RCN and The America Channel reached an memorandum of agreement for carriage of the network on a linear basis, with a la carte and video-on-demand distribution rights for additional sports programming distributed by the service.
TAC partnered with 15 NCAA Division I conferences, representing 146 universities, to broadcast sporting events from nearly one-half of all NCAA Division I universities commencing this coming fall, including extensive football, basketball and other sports, as well as numerous conference tournaments.
A total of 26 of the teams that participated in this year's NCAA Basketball Tournament will have a total of 80 regular-season appearances on TAC next season.
The RCN agreement includes carriage of TAC on all of its systems, with attractive channel designation. RCN will distribute the network’s regional feeds including AC New England, AC Northeast and AC Mid-Atlantic.
The deal includes access to broadcasts of hundreds of NCAA Division I games from top universities in each respective region, including the Colonial Athletic Association, Patriot League, Ivy League and America East Conference.
RCN will also receive extensive a la carte and VOD carriage rights to offer live football, basketball and other games, as well as campus-generated lifestyle content, from universities within the RCN-system footprints.
And the agreement contemplates the offering of TAC on a pure a la carte basis should its regional-sports-network competitors similarly agree to make their programming available a la carte.
In addition, the parties will cooperate on co-branding and co-marketing opportunities to customize TAC’s service for local communities.
