CBSSports.com colleges part of digital video deal

Alabama is one of about 175 official athletic sites on the college network.

The CBSSports.com College Sports Network and Denver-based technology firm Thought Equity Motion have struck a multiyear deal that will provide video archiving services to CBSSports.com’s battery of about 175 official university athletic sites.

The deal, building off Thought Equity Motion alliances struck last year with the NCAA and the ACC to create online archives the NCAA Vault and the ACC Vault, calls for the company to organize and digitize the video libraries for schools in the CBSSports.com College Sports Network. The historical content, primarily memorable highlights from football and basketball, will then be offered to consumers, typically as part of broader, fee-based content subscription packages.

“We’re charged to be the eyes and ears in the digital realm for the schools in our network, and this is definitely an area where we see a tremendous amount of upside,” said Rob Schupler, CBSSports.com senior vice president of university sales and marketing.

Financial terms were not disclosed. Schools in the CBSSports.com College Sports Network include Alabama, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Penn State and Texas.

The online legacy content should start to become publicly available this fall. Individual schools’ participation in the Thought Equity Motion archival work will be voluntary.

“This is going to be very similar to what we did with the NCAA,” said Dan Weiner, Thought Equity Motion vice president of marketing and products. “We’re looking to use our tools to help our partners preserve and unlock the value of their content.”