FIND A NICHE, MAKE YOUR PITCH.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

Even in a 500-plus TV channel universe, no one said it couldn't be all sports.

It's been nearly 25 years since ESPN showed a channel devoted solely to athletic competition could work as a cable entity - even if it was lumberjacking and Australian rules football at first.

With the recent advancement of digital cable and the ability to expand the menus with new pay tiers, it's no wonder more than a half-dozen sports niche channels think they've got the goods to grind out an existence, contributing to the theory that the fragmented culture we live in has specific needs.

``It's a very capital-attentive business, and this isn't the greatest climate to start something like this,'' admitted Tennis Channel founder Steve Bellamy, whose network served up a star-studded party Wednesday at the UCLA Tennis Center to celebrate its Thursday-morning launch.

``Maybe one in 500 of these things get financed and out of the box. For us, we know we have a mind-altering loyal audience that'll go bananas if it's not on, and we've made the cost to them so little that it's a rounding error for cable operators.''

That's the trick for any new channel in a competitive market - not pushing the cable and dish systems into the public-relations nightmare of raising rates to accommodate carrying them.

The Golf Channel, Outdoor Channel and Speed Channel, which made inroads in the late 1990s, also will benefit from industry-wide convergence to digital software, which opens the bandwidth used to send out signals from satellite systems to the customers.

Here's a breakdown of the latest sporties who want in and those hoping for some doors to open:

--The Tennis Channel: Time-Warner is on board, but only in Palm Springs and San Diego around these parts. Not many systems took advantage of the free preview month leading into Thursday's launch because of the fear viewers actually would like it and then complain when it went away.

Andre Agassi, one of the channel's high-profile investors, pulled out of the Hamburg Open days before it became the first official event carried. He's the only ranked player out of the top 10 on either tour who hasn't played a match on the channel so far.

Those who've seen it enjoy the quality of the broadcasts and the matches offered. It also offers advertisers an affluent demographic of men and women - a quarter of its projected viewers make more than $100,000 a year and like to buy tennis equipment.

--Fuel: The extreme-sports channel spun out of the Fox Cable Networks Group debuts July 1 with a nice distribution jump start from DirecTV and Time-Warner, thanks to the groundwork laid by Fox's family ties.

ESPN, which started the X Games and helped legitimize the industry, once had this concept on its drawing board. Instead, Fox takes it forward with the 12-to-24 male demo who live among the so-called Echo Boomers with competitive skateboarding, BMX, snowboarding, surfing and the like.

``Naming the network wasn't easy because today's youth is smart enough to know when Corporate America is trying too hard to relate,'' general manager David Sterberg said. ``We feel the name is an organic - and not contrived - expression of their individuality and their ideals of freedom.''

So what if the kids confuse it with the rock band going by the same name that's been out since the mid-'90s.

--College Sports TV: Since its official launch last month, the network folk say they've received the most response from fans passionate about previously ignored sports - lacrosse and rugby, for example - and from parents who want to watch their kids play.

It's also become a mini-Classic channel, with a nice library of old bowl games and basketball contests to air.

Available only on DirecTV's sports tier now, CSTV (www.cstv.com) has plenty of room to grow.

--ESPN Deportes: The Spanish-language version of ESPN (www.espndeportes.com), which started as a four-hour Sunday-night block but will evolve into a full channel later this year, already has deals with the NBA, NFL, MLB and Mexican baseball leagues.

A recent story in Advertising Age magazine points out Spanish-language channels, especially in sports, are a natural based on census data that shows Hispanics will make up nearly 19 percent of the country's population by 2020.

--The Ice Channel: Go figure, a 24-hour figure-skating channel has a place to call home ice.

Based on Skating Inc.'s Web site (www.theicechannel.com), there's a lot of work to be done. The launch date is vague - maybe late this year, maybe early 2004 - and the channel doesn't have a headquarters established.

President and CEO Michael Rosenberg is a former agent for 10 former Olympic skaters, including Dorothy Hamill and Oksana Baiul. His COO is Jay Rosenstein, a former head of CBS Sports programming.

A third of the content will be devoted to entertainment (there's an ``American Idol'' reality-based competition), a third to competition (past and present) and the rest to news, a weekday soap opera called ``Ice Storm'' and a Saturday-morning cartoon called ``Kiss 'N' Cry.''

--The Football Network: We've been tracking this since its inception under founder Jantonio Turner more than five years ago, and the slow-moving network (www.footballnetwork.com) has moved its offices from L.A. to Lynnfield, Mass., and then, just last month, to Baton Rouge, La., yet it continues to insist it'll kick off this fall.

You'd think former sports agent and network CEO Jerry Solomon would be more interested in the Ice Channel - his wife is former Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan. Former CBS Sports executive producer Rick Gentile heads the programming, and Pat Summerall is an investor and probable on-air personality.

Without the rights to the NFL or major college games, TFN will focus on everything else pigskin, from Pop Warner to fantasy leagues, from the National Women's Football Association to the U.S. Flag Touch League, from cheerleading shows to its own made-for-TV movies. It also has made deals with about 30 smaller conferences and will stage a Division I-AA all-star game.

--The NFL Network: Springing up to do for its league what the newly re-launched NBA TV has done for hoops, the NFL is focused on partnering up for this project with DirecTV, which has exclusivity with the ``Sunday Ticket'' out-of-market pay package.

The league plans to use its channel for preseason games, live news conferences, coaches' shows and lifestyle stories.

--BlackBelt TV: Considering it doesn't really want to be pegged as a sports channel, this action/entertainment destination won't be fighting off crossover viewership.

Planning to come out later this summer, the channel (www.blackbelt.tv) originates from Santa Monica-based Threshold Entertainment as the idea of movie producer Lawrence Kasanoff (``True Lies,'' the ``Mortal Kombat'' series).

It'll start as an outlet for famous martial-arts flicks, then include overseas taped competition, eventually adding live events in the second year.

Making the rounds to promote the channel are the ``fight jocks'' - a half-dozen beauties who will serve as hosts for the lifestyle shows.

Hope they dig guys with Hai Karate aftershave.

CHANNEL YOUR THOUGHTS

Of the new niche sports channels, which are you most interested in having on your cable or dish system?

( ) BlackBelt TV

( ) College Sports TV

( ) ESPN Deportes

( ) Fuel

( ) The Ice Channel

( ) The NFL Network

( ) The Tennis Channel

Log on to the Daily News Web site (www.dailynews.com) and cast your vote.

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