Approximately 20,000 HHs, "none of them in Central Texas, had access to the Longhorn Network when it launched Friday," according to Gary Dinges of the AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. ESPN and the Univ. of Texas prior to launch on Friday afternoon announced six carriage agreements -- LHN "popped up on the Consolidated Communications, Bay City Cablevision, Mid-Coast Cablevision and Texas Mid-Gulf Cablevision lineups just in time for its debut" at 6:00pm CT. En-Touch Systems and E-Tex Communications "will add LHN on Sept. 1, the same day it will debut on Verizon FiOS," and a network official said that "combined, the deals will put LHN in an estimated 4 million homes" next month. Also Friday, staffers from Time Warner Cable's 24-hour news channel in the market announced on Twitter they "would no longer be able to broadcast" UT football coach Mack Brown's postgame and Monday news conferences live. A UT spokesman said that the news conferences "will now air live on LHN" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 8/27). In Houston, David Barron wrote getting LHN "on the air, seven months after the partnership was announced in January, was the biggest victory of the day for the Longhorns and for ESPN." In addition, the NCAA on Friday "issued a brief statement confirming ESPN's position that it can feature high school 'scores, statistics, standings and news video used to report those details' in its LHN newscasts, although the ban on showing high school games continues." ESPN Exec VP/Content John Skipper said, "We've been talking with (the NCAA) pretty regularly the last two or three days to try to get a distinction between anything having to do with recruiting and actually covering high school football with scores, stats or results, and they saw the common sense of that." On the distribution front, ESPN execs "believe the countdown to Texas' season opener, and the possibility it might be able in the next week to announce a second Longhorn Network football broadcast involving Texas and a Big 12 opponent, will win over carriers" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 8/27).
GETTING A HEAD START? In Omaha, Tom Shatel wrote under the header, "Texas' Network Looks Like A Reach." LHN is "already the most overrated player of the 2011 college football season." Shatel: "LHN is the alter ego of the ego that threatens the future of the Big 12. But look closer and it doesn't look so dangerous at all. The first three sporting events on the channel are Texas volleyball matches. Then there's a women's soccer game on Sunday. ... Can you imagine anyone, even the hard-core Bevos, wanting to watch Texas sports 24-7?" (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 8/27). But SI.com's Andy Staples argued LHN is "huge" for UT. Staples: "If they ever are allowed to broadcast high school games on The Longhorn Network, it will give Texas an almost prohibitive recruiting advantage." SI's Richard Deitsch wrote, "Huge advantage. For starters, it's a direct message that Texas is linked to the biggest television brand in sports." SI's Stewart Mandel: "Showing high-school games would be a game-changer, but I think there's so much pressure on Texas and the NCAA right now to block it. Otherwise, it's a slight advantage financially but not that much exposure-wise" (SI.com, 8/26).
