Local Exposure

After a virtual one-year absence, Atlantic 10 basketball will be back on Philadelphia television screens this season, thanks to a deal between CSTV and Comcast (and 13 other regional cable providers) that was announced on Tuesday.

The A-10 was barely seen in Philadelphia last season, because of a contract dispute between Comcast, which controls much of the Philadelphia-area cable market, and CSTV, which purchased exclusive A-10 broadcasting rights in the summer of 2006.

Only 14 games from the CSTV A-10 package appeared on Comcast last year – three Temple games, three La Salle games, four St. Joseph’s games, and four games from the A-10 Tournament.

This year, Comcast will televise 32 CSTV A-10 games on either Comcast Sportsnet or CN8. Included in the package are all four quarterfinal games and both semifinals from the A-10 Tournament.

However, Temple will make only five appearances in the CSTV-produced package. The problem: Even with 32 games (64 spots), the league has 14 members, so the number of CSTV appearances for every team is limited.

In breaking the Comcast impasse, CSTV has re-opened the airwaves to A-10 basketball in several major markets, including New York, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. The network also announced similar distribution deals with cable providers in Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Charlotte, and Dayton.

In addition to cable access, CSTV is now broadcasting most A-10 games over the internet – through a subscription service.