World Championship Sports Network, ESPN360.com Team up to Cover 12th FINA World Championships in Melbourne

World Championship Sports Network (WCSN), has announced that it will provide
exclusive live and on-demand coverage of the 12th

FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia via ESPN360.com, ESPN
’
s
signature broadband service, in addition to its broadband network at www.wcsn.com.

Events in each of the five aquatic disciplines FINA represents
–
swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, open water swimming, and water
polo
– will be featured on both broadband
services, with on-demand coverage already available and live coverage
beginning March 25. Aquatic sports fans can visit WCSN.com or
ESPN360.com for exclusive on-demand footage and highlights of all these
FINA disciplines. ESPN.com, the leading online sports destination, will
also feature video highlights from the event.

The FINA World Championships are held every two years and 2007
’s
event is anticipated to be the largest ever, consisting of approximately
2,000 competitors from 175 nations, more than the aquatic events at the
2000 and 2004 Olympic Games combined.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with
ESPN360.com to continue to grow our broadband reach and give more people
an opportunity to experience the FINA World Championship events,
”
said WCSN President and COO Carlos Silva.
“We
are confident that our combined brands will be successful in engaging
more viewers with high-quality, live and on-demand, sports coverage.
”

In addition to producing the event for TV and the Web, WCSN is also
launching several interactive features and promotions. WCSN.com will
offer exclusive behind-the-scenes blogs from U.S. swimmers Tara Kirk,
Cullen Jones, Kara Lynn Joyce and Kate Ziegler, discussing first-hand
accounts of their experiences in Melbourne. The rising star athletes
will continue to contribute blogs throughout the year as they all
prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games. Fans will also enjoy easy access to
the latest news and world records from Melbourne via text messages on
their mobile phones. By texting the word
“SWIM
”
to 55222, fans can conveniently get alerts and current results wherever
they are. In addition to USA Swimming, WCSN is working with USA Diving,
USA Water Polo, US Synchronized Swimming and US Aquatic Sports to
further generate buzz and cross promote awareness of these competitions
and athletes across these disciplines.

The World Championships are an important stop for athletes rigorously
training for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games. U.S. athletes hope to
repeat the success of the last World Championships, which garnered the
team 39 total medals, including 17 gold, the most of any nation.
Audiences will be able to watch top swimmers such as Michael Phelps, Ian
Crocker, Natalie Coughlin and Katie Hoff as well as the women
’s
water polo team try to improve on their silver medal in 2005, who all
represent the U.S. in what promises to be an intense two weeks of
competition.

On WCSN.com, fans can follow their favorite athletes through additional
hours of exclusive coverage available on the broadband site via a $4.95
monthly subscription fee. WCSN.com will also have complete live and
on-demand video footage plus free access to medal counts, news, results,
photo galleries, behind-the-scenes features and more. In addition to
online coverage, WCSN will produce a one hour daily highlights show
starting March 25 for Fox Sports Net regional networks across the U.S.
continuing through April 1. Broadcast schedules of all live and
on-demand events can be found at WCSN.com/swimming. Fans can also
contact their local cable operator to get more details on the WCSN
television channel. Check local listings for airing times on Fox Sports
Net.