SportsTime Ohio Signs Up Another (Small) One

Your vast OMW editorial staff has to lay off the cold medicine, as we missed this in this morning's Beacon Journal.

The paper reports that Wadsworth Cable, the city-owned system in the Medina County suburb, has agreed to a three year deal with SportsTime Ohio to carry the new Cleveland Indians-owned cable channel, financial terms not disclosed. The STO content - including pre-game and post-game shows and other programming - will air on cable channel 77.

The Wadsworth-owned 3,600 subscriber system is actually one of two cable systems in that city. Time Warner's Northeast Ohio system has served Wadsworth for years, and of course, TWC is the new sports network's primary cable partner. Wadsworth Cable is the first non-TWC system to come to terms with STO.

There continues to be no word on other cable or satellite providers carrying the new SportsTime Ohio. Various published reports indicate that the network is negotiating with all involved systems, with some going better than others. In one article, STO chief Jim Liberatore was said to be closing in on a deal with satellite service DirecTV.

And we understand that Adelphia is sending out a company response to its subscribers who ask about SportsTime Ohio and the Indians games. The statement says that Adelphia "does not anticipate any obstacles" to a deal with STO. The worst case scenario, of course, is that TWC's takeover of Cleveland's Adelphia systems (and Comcast locally) will bring STO into the lineup for those subscribers. But the network IS negotiating separately with Adelphia, to cover the pre-TWC weeks.