The Arena Football League and Comcast-owned OLN have reached a one-year deal that calls for 11 games to be aired nationally on the cable network this season, a league source said last week.
 |
OLN will pick up 11 league games as broadcast
partner NBC trims its schedule by 14. |
Financial terms of the deal weren’t available, and OLN officials declined comment. In addition to the 11 national broadcasts, Comcast is set to air between 10 and 15 games on its regional networks as part of the deal, and the network will air at least one playoff game nationally.
The deal supplements the AFL’s existing national deal with NBC and a regional deal with Fox Sports Net.
Nationally, however, NBC has decreased its AFL coverage this season because the Olympics and the NHL are in its broadcast lineup this year. NBC plans to broadcast 18 regular-season games on a national or regional basis, down from 32 last year. The network’s schedule features AFL coverage on 13 weeks of the league’s 20-week schedule, including the postseason, down from 19 weeks last year.
OLN will air its games on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, but any Sunday game would not air opposite an NBC offering, the league source said. The AFL’s deal with NBC, reached in 2003, expires after this season.
The TV adjustments come during a season in which the AFL has also enhanced its new media offerings.
The league is selling subscriptions for fans to watch select weekly games streamed live on arenafootball.com at $6.95 a game. Fans can purchase monthly ($14.95) and seasonlong ($44.95) subscriptions to watch the live games, archived games and highlights.
Marc Lowitz, AFL Network president, said he expects the number of subscribers to jump from 3,500 last season to 10,000 by the end of this season.
