Coverage Of UTEP Athletics Becoming More Challenging
EL PASO, TX. – For those who aren’t Time Warner Digital Cable subscribers, chances arethe excitement of Wednesday’s UTEP Basketball game against the Texas A&M Aggies was lost in the translation, because many probably didn’t get to see it.
That’s becauseESPN owned the rights to the contest. As a matter of fact, unlike years past, almost allUTEP road games can be viewed only tothose whohave digital cable. Two years ago, College Sports Television, orCSTV, bought ConferenceUSA’s television rights, and Time Warner put it on the digital tier.
Games can be viewed online atCSTV’s Gametracker, but that also requires a fee. “So they actually own the rights to every team in the conference and what’s happened is,CSTV claims they are not denying anybody a chance to televise the games back to El Paso, they just want something for it,” said El Paso’s Sports Talk radio show host, Steve Kaplowitz.
There could be some chance for change, though. Officials with Time Warner andUTEP say they are finalizing a deal that could bring several home and away games to basic cable channel 24.
