• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Longhorn Network

fredcantu said:
So far no TV providers are on board. But I'm sure ESPN is doing some arm-twisting as we speak.
Click to expand...

The Longhorn Network will wind up on a sports tier, along with the Big Ten Network, Mountain West network, etc. where fans of the school can pay extra to get it. I am sure the legions of UT haters (and there are more of those than you think) won't want to pay for it as part of a standard package.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
I am sure the legions of UT haters (and there are more of those than you think) won't want to pay for it as part of a standard package.
Click to expand...

That hasn't stopped them before. I don't watch ANY sports channels and yet I pay for them because they're bundled with the entertainment channels I want to receive.
 
I wonder if ESPN and UT would allow the Longhorn Network to air as an OTA digital subchannel in markets where the local cable operators have elected not to carry it (and assuming no agreement is reached with DirecTV and Dish.)
 
KMRD said:
I wonder if ESPN and UT would allow the Longhorn Network to air as an OTA digital subchannel in markets where the local cable operators have elected not to carry it (and assuming no agreement is reached with DirecTV and Dish.)
Click to expand...

Where's the money in that? They want to be bundled with the other channels. A few cents a month times millions of subscribers quickly adds up even if no one is watching.
 
Understood and agreed. If the network were unable to secure cable/sat carriage, it's plausible that they can be ad-supported on a digital OTA. Money can be made.
 
Texas cable cos. will end up carrying this, most likely as an add-on. They'd lose a ton of customers otherwise. It's like the occasional squabbles between local stations and Time Warner, etc. over retrans fees. Let them argue and, eventually, there will be a solution. With 2 football games airing exclusively on the Longhorn Network this fall, that solution will be coming pretty soon ... guaranteed.
 
Don't count on that. Unless Dish and/or Directv have it, there won't be a way to see this network in most if the state. Even then, few people will be willing to ditch their current provider just to watch one network.
 
Read elsewhere, believe it was the Chronicle's TV-Radio notebook that only Grande Communications on the outskirts of Austin picked it up and that starts Sept. 1.
 
Grande hasn't picked it up. In the entire nation, only 20,000 people -- on 4 tiny cable systems in the Houston area and East Texas -- saw the debut of LHN.
 
Prediction.....40 cents a sub plus placement on the lowest tier of programming isn't going to wash. Maybe one or the other...but not both.
 
Not right off the bat, Fred. That's a huge amount of cash and bigtime placement right up front for an unproven product. Now I wouldn't be surprised for ESPN to tie LHN to a package deal when all ESPN properties come up for renegotiation with the various providers (can you imagine threatening DirecTV with the loss of all the ESPNs?), but not right away.
 
fredcantu said:
If the 800 pound gorilla that is ESPN uses its muscle to require LHN be bundled with them... then it will wash.
Click to expand...

LHN is a good argument for "A La Carte" cable packaging. The Longhorn nation that wants the channel could get it, while everyone else who doesn't want that burnt orange crap fouling up our televisions wouldn't have to pay for it. ;D
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom