Broadcast.com Sponsors CPBL Team

Broadcast.com said it will sponsor the Detroit-based team of the Collegiate Professional Basketball League (CPBL), the new men’s professional basketball league for college-age players.

The streaming media company signed a three-year deal that grants Broadcast.com exclusive rights to broadcast and distribute CPBL programming on the Internet. The company said the move makes the CPBL the first sports league to commit to have all of its televised games simulcast live in video on the Internet. Financial arrangements were not disclosed.

Broadcast.com joins Lycos and AcuNet.net as team naming-rights sponsors of the only professional sports league in the United States consisting of teams named after corporate sponsors.

“As broadcast television and the Internet converge, the ability to provide access to programming and top-quality online video streaming will become one of the primary forces separating the men from the boys,” said Paul McMann, president of the CPBL. “Over 70 million people around the world have the technology to watch streaming video on the Internet. . .”

“‘Team Broadcast.com will enable us to develop a unique, highly personal relationship with people who are just beginning to learn about and utilize the Internet,” said Kevin Parke, vice president of broadcast.com. We think this is a positive and powerful way to introduce broadcast.com to people in Detroit as well as sports fans across the country. . .”

Terms of the naming-rights deal include a range of Internet broadcasting services that Broadcast.com will provide for the CPBL, including: Internet broadcasts of all regular season and playoff games that are shown on the PAX -TV network; audio and video game highlights and promotional/training footage; live broadcasts and archives of CPBL press conferences and promotional appearances, and additional brand-building opportunities for the league.

The Broadcast.com Web sites offer a selection of programming, including sports, talk and music radio, television, business events, full-length CDs, news, video, commentary and full-length audiobooks, serving an average of 1.1 million unique users per day.

The Collegiate Professional Basketball League in its inaugural season plans to have eight teams in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.