We’re learning more details about the Longhorn Network’s deal with AT&T U-verse.
Texas U-verse customers with at least the U100 package can watch the network on channel 1609 (channel 609 SD). Outside of Texas, customers will need to have the U-verse U450 package to watch.
ESPN says the agreement will bring the network to more than a million Longhorn fans in Texas and throughout the country. The Longhorn Network has been around for one year but, up until now, has not been widely available.
Officials with ESPN say the deal to bring the Longhorn Network to AT&T U-verse happened early this morning.“We’ve been talking to them for a couple of months – two to three months – and, I will tell you, we didn’t know that the product was going to launch until about 4 o’clock this morning because that’s when we signed our agreement and AT&T launched the Longhorn Network shortly thereafter,” said ESPN’s head of distribution David Preschlack.
Preschlack says ESPN is thrilled to be partnering with AT&T and that it’s a very material step in the right direction. ESPN hopes other distributors will also get on board.
“We continue to be hopeful and optimistic that we’ll get distribution deals done with other partners,” said Preschlack.
The Longhorn Network is scheduled to broadcast UT’s first two football games of the season.
Much of today's news first popped up on social media. KUT News has created a Storify of the unfolding news story:
