Post by JayBee on Sept 13, 2007 7:04:54 GMT -5
Time Warner's addition of ESPNU means more viewers can see MEAC games By Rob Daniels
Staff Writer
Thursday, Sep. 13, 2007 3:00 am
HAMPTON AT N.C. A&T
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Aggie Stadium, Greensboro
Records: Hampton 1-0 overall, 1-0 MEAC; N.C. A&T 0-2, 0-1
Tickets: $20 at www.ncataggies.com or call 334-7749
TV: ESPNU (10 p.m. taped telecast)
GREENSBORO -- N.C. A&T football is about to move from the fringes of sports television society to the mainstream, and best of all, nobody's going to accuse the Aggies of selling out.
ESPNU, the MEAC's primary TV network, became available on Time Warner Cable's digital tier Aug. 30 after 21/2 years in the comparative isolation of satellite TV. At 10 p.m. Saturday, it offers a delayed broadcast of the Aggies' 6 p.m. game with Hampton -- A&T's first appearance since the deal was struck.
The network is and has always been on the Sports Pack of DirecTV (Channel 609), but the move to cable will at least double its immediate availability in this market and may quadruple it in short order.
Time Warner counts 360,000 current subscribers. Roughly half of the nation's 69 million cable households have digital service plans, and that percentage is expected to grow rapidly in the next decade.
"That's where this thing is headed," said Burke Magnus, the ESPN executive who oversees ESPNU. "It will be a couple of years, but not long."
ESPNU (Channel 143 throughout the Triad) has scheduled a live appearance for the Aggies on Thursday, Sept. 27, when Norfolk State comes to town. The competition that night, Southern Mississippi at Boise State, isn't as strong as on other Thursdays throughout the season.
The network is in the third year of a deal with the MEAC that runs through the 2011-12 academic year and offers the conference seven of its nine appearances throughout the ESPN network family.
"For the MEAC, it really is the home, the site of the bulk of their games," Magnus said. "It's important to them."
In time, coaches will be able to talk to recruits without having to explain what ESPNU is.
"It's the opportunity we all are looking for," Aggies coach Lee Fobbs said. "Any kind of advantage or tool you can find in recruiting is a plus."
ESPNU hasn't grown nearly as fast as ESPN2 did in the 1990s, but the cable universe has become a lot more crowded and cable systems haven't found room for fledgling channels on their standard service tiers. Recent months have brought breakthroughs in negotiations, and ESPNU is now carried by seven of the nation's top 10 cable providers. (No. 1 Comcast and Cablevision, which serves New York City, are among the holdouts.)
ESPNU is seen in 20 million households and will be in 50 million to 60 million before the current MEAC deal is set to expire, Magnus said.
Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rdaniels@news-record.com
Staff Writer
Thursday, Sep. 13, 2007 3:00 am
HAMPTON AT N.C. A&T
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Aggie Stadium, Greensboro
Records: Hampton 1-0 overall, 1-0 MEAC; N.C. A&T 0-2, 0-1
Tickets: $20 at www.ncataggies.com or call 334-7749
TV: ESPNU (10 p.m. taped telecast)
GREENSBORO -- N.C. A&T football is about to move from the fringes of sports television society to the mainstream, and best of all, nobody's going to accuse the Aggies of selling out.
ESPNU, the MEAC's primary TV network, became available on Time Warner Cable's digital tier Aug. 30 after 21/2 years in the comparative isolation of satellite TV. At 10 p.m. Saturday, it offers a delayed broadcast of the Aggies' 6 p.m. game with Hampton -- A&T's first appearance since the deal was struck.
The network is and has always been on the Sports Pack of DirecTV (Channel 609), but the move to cable will at least double its immediate availability in this market and may quadruple it in short order.
Time Warner counts 360,000 current subscribers. Roughly half of the nation's 69 million cable households have digital service plans, and that percentage is expected to grow rapidly in the next decade.
"That's where this thing is headed," said Burke Magnus, the ESPN executive who oversees ESPNU. "It will be a couple of years, but not long."
ESPNU (Channel 143 throughout the Triad) has scheduled a live appearance for the Aggies on Thursday, Sept. 27, when Norfolk State comes to town. The competition that night, Southern Mississippi at Boise State, isn't as strong as on other Thursdays throughout the season.
The network is in the third year of a deal with the MEAC that runs through the 2011-12 academic year and offers the conference seven of its nine appearances throughout the ESPN network family.
"For the MEAC, it really is the home, the site of the bulk of their games," Magnus said. "It's important to them."
In time, coaches will be able to talk to recruits without having to explain what ESPNU is.
"It's the opportunity we all are looking for," Aggies coach Lee Fobbs said. "Any kind of advantage or tool you can find in recruiting is a plus."
ESPNU hasn't grown nearly as fast as ESPN2 did in the 1990s, but the cable universe has become a lot more crowded and cable systems haven't found room for fledgling channels on their standard service tiers. Recent months have brought breakthroughs in negotiations, and ESPNU is now carried by seven of the nation's top 10 cable providers. (No. 1 Comcast and Cablevision, which serves New York City, are among the holdouts.)
ESPNU is seen in 20 million households and will be in 50 million to 60 million before the current MEAC deal is set to expire, Magnus said.
Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rdaniels@news-record.com
