OLN Scores Arena Football Deal

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Recently spurned by the National Football League, OLN announced Friday that it will offer regular-season and postseason games from the Arena Football League.

Comcast Corp.-owned OLN will distribute 11 regular-season AFL games kicking off Sunday, according to OLN officials. The network will also telecast one Wild Card playoff contest as part of the deal.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources familiar with the deal said OLN is committed for one year, with the option to extend the deal after the season.

NBC holds the broadcast rights to AFL regular-season and postseason games, including the AFL ArenaBowl championship game.

The deal comes on the heels of OLN’s unsuccessful bid to acquire the rights to a package of eight NFL Thursday/Sunday-night games beginning next year. The league’s own NFL Network will televise the games.

R. Thomas Umstead
R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.