Mizlou Television Network
| Type |
Broadcast television network, Cable and Internet broadcast. |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Headquarters | Tampa, Florida |
|
Broadcast area
|
World Wide |
| Established | 1962 |
|
Official website
|
mizlou.tv |
Mizlou Television Network, Inc. or Mizlou Communications, Inc., is a former sports broadcast television network. It was active from 1962 to 1991, and in 1992 it was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, Inc., which is now based in Tampa, Florida. Mizlou later branched out into cable sports channels.
The network was not a full-time network, but produced sports and entertainment television shows offered to a set of affiliates set up event by event. It was seen on affiliates of NBC, ABC, and CBS, and on independent television stations and cable channels.
Mizlou utilized the AT&T system to distribute signals to television stations nationwide via land lines and microwave facilities. Mizlou produced the first "live" coast-to-coast satellite feed, of a New York Cosmos soccer game, from San Jose, CA to WOR-TV in New York in the late 1970s.
In mid-1965, radio businessman Vincent C. Piano proposed the Unisphere Broadcasting System. The service would have operated 2.5 hours each night. However, Piano had difficulty signing affiliates; a year later, no launch date had been set, and the network still lacked a "respectable number of affiliates in major markets."
Mizlou began syndicating college football bowls in 1968.
Maryland sold Mizlou rights to two of its Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball games along with the women's basketball Maryland versus Immaculata game on January 26, 1975. This was the first national broadcast of a women’s college basketball game with 100+ stations signing on to the telecast.
Mizlou broadcast the first three Fiesta Bowl starting in 1971 and lost money on the first broadcast. In 1979, the Network broadcast the Miss Black Universe USA and International beauty pageants.
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