Four ISU Basketball Games to Air on Comcast Spotlight

[January 16, 2008]  NORMAL -- As the Illinois State men's basketball team sits atop the Missouri Valley Conference standings, fans of the Redbirds in the central Illinois area will be able to see more games in their living rooms as a result of a new four-game agreement between the Illinois State Athletics Department, Comcast (formerly Insight) and Comcast Spotlight.

Comcast Spotlight will televise two road games live as part of the agreement: the Jan. 30 game at Northern Iowa and the Feb. 20 contest at Evansville. In addition, ISU home games against Wichita State on Wednesday (today) and against Creighton on Feb. 27 will be available live. Comcast will also televise the Jan. 23 game at Bradley, as part of the company's agreement with Bradley.

"This is a nice step in increasing our television exposure," said Sheahon Zenger, Illinois State director of athletics. "We look forward to working with the staff at Comcast. We value all of our television partners and will hopefully be able to expand on this coverage in the near future."

Comcast is also eager to begin working with ISU Athletics.

"We're pleased that through this agreement between Comcast, ISU and Comcast Spotlight, we can bring great Redbird basketball action to our customers," said John Niebur, Comcast district director.

WMBD sports director Kurt Pegler and former ISU assistant men's basketball coach Bob Morris will serve as the broadcast team on all four telecasts. The production will be handled by Jim O'Boye and the KOST Production team.

The ISU games are available on Channel 74 in the Bloomington-Normal area and on Channel 44 in Peoria. These channels are available to all Comcast customers in those areas as part of the "Classic" level of service.

In addition, Mediacom in central Illinois will also televise the games on Channel 78.

[Text from file received from Todd Kober, assistant athletics director, media relations, Illinois State University]