CSN Mid-Atlantic Launches Video Blog With Skins TE

In an effort to increase its visibility in the Baltimore-DC region, CSN Mid-Atlantic is launching its first video blog with Redskins TE Chris Cooley. CSN launched a new Web site in April (comcastsportsnet.tv) and hopes to use features like Cooley's blog to increase its visibility in the region. "We have a ton of great inside information, but the consumer is not as aware of us as we would like them to be," said CSN Mid-Atlantic Senior VP & GM Rebecca Schulte. Cooley will be paid through advertising that CSN is buying on his official blog site, chriscooley47.blogspot.com. CSN hopes to find a sponsor for the blog, and plans to begin pitching it soon after the blog launches on Monday, the day after the Redskins play the Colts in the HOF Game. Nationals 3B Ryan Zimmerman has the only other player blog on the site, and CSN has no sponsor attached to it. Schulte said she hopes to launch similar blogs with other area athletes. CSN is the Redskins' official sports channel, which means that it has some rights to video within the team's training facility that other non-affiliated media do not have. Still, they expect the team will post some restrictions. "I'm sure there will be some restrictions when it comes to taping around practices," Schulte said. "But we want this blog to be focused more on Chris the person, rather than Chris the football player." CSN will vet each of the videos before they are posted, using the same standards they use on TV, meaning some words will be bleeped out. "We don't plan to edit or censor it," she said.
By John Ourand, SportsBusinessDaily