CSTV Teams With Xbox Live For "Xbox Live / CSTV 2005 College Hoops Challenge"
Competition Commences March 18, with Prizes Including a Flat Screen Television, an Xbox® Video Game System from Microsoft, and Gaming Titles
NEW YORK, February 28, 2005 - CSTV Networks (www.CSTV.com) is teaming up with Xbox LiveTM to present the "Xbox Live / CSTV 2005 College Hoops Challenge," giving gaming fans nationwide an opportunity to compete against each other on the Xbox Live platform in pursuit of prizes that include a flat screen television, an Xbox® video game system, gaming titles and CSTV gear.
The "Xbox Live / CSTV 2005 College Hoops Challenge," which launches March 18th, will have gaming fans of all ages and competitive levels playing EA Sports NCAA® March Madness 2005TM. In addition to the winner's receiving a flat screen television for a grand prize, a runner-up will receive an Xbox, five gaming titles and CSTV gear. CSTV will promote the Challenge across its CSTV.com Web site and its network of more than 170 official athletic sites for colleges, conferences and athletic associations while Xbox will promote it on xbox.com.
This season's basketball challenge will again consist of brackets (256 each) of match play running concurrently, followed by a final round that will determine the winner and the runner-up. Xbox Live, the ultimate gaming arena, will be powering the tournament. Tournament brackets will be hosted on the Clash.cc Web site and supported by Clash's Neonami Tournament tracking tools, which enable players to instantly be put into custom match made brackets for league play. Gamers can log on to http://hoopschallenge.cstv.com for more information, and to learn how to register.
CSTV and Xbox Live joined forces during the 2004 college bowl season to bring college football fans the "Xbox Live /CSTV 2005 College Football Challenge." Hundreds of gamers and sports fans alike battled it out on Xbox Live over the holidays and into early January. One Grand Prize winner, Kyle Davis of Lackland, Tx., was left standing at the end of the tournament and will be attending the 2006 Rose Bowl with a guest, all expenses paid.
About Xbox
Xbox (http://www.xbox.com) is the video game system from Microsoft that brings people together for the most exhilarating game and entertainment experiences. Xbox delivers an expansive collection of breakthrough games, powerful hardware and the unified Xbox Live online service. The new tagline, "it's good to play together," captures the spirit of Xbox as the social hub of the new digital entertainment lifestyle. Xbox is now available in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia.
About Xbox Live
A new frontier in imagination and extraordinary interaction, Xbox Live offers rich online gameplay. The world's only unified global online console games service, Xbox Live is continuously innovating to provide members with unparalleled experiences. This unique service unites gamers together in a dynamic community where they can experience the best online games, exclusive programming and continuous downloadable content. Xbox Live launched in the United States in November 2002 and is available in 24 countries. Please visit http://www.xbox.com/live for more information.
About CSTV Networks
CSTV Networks is a multi-media company that consists of the first-ever 24-hour college sports television network, College Sports TV; the leading college sports online network, CSTV.com; and the first-ever 24-hour college sports radio network, SIRIUS College Sports Radio. Through its numerous platforms, CSTV provides more live college sports games, events, news, information, analysis and broadband content, and reaches more college sports fans, than any other company.
College Sports TV, voted the No. 1 emerging cable network among operators in a 2003 Beta research study, televises regular season and championship event coverage from over 35 men's and women's sports across every major collegiate athletic conference as well as many NCAA and NAIA Championships. College Sports TV currently has agreements with the top six national distributors - Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and Adelphia, among others.
CSTV.com, the most-trafficked college sports Web site, and its network of 180 official athletic sites are the No. 1 online source for college sports broadband content, news, information, scores and analysis. SIRIUS College Sports Radio broadcasts a comprehensive package of college football and basketball games from teams representing 16 top conferences, including the Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10 and SEC, as well as from Notre Dame.
CSTV was co-founded by President and CEO Brian Bedol, Chairman Steve Greenberg and Executive Vice President Chris Bevilacqua. Bedol and Greenberg co-founded Classic Sports Network, which they sold to ESPN. It is now ESPN Classic. Bevilacqua is a former senior executive with Nike Inc., where he headed the company's successful foray into the college market.
About Clash.cc & Gamertag.com
Clash Competition Company (Clash.cc) was started in 2003 by long time videogame industry vet, Cynn Smith. Clash is a service to Xbox LiveTM gamers that creates tournaments for popular games based on classic arena rules. The Clash service has live judge moderated events as well as automated tournaments that are used for league play. Every facet of Xbox LiveTM competition is taken apart and augmented by Clash, much to the delight of it's almost 50,000 users.
Gamertag.com is the world's first and largest community of Xbox LiveTM game players. A huge virtual database of names, pictures, game lists and more, Gamertag.com is used by over 47,000 gamers to connect, communicate and clash! Gamertag.com has been in development since 2001 as it was created while the Xbox LiveTM service was still in a non-public beta form.