ACC Network challenge

http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt-acc-network-year-away-0801-story.html

But the paramount ACC Network challenge for ESPN and its parent company, Disney, during the next 12 months will be securing carriage deals with the nation’s top cable and satellite providers. And odds are those negotiations will be public, protracted and, perhaps, contentious.

Disney/ESPN has one carriage agreement for the ACC Network, and it’s big, with Altice, a primary cable provider in New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut. That population base makes Altice, formerly Optimum by Cablevision, the fourth-largest provider behind Comcast, Charter Spectrum and Cox, according to BroadbandNow.com and Variety.

But as the SEC Network teaches, ACC fans shouldn’t expect similar deals this far in advance, even with Disney/ESPN’s considerable portfolio and, therefore, leverage with providers .

ESPN and the SEC unveiled plans for their network in May 2013, and that very day they announced a carriage arrangement with AT&T U-verse. But contracts with cable and satellite’s biggest players took far more time.

Here’s an instructive timeline of the SEC Network’s carriage deals. Keep in mind the network launched Aug. 14, 2014, and all dates listed are in 2014.

March 3: Dish Network.

July 9: Cox Communications.

July 18: Comcast.

July 24: Time Warner. Charter purchased Time Warner two years ago.

Aug. 4: DirecTV. This was 10 days before launch.

Aug. 14: Mediacom serving SEC states Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. Grande Communications in Texas.

Aug. 26: Verizon Fios. This was 12 days post-launch and two days before the SEC Network’s first football game, between Texas A&M and South Carolina.

Their challenges notwithstanding, the SEC and Big Ten networks are models for the ACC as it attempts to close the revenue gap with the richest Power Five leagues.

During the conference’s annual football kickoff two weeks ago, ACC commissioner John Swofford said that he and his staff look forward to the new undertaking of collaborating with ESPN on programming for the conference’s channel. And even with ESPN’s recent presidential transition from John Skipper to Jimmy Pitaro, Swofford pronounced the working relationship as “stronger than ever.”

“This fall we will finalize the live event programming schedule for the fall, winter and spring sports,” he said. “Throughout the academic year, we’ll begin the process of considering our non-live program needs and reviewing different show ideas that will be on the ACC Network. And by next spring, we will have identified the talent for the programs that we create, as well as our lead game announcers for all sports. …

“It’s not that I don’t want to share more with you, but the reality is I’ve provided all the answers we have at this current time. But, rest assured, by next year's football kickoff, there will be no shortage of information surrounding the ACC Network shows and talent, and we will at that time be within weeks of its launch. Bottom line, whether it’s production, distribution, scheduling or anything else related to the network, I am pleased to be able to tell you that we are right on schedule.”

But as Swofford acknowledged in a subsequent one-on-one interview, “on schedule” for distribution is a relative concept.

Carriage negotiations are, Swofford said, “a tough world.”