Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

8/13/2008 at 4:25pm

In one of the worst-kept secrets out of Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas -- with KATV's blessing, along with the station in remaining in the picture -- will partner with ISP Sports of Winston-Salem, N.C., for packaging its multimedia for all sports programs.

UA athletc director Jeff Long, ISP's chief executive Ben Sutton, and KATV general manager Dale Nicholson revealed plans of the partnership at KATV's downtown Little Rock studios. A planned formal press conference to announce the endeavor was scrapped in light of the shooting earlier Wednesday of former State Senator and current Democratic State Party chairman Bill Gwatney, but all the parties made themselves available to discuss the particulars. Gwatney was a major contributor to the UA athletic program, Long said.

As part of the agreement, the UA will be guaranteed $73 million during the 10 years of the contract, will begins immediately. The $5.7 million that the contract will bring to the university in year one represents a 67 percent increase in media revenue generated last year.

"[ISP] will make most of its money on the out years of the contract, paying forward," Long said of immediate economic impact for the university.

For the fan, Long said, the first noticeable change will be on radio broadcasts in the hours of coverage. The deal affects not only football and men's basketball but all men's and woman's sports, Long said. Some of the areas ISP can boost the UA's multimedia marketing will be in signage. Internet coverage of the programs has already seen a significant improvement in the past month when the UA's unveiling of arkansasrazorbacks.com.

As for possible pay-per-view coverage for Arkansas football games, another area Long recently addressed as a way to increase athletic revenue, he said that Arkansas' pay-per-view will be outside the contract, where the university and ISP would split the profits 50-50. The Southeastern Conference allows member schools up to two home games to be broadcast via pay-per-view when those games aren't carried on any of the SEC partnered networks.

"We are sold out or will be sold out for football by the first game," Long said of ticket sales. "Pay-per-view is another way to bring our product to the fans who don't have tickets."

KATV's contract with the university through its Arkansas Razorback Sports Network subsidiary, had three more years to run. Sutton, ISP's chairman, said the company and KATV's parent, Allbritton Communications of Washington, D.C., began discussions last fall to bring all the parties together.

ISP's deal with Allbritton and the UA will allow the KATV to remain as the Razorbacks' flagship TV station, a role it has held since 1966. Bringing all the packaging of broadcasts, marketing, print and sales under one umbrella, ISP's, is the key focus of the deal, both Long and Sutton said. Arkansas is the 61st college to partner with ISP.

Ryan Gribble, an Arkansas native who has worked the past six years in marketing for the Chicago White Sox, will oversee the ISP operation in Fayetteville out of Barnhill Arena on the UA campus. Todd Curtis, who has headed up sales for ARSN, will continue to lead the sales staff out of Little Rock. Gribble will oversee of four-person staff.

Radio game broadcasts and programs to accompany those productions will be routed through ISP's new broadcast headquarters in Winston-Salem, Sutton said. He added that 50 to 60 people will have a hand at some point during the week of a Razorback football game in the broadcast production of the game.