US media company Comcast, the country’s largest cable-television operator, has agreed a carriage deal with sports broadcaster ESPN for the SEC Network, a new pay-television sports channel dedicated to college sport’s Southeastern Conference.
The multiplatform network launches on August 14 and the addition of Comcast means it will be available to 46 million households in the US.
Comcast subscribers will also have authenticated access to additional live events scheduled for the SEC Network’s and Comcast’s digital platforms – including the Xfinity TV Go app and website, WatchESPN and SECNetwork.com.
The SEC Network and its accompanying digital offering will air more than 1,000 live events in its first year, including at least 45 exclusive SEC American football games, more than 100 men’s basketball games, 60 women’s basketball games, 75 baseball games, 50 softball games and events across all of the SEC’s 21 sports.
The agreement with Comcast comes after ESPN last week agreed carriage deals for SEC Network with the National Telco Television Consortium and three independent cable operators – LUS Fiber, Wilkes Telephone and PTC Communications.
The NTTC is a member organisation that provides video operators with national broadcast and cable television content licensing, broadband affiliation programming rights, as well as negotiation assistance for local television rebroadcast rights.
The Southeastern Conference and ESPN have signed a 20-year agreement through 2034 to create and operate the network.