DirecTV Inc. reached a long-term agreement to carry SportsNet New York, the new regional sports network featuring Major League Baseball’s New York Mets and programming related to the National Football League’s New York Jets.
The agreement was not reached in time for the direct-broadcast satellite carrier to show the Mets' opening game Monday. The RSN will join DirecTV's “Total Choice” lineup in the New York area Wednesday, when the Mets again play the Washington Nationals after winning 3-2 Monday. The teams are off Tuesday.
DirecTV will also offer SNY as part of its “Sports Pack,” which is available a la carte throughout the United States to all of its customers.
The new RSN will debut on channel 625, and DirecTV’s carriage deal will allow the distributor to give its HDTV customers HD versions of select Mets home games produced by SNY.
SNY is partly owned by Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable.
The network so far has reached carriage deals with Cablevision Systems Corp., RCN Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., in addition to DirecTV and the two part-owner cable companies. Holdouts include EchoStar Communications Corp.’s Dish Network, the other major DBS provider, and Patriot Media and Communications LLC, a cable operator in New Jersey.
“We appreciate the patience of the many Met fans who were eagerly waiting to watch an exciting Mets team on SportsNet New York via DirecTV,” DirecTV executive vice president of programming acquisition Dan Fawcett said in a prepared statement. “As the nation’s premiere sports-programming provider, we could not let these fans down.”
DirecTV also reached an agreement to carry SportsTime Ohio, the new Cleveland Indians network, starting Tuesday with the Indians-White Sox game.
SportsTime Ohio will be offered on channel 657 to all residential customers in the Greater Cleveland area who subscribe to any Total Choice programming package.
The network will also be available to all DirecTV subscribers on an a la carte basis as part of the satellite provider’s Sports Pack.
In addition to 130 regular-season Indians games, DirecTV subscribers will see other original local programming centering on the interests of northern Ohio sports fans.
