Longhorn Network signed its biggest carriage deal to date, inking a contract with AT&T U-verse late Thursday night. The deal comes just before Saturday's Wyoming-Texas football game that will be carried exclusively on the channel. LHN also has the New Mexico-Texas game on Sept. 8. The network, which is owned and distributed by ESPN, has had trouble convincing cable and satellite operators to carry it. Remaining holdouts include Time Warner Cable, Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network (John Ourand, THE DAILY). In Dallas, Trey Scott notes the move is a "major win for the ESPN brainchild that has been mostly a mystery since its launch" last August. U-verse is available in 22 states and claims it has added "more TV subscribers in the last three years than any other major cable WV provider" (DALLASNEWS.com, 8/31). In Ft. Worth, Mac Engel writes, "This is a major, and necessary, move for the network that previously had been available to precious few viewers" (STAR-TELEGRAM.com, 8/31). Orangebloods.com first reported the likely deal between LHN and U-verse.
