DU & Root Sports Reach TV Agreement

The University of Denver Athletic Department and ROOT SPORTS™ announced a new multi-year agreement that will keep the network the broadcast home for Pioneer hockey, men’s and women’s basketball. The new agreement, brokered via Denver Sports Properties, will initiate the 13th consecutive year, and 20th season overall, that the network will be the official regional TV partner with DU.

“This new agreement is certainly recognition of the strong partnership that the University has forged with ROOT SPORTS for two decades,” said DU Vice Chancellor for Athletics and Recreation Peg Bradley-Doppes. “Our student-athletes take great pride in wearing the Denver brand across their chest, and having a regional provider with the reach of ROOT SPORTS allows our alumni, parents and friends of the University to see first-hand the excellent representatives of Pioneer athletics.”

The University of Denver Athletics program is one of the best in the nation at broad-based athletic and academic success. The Pioneers also reclaimed the top spot among NCAA Division I non-football schools for the 2012/13 season by earning its record fifth Learfield Sports I-AAA Directors' Cup over the last six years.

“As the exclusive sponsorship negotiator for the Division of Athletics and Recreation, our goal is to bring forth partners that truly value their association with the University of Denver,” said Denver Sports Properties General Manager Brad Ferrell. “The ROOT SPORTS partnership was one that we worked very hard to continue because of the long-standing relationship that has benefited both entities.”

ROOT SPORTS will announce its DU telecast schedule at a later date.

ROOT SPORTS™ is the home of the Colorado Rockies, Utah Jazz, Mountain West Conference, Big Sky Conference and University of Denver. The network reaches 2.5 million households across nine states and delivers more than 350 live events each year – all of which are available in high definition. 

ROOT SPORTS™ regional sports networks are operated by DIRECTV Sports Networks LLC in the Rocky Mountain, Northwest, and Pittsburgh regions.

3 comments:

dggoddard said...

Good news for DirecTV.

I was going to switch to ATT U-verse if this deal didn't go through.

Ring_of_Fire said...

Definitely good to hear/read.

Engaging the surrounding community is something that DU is already embarrassingly bad at...it'd be even worse if they didn't have a regional media outlet.

dggoddard said...

Will be interesting to hear some of the terms of this deal.

In the past DU has had to subsidize the deal with Root Sports and as men's & women's hoops coverage has increased, hockey coverage has steadily declined.

DU really wanted ROOT SPORTS to step up financially in this contract negotiation. How much or if they did remains to be seen.

Either way its good news for Pioneer sports fans.