[4] A two-year deal was reached to add Mid-American Conference basketball in December 1983,[5] while Major Indoor Soccer League action (with five teams in the service area) was also added.
[7] Sports Time was offered as a premium service that cost cable subscribers an additional $10 to $12 a month once it launched on April 3, 1984.
Warner Amex cable in the St. Louis area drew Sports Time's ire by making the channel available only to those who had "Super Qube" service, in violation of the contract between the two.
[11] Tavern owners in the St. Louis area also complained of high rates being charged to show Sports Time in their establishments.
[15] In October 1984, eager to increase circulation beyond its 45,000 subscribers in order to make the channel more attractive to advertisers, Sports Time allowed cable companies outside of the Cincinnati, Kansas City and St. Louis media markets the ability to place it in their basic lineups.
[16] This move drew the ire of the Reds, who believed that baseball's national television contracts precluded airing games on a regional basic cable network.
In February, it announced its plans to telecast 112 Cardinals and Royals contests for the 1985 baseball season[18]—in which both teams reached the World Series—and the company was set to fill a distribution hole in St. Louis County, Missouri, when two holdout cable systems with 71,000 subscribers agreed to sign on.
[20] The timing of the closure allowed the venture to avoid paying rights fees to the Cardinals and Royals for the coming baseball season.