Acadiana Business

Cox, LUS gear up for Saints season

by Heather Miller

Cox nabs partnership extension with Louisiana's NFL team; LUS airing Saints preseason games in high def.

As Saints fans ready themselves for what looks to be another exciting NFL season, cable TV stations are doing the same.

Cox announces in a press release that the communications company has signed an exclusive contract with the Saints to provide telecommunications services to the team:

The agreement enables Cox-owned regional sports network, CST (Cox Sports Television), to continue carrying Saints pre-season games, coach's shows, post-game highlight shows, weekly press conferences, magazine shows, Saintsations cheerleader specials and the "Black-Gold" scrimmage.

Cox owned CST is a 24-hour, regional sports network that delivers exclusive high-profile professional and amateur men's and women's sports television to over 2 million viewers in its coverage area of , including Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama north and central Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Oklahoma. Cox Sports Television is a part of Cox Communications Louisiana LLC, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the state of Louisiana.

CST will remain the home for year-round Saints programming and continue to televise a minimum of three live Saints pre-season games, The Sean Payton weekly press conference, weekly Saints in the community shows ("Outside the Huddle"), Saints post game shows ("Saints Tonight"), and the Saintsations Swimsuit Calendar Show. CST will broadcast many of the Saints games and specials in high definition and much of the Saints programming will be found on the CST Video on Demand service, "CST Now!."

Another Saints announcement came from LUS this week, letting fiber subscribers know that Saints pre-season games can be viewed in high definition on channel 407. The first preseason game is Friday night at the dome against the San Francisco 49ers. Pregame show is at 6:30 p.m.; Kickoff is at 7 p.m.