I doubt the entire state of PA will get the channel just for Pitt. I doubt the entire state of Georgia will get it just for Georgia Tech.
With the SEC network, I remember deals being in place a long time in advance with cable companies. I haven’t heard much about deals to carry the ACC Network.
...re the SECN carriage:
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Dish Network signed up with the SEC Network in March of the year it launched - just 6 months before SECN went on air.
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Cox Communications,
Comcast and
Time Warner all waited until July of that year - just ONE month before launch...
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DirecTV signed up with the SEC Network just 10 days before launch.
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Mediacom, which serves the big SEC footprint states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee signed up the day the network actually launched! So did Grande Communications in Texas....
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Verizon Fios didn't sign up until 12 days later - just two days before the SEC Network’s first football game, between Texas A&M and South Carolina
The SEC Network launch in 2014 is the most comparable to the ACC Network process. Most of the major cable and satellite providers didn't sign on for the SEC Network until July or August.
However, the media landscape has changed considerably in the last 5 years and the ACC now has the advantage of over-the-top internet streaming services like Hulu that are available to any consumer with a broadband or wireless connection.
"With ESPN's help, we have and will continue to be responsive to consumer needs," said Swofford. "From a distribution standpoint, it’s to a point today where if it’s linear distribution, great...If it’s direct to consumer, that’s great too. Their mantra is ‘we don’t care what you’re watching it on, just be watching it’ because the revenues will come in either respect.”