Thursday marks the long awaited launch of the ACC Network, making the ACC the fourth of the power 5 conferences to have a network all their own. It’s also the 2nd conference network, with apologies to the Longhorn Network, owned by ESPN. If that piece of information is news to you, it will become crystal clear if you’re watching an ESPN family network this evening at 7 pm ET.
When the switch is flipped this evening, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPNEWS will carry a simulcast of the first 10 minutes of the ACC Network. The network will launch with a two hour special of their flagship program – All ACC. As you can imagine, the show will be packed with some star power. In a press release this week, ESPN announced Dabo Swinney, Mike Krzyzweski, Muffet McGraw, Deshaun Watson and ACC Commissioner John Swofford are just a handful of names that will appear in the program. The release did not detail whether or not those names will be crammed into the first 10 minutes of the show.
Over the last decade, we’ve seen a number of new networks launch – but this kind of exposure is unprecedented. To the average sports fan, it may just be brushed off as ESPN’s way to remind us all that there’s a new platform – and you should try your best to find it. However, those that have been keeping tabs on the distribution struggles the ACC Network has had this summer could see it as a battle tactic aimed at Comcast and Dish.
As of Thursday morning, those two giants have yet to strike a deal with the new network, leaving the ACCN out of 31 million homes tonight. While we can’t claim to fully understand the reasoning behind flooding the ACCN’s launch across four other networks, it makes sense if executives are trying to target ACC fans who might have Comcast or Dish. They would see the network, get the network taken from them, and immediately flood their provider with phone calls and social media jabs inquiring why they can’t watch their shiny new channel.
It’s a bold move, and maybe one only ESPN/Disney could make given their vast family of networks.
The ACC Network’s first football game is next Thursday when Clemson hosts Georgia Tech – 5 business days worth of negotiating after tonight’s launch blitz.
