having been carried on satellite provider DirecTV at launch.

In 2004, CSTV bought sports television syndication network SportsWest for a $25 million investment from former NBA owner Dave Checketts and George Soros.

In November 2005, College Sports Television was purchased by Viacom for $325 million. CBS Corporation (Viacom's legal successor) took control of the network in January 2006. On January 3, 2008, it was announced that CSTV would be integrated into CBS Sports, with the sports division's executive vice president and executive producer, Tony Petitti, taking over day-to-day operational management of CSTV, which would be overseen by CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus. CSTV co-founder Brian Bedol would become a senior advisor to CBS Corporation president and CEO Leslie Moonves. (Petitti has since become the Big Ten Commissioner.)

In the fall of 2006, CSTV launched more than 100 broadband channels dedicated to college sports, which feature more than 10,000 live events. The subscription/pay-per-view service, called CBS College Sports XXL, and its portfolio of broadband channels in its All-Access suite, include coverage of Notre Dame, Southern California, Kansas, Ohio State and North Carolina.

On February 12, 2008, CBS Corporation announced that, as part of the ongoing integration of CSTV into CBS Sports, that the network would be renamed the CBS College Sports Network on March 16, coinciding with the start of CBS's coverage of the NCAA's basketball tournament. Studio shows moved from the original Chelsea Piers headquarters to the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in 2012. As part of the relaunch, the network added a new news program, College Sports Tonight. That program was canceled in 2010, however other studio shows (including Inside College Football and Inside College Basketball) still originate from the Chelsea Piers location.