The US soft drinks company, Coca-Cola Co., has acquired a stake in the cable TV channel, College Sports Television, which began broadcasting this week, for US$10m. Coke has also committed some US$5m to the channel in advertising and sponsorship.
Neither Coke nor College Sports would confirm how large a stake Coke has acquired for its US$10m investment. Coke’s senior vice president for worldwide media and alliances, Chuck Fruit, will sit on the board of the TV channel.
College Sports TV is a specialist cable channel focusing on college sports broadcasts and related output. Fruit predicted that further tie-ups with specialist channels would be likely. “I suspect this won’t be the last of these type of relationships that we see,” Fruit said.
