It has been three years since the official announcement of the ACC Network, but the wait is finally over. The ACC Network went live in late August, but fans may have a difficult time finding out where exactly to watch it.
Jason Dennard, FSU’s Associate Athletics Director for New Revenue Generation and Marketing spoke with the USA Today ahead of the launch.
“The first conversation started 10 years ago. This is a 10-year process that has culminated,” said Dennard. “In terms of just all the planning, all the meetings, all the conference calls, all the construction, all the expenses, having to build this and build out a staff and train, it’s been a lot and so come seven o’clock (Thursday), there’s gonna be a collective sigh of relief, I think, by a lot of people.”
However, the ACC Network’s parent company, Disney, still had not reached a deal with major networks by the time the ACC launched. As a result, major providers like Comcast, DISH Network and Cox Communications were not carrying the new network yet.
While that may not seem like a lot, it’s important to consider that between Comcast and Dish alone that’s over 34 million people without access to the ACC at launch. Hopefully those customers don’t lose interest while they wait.
“I would say 99.9% chance they will not have it this week,” Dennard said, speaking about the providers. “I honestly think there’s a better chance than not it could go into a couple of weeks.”
For now, if you want to check out more of the ACC’s original content your best bet is to go directly through ESPN or Disney.
“There are a lot of resources and a lot of people and there’s a lot of effort that’s really being centered around this network all the way from the top, the president of ESPN,” Dennard continued. “This is a major project for them that they want to see this thing succeed so they put a lot of their top people on the development of this network. People are going to get a chance to see it and I think they’re really going to like it.”
Sources:
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/sports/college/fsu/2019/08/22/acc-network-launch-no-tv-deal-channel-comcast-dish-cox/2081914001/
