ESPN's parent company, The Walt Disney Company, and Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, announced a 10-year deal establishing distro rights for Disney properties along with an industry breakthrough agreement allowing Comcast to offer Disney programming to its customer through Xfinity My TV. This will allow Comcast customers the ability to watch programming on mobile devices, pads, etc. This certainly is a no brainer given the company's loss of traditional cable subscribers the last several quarters replaced by the more value-oriented broadband customer.
However, the BIG NEWS as it pertains to Longhorn Fans is Disney was unable to successfully obtain basic-tier rights distribution for their newly launched Longhorn Network, which has been a no-budge position for ESPN from the get go.
An executive with ESPN, Katina Arnold, confirmed the slight in email exchange with an Orangebloods forum poster ($):
We weren't able to include it in this agreement but continue to have productive conversations with Comcast and other distributors.
Right. Blah, blah, blah.
This announcement does not portend well for those wanting access through major cable providers in the Texas region who have been holding off ESPN until a market-maker provider contract was finalized.
So for now I say this is a marketing boon for Verizon Fios, Grande Communications, and the other cable operators who threw caution to the wind and dove head first in bed with the Longhorn Network.
For the rest of us it's ho-hum.
0 recs | 25 comments
Regardless of carriage agreements, ESPN is still on the hook for the $$$ right?
I mean, Texas is gettin’ paid no matter what? You would think that ESPN would like to be able to sell time on the network one of these days!
I’m on UVerse out of state (Indiana). I see my prospects as dim to nonexistent. Thoughts?
JoeT63 - January 4, 2012
What is this Longhorn Network you speak of...
longhorn35 - January 4, 2012
apparently
it is more elusive than the mythical fozzy creature….
UTLawGrad - January 4, 2012
ironic
when my brother came out to LA from Dallas, I found it incredibly ironic that I could get LHN in Southern California & my brother could not in the state of Texas.
maggie41 - January 4, 2012
I agree with everything TX and ESPN are doing with the LHN except...
Refusing to allow people to watch the games on the internet while the negotiation plays out.
First, it screws the fans who are the very reason this network even exists.
Second, the logic behind the “blackouts” is flat out wrong. ESPN thinks that by withholding the LHN content, Texas fans are going to call in and complain to TWC, Comcast, or switch their cable networks. The problem is most people are too lazy or not die hard enough to do this, not to mention Grande and Fios aren’t available in all markets. Not to mention, since no one can see the LHN, no one knows what the fuck their even missing. It’s out of sight; out of mind.
What IS going to happen is that casual Texas fans are going to start losing interest (esp in sports like basketball and baseball that have a high percentage of games on the LHN) and the total fan base is going to shrink and ESPN is going to lose further negotiating leverage.
feltgod - January 4, 2012
completely agree
silky51 - January 4, 2012
Me too
Horncasting - January 4, 2012
It really is a no-brainer to offer the options online
When Comcast and TWC see a sudden spike in their bandwidth every time a Longhorn game comes on, they’re going to freak out and come back to the negotiating table.
TXinDC - January 4, 2012
Why would Comcast and TWC freak out with a spike in bandwith for the longhorn games?
Wouldn’t they just appreciate the fact that their customers are getting to watch the games without them having to shell out any extra money (unlike Verizon or Grande)?
Texas Wahoo - January 4, 2012
What else IS going to happen
the so-called “positive” impact on recruiting is going to turn neutral to negative.
For every recruit we get that wants to be on TV there will be a recruit we lose because their family doesn’t want to LISTEN ON THE INTERNET/RADIO to their kids’ home games. We expect parents of high profile out-of-state (and even outside of Austin area) recruits to go back 20 years in time to audio broadcasts of home games??? In this day and age when all programs are streaming their home games over the internet, that is absolutely ridiculous! And a sign of how much greed has overtaken the minds of Plonsky & Dodds.
TempestHorn - January 4, 2012
Even when people do call, I doubt the companies track it
I’m going to get cable this summer, I hope, but I’m pretty sure comcast won’t get the message when I call to cancel and inform the accounts person why I’m cutting off my internet service.
burntorangehorn - January 4, 2012 via mobile
+1
cmttx - January 4, 2012
I don't think it will have any effect on basketball and baseball
Before LHN, hardly any baseball games were on TV. And it doesn’t seem like there is a material difference in the quantity of basketball content available last year vs. this year via ESPN/2/U, CBS, etc. The games that are on LHN this year likely wouldn’t have been on TV at all.
white rob - January 5, 2012
What a fiasco
Don’t they teach Marketing at UT Business School?
Caradoc - January 4, 2012
The ESPN execs
probably graduated from some other business school that is not good enough to kiss the feet of the McCombs School of Business, like
A&MUConnRQ - January 4, 2012
ive officially given up on ever having the Longhorn Network
horns1025 - January 4, 2012 via Android app
To add insult to this injury, there is an article on the sooner blog about their new network....this sucks.
MeatchickenHorn - January 4, 2012
The Sooner Network is contracting with Fox to show their programming. Not quite the same as having their own network on their own channel.
But you will probably see more Land Thief programming on FOX than LHN programming at this point. Sad.
dimecoverage - January 4, 2012
Eh Good for them
The more perks they get like that, the less that they can complain about Texas and less likly to run off to the West Coast.
Silentjay - January 4, 2012
I understand
At least its only one game right now for football. I dealt with this with the Mountain West were the Mtn. channel was impossible to get and is still hard to come by if you live outside of the leagues footprint.
For the first two years the channel was only available on cable typically comcast since they owned half of the channel. So if you had a dish you were out of luck and even today it’s only on DirecTV if you live in the foot print if you live outside it is on the sports tier and it’s not even on Dish Network.
It is getting better with distribution with Comcast having the channel as a pay option on the East coast and parts of Texas.
So, I completely understand everyone’s frustration. At worst a PPV option should be available. Either online or through ESPN’s GamePlan package.
The amount ESPN is paying is going to be hard for them to recoup if this lasts years.
Jeremy Mauss - January 5, 2012 via mobile
Well this past season it was two games for football and I could see that number growing in coming years.
2Cor12:9 - January 5, 2012
thats right
I thought it was one football game, my mistake.
I could see it go up to include home non-conference games.
Jeremy Mauss - January 5, 2012 via mobile
Oh and complain to your cable company does absolutely nothing. I bet half the time you call they don’t even know what channel you are referring to.
Jeremy Mauss - January 5, 2012 via mobile
Yea, some Russian duke named Peggy answers..
bevomav - January 5, 2012
Dish could also not give a flip...
And no, they did not even know what the channel was when I called… it is sad.
HornsFan87 - January 6, 2012
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