ACC Network
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Availability | Regional |
| Headquarters | Charlotte, North Carolina |
Broadcast area | United States |
| Owner | Raycom Sports |
| Parent | Raycom Media |
Key people | Ken Haines (President & CEO, Raycom Sports) |
| Established |
December 1982 (without a branding) May 2010 (under the ACC Network branding) |
Launch date | September 2010 |
| Affiliates | List of affiliates |
Official website |
www www |
The ACC Network (unofficially known as the ACC Network by Raycom Sports) is an ad hoc television network featuring live broadcasts of college football and basketball events from the Atlantic Coast Conference. It is an exclusive presentation of its owner and operator, Raycom Sports, the sports syndication unit of Montgomery, Alabama-based Raycom Media. The network itself is based at Raycom Sports headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACC Network broadcast games are shown locally on over-the-air broadcast stations, regional sports networks, as well as on online streaming service ESPN3 and the WatchESPN application on mobile devices.
The syndicated network is produced in a partnership between Raycom and ESPN.[1]
History
ACC men’s basketball had been broadcast by Raycom Sports (in association with Jefferson-Pilot Teleproductions) since the 1982-1983 basketball season. This was under a joint venture between Raycom Sports and Jefferson Pilot Teleproductions. Before Raycom/JP won the rights, C.D. Chesley was the producer of the games from 1958 until 1981, and then Baltimore-based Metrosports had the ACC rights just for the 1981-82 season. The first ACC basketball telecast by Raycom/JP Sports was an early-season game between the Virginia Cavaliers and the Duke Blue Devils on the night of December 8, 1982 at 9 p.m. E.T.[2]
Jefferson Pilot Teleproductions was the sole producer of ACC football beginning with the 1984 football season, but the Raycom/JP Sports joint venture began to include ACC football in 2004/2005.[3]
In 2006, JP Sports’ parent company, the Jefferson Pilot Corporation, merged with Lincoln National Corporation, taking the broadcasting and sports broadcasting divisions with it. JP Sports became Lincoln Financial Sports, thereby renaming the joint venture Raycom/LF Sports. Lincoln Financial Sports was sold to Raycom Media in November 2007, making Raycom Sports the sole producer of all ACC projects and, since from January 2008 until March 2009, Southeastern Conference men's basketball and football.
A new branding
The ACC Network branding has been used on Raycom’s ACC sports broadcasts beginning with the 2010-2011 academic season.[4][5] The new branding was unveiled through a sub-license agreement with ESPN, with Raycom Sports continuing to be the long-time syndication home of Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball and football. All of Raycom’s ACC projects will be under the new branding.[6]
Beginning with the 2014-2015 academic season, the ACC Network expanded distribution up to 84% of the entire United States.[1][7] The close down of ESPN Plus-oriented SEC TV, which syndicated Southeastern Conference basketball and football from 2009 until the 2014 launch of the pay TV exclusive SEC Network, was part of the reason of the ACC Network’s recent expansion. Many stations that carried SEC TV (some of which also carried with Raycom/Jefferson Pilot’s coverage of Southeastern Conference basketball and football) replaced it with the ACC Network in select markets. The expansion would give former SEC TV outlets another option for sports programming besides relying solely on sports programming from their affiliated network.
In some occasions in certain markets, the ACC Network currently competes with upstart syndicated American Sports Network (owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group) for viewer allegiances, but that depends on what ASN-run network the viewer lives in since ASN has rights to multiple conferences (including Conference USA, OVC, SoCon, Patriot League, CAA). However, a few stations actually carry programming from both the local ASN package and Raycom’s ACC Network package since 2014, most notably including MyNetworkTV affiliate WUXP in Nashville, NBC affiliate WNBJ-LD in Jackson, Tennessee, and a few others in the southeastern U.S.
Related platforms
The ACC Digital Network is the online-exclusive product, providing video from all of the ACC’s events, as well as clips from older ACC games.[8][9]
See also
- Raycom Sports - operator of the ACC Network
- American Sports Network
- ESPN Plus
- Southland Conference Television Network
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Press Release (July 1, 2014). “ACC Network Has Expanded National Reach” Raycom Sports. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
- ↑ 2007 ACC Tournament Official Program, page 24.
- ↑ ACCSlicks.pdf Raycom Sports. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
- ↑ Company History - Raycom Sports Retrieved February 2, 2015.
- ↑ http://www.raycomsports.com/index.php/ACC-Information/raycom-schedule-a-local-listings.html?&rsrc=theacccom
- ↑ Smith, Michael (October 4, 2010). "History with ACC secures Future for Raycom" (PDF). Sports and Business Journal. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
- ↑ ACC Network will be syndicated in 90 million homes | CollegeFootballTalk
- ↑ ACC Digital Network on LiveStream
- ↑ ”TheACC.com | Videos”. Atlantic Coast Conference. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
External links
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