WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- Less than a month separates Fastball Sports Productions from its first scheduled broadcast of an Indians' Spring Training game, yet few details about the new network have come out since the December announcement about its creation.

Jim Liberatore, president of Fastball Sports, knows fans are clamoring for information about the accessibility of the channel, and he thinks those same fans can help ensure the Tribe is easily found on the tube this coming season.

"We really need people to call cable operators and let them know they want to watch the team," Liberatore said in a phone interview from his office at Jacobs Field.

An announcement regarding the new network's name, logo and broadcast team will be made on Thursday morning, but at this time there is no new information about accessibility.

The network is in what Liberatore called an "accelerated negotiation process" with cable and satellite outlets to work out contracts for Indians games. The channel will broadcast 130 regular season and eight Grapefruit League games this year.

Fastball Sports has already signed a long-term deal with Time Warner Cable, which controls more than half of the cable households in the Greater Cleveland area, but other deals with providers such as Comcast, Adelphia and DirecTV must be worked out if the Indians are going to match the viewership they had with FSN Ohio last season.

"We're moving forward with everybody," Liberatore said. "But the cable operators are trying to determine if [the network is] important enough."

One holdup is that the new network is currently only slated to include Indians-related programming, including pregame and postgame shows.

At the outset, it is slated to run only in the evening hours, though Liberatore envisions the channel to eventually have a 24-hour broadcast schedule that includes other sports and programs. Liberatore hopes the channel can someday include Cleveland Cavaliers and Cincinnati Reds games.

Despite Cleveland's status as a midsize market, Liberatore is optimistic the channel can become a success. He's also optimistic that everybody who had access to the games last season will have it again this year, though that optimism comes with a caveat.

"I'll be optimistic if people are going to let [the cable and satellite companies] know they want [the channel]," he said.

A native Clevelander who has previously run the Speed Channel in Charlotte and the Sunshine Network in Orlando, Liberatore said he is excited to be involved with Fastball Sports.

"Building this from scratch is a blast," he said. "And we're building it with programming that speaks to the people in this region."