Danny Medley-USA Today Sports Images
After close to two years of protracted negotiations, cable mega-giant Time Warner Cable has added the Texas-focused ESPN Longhorn Network according to multiple sources, including a press release from ESPN. The network has been added to the Time Warner channel lineup effective immediately and will be available for Texas fans in the Austin-area and other Time Warner markets for tomorrow night’s Texas Longhorns season opener against the New Mexico State Aggies at 7 PM Central Time.
The financial elements of the deal have not yet been disclosed, but a reasonable assumption can be made the deal tipped in Time Warner’s favor given their lack of desire to enter into a deal with ESPN to carry the network prior to the start of the 2012 football season, with it only being available on smaller carriers in the Austin area like Grande Communications and on other major carriers like Verizon FIOS in other parts of the state and out-of-state.
ESPN and the University of Texas are in the second-year of a 20 year deal to create the Longhorn Network, which is solely focused on Texas sports, academics and campus life. Time Warner certainly realizes — and even realized — the importance of getting a deal done for LHN:
We’re really excited to have reached an agreement that brings Longhorn Network’s programming to Time Warner Cable, said Andrew Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Content Acquisition for Time Warner Cable. We know we count a lot of UT fans among our customers, and we’ve worked hard with our colleagues at ESPN to finalize an agreement in time to bring them tomorrow’s game.
It’ll certainly be a sigh of relief for local businesses in Austin as well who have Time Warner as their primary carrier, but were unable to broadcast games last season.
In general, it’s a welcome development for a deal that should have happened long ago, but one people will be largely happy to accept as being better late than never.
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Kris Hughes is a Senior Writer for Rant Sports.
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