The CBS television network will broadcast the inaugural Las Vegas World Invitational at 2 p.m. (EST) on Saturday, Dec. 31. Rodrigo Pessoa won the $1 million event, the world\’s richest show jumping grand prix, on Saturday night (Go to the Chronicle website for coverage).

The 90-minute show will precede the CBS telecast of the Denver Broncos—San Diego Chargers NFL game on New Year’s Eve.

The Las Vegas event was the first CSI***** ever held in the United States. Show management invited the top 25 riders on the FEI Gandini World Ranking list, and they plan to hold the event again in 2006.

In a press conference held at the Las Vegas World Invitational, Sally Lasater, president of the new HorseTV Channel, announced that they\’ve acquired exclusive North American broadcast rights to all events that are the property of and distributed by the Federation Equestre Internationale.

That means that Horse-TV will broadcast the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, the events of the Samsung Super League, and the finals and qualifying events for the World Cup in show jumping, dressage, eventing and driving.

The multi-year contract does not, however, include events that are sanctioned by the FEI, such as the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** or the American Invitational.

HorseTV, the first 24-hour television channel devoted to horse programming, will start their 30-day free preview on Oct. 28. So far, they have distribution contracts with cable networks in Aiken, S.C., Arizona and Texas. Call or write your television provider to find out if they’ll carry the channel.