Swofford has said that the conference plans for the ACC Network to be fully distributed by its third yeargetty images
The launch of the ACC Network is two weeks away, and five of the country’s biggest distributors -- Comcast, Dish Network, AT&T U-verse, Charter/Spectrum and Cox -- still have not agreed to carry it. It is almost certain that some of these distributors will not carry the channel at launch. ACC Commissioner John Swofford has said that the conference planned for the channel to be fully distributed by its third year. Meanwhile, ESPN, which owns the channel, is hoping to gain some momentum in these next two weeks. It announced that YouTube TV will carry the channel -- an important national deal that could put pressure on these bigger distributors to cut a deal. ACC Network has national deals with DirecTV, Hulu Live TV and PlayStation Vue as well, which means that dissatisfied fans will have options to subscribe to a service that carries ACC Network in any U.S. market. Moving forward, Charter/Spectrum seems likely to cut a deal. It is negotiating a deal with Disney that is expected to include ACC Network. Dish Network and U-verse are wildcards (John Ourand, SBJ Media).
SEEING ORANGE: In Syracuse, Chris Carlson notes local broadband provider New Visions has also announced that it "will carry the network when it launches." Syracuse's football team does "not have a game officially scheduled on ACC Network yet, but the Orange is expected to be shown on the channel at some point during the season" (Syracuse POST-STANDARD, 8/8).
