regional sports network
A regional sports network (RSN) in the United States and Canada is a television channel that presents sports programming to a local media market or geographical region. Such channels often focus on one or a few teams who currently play in Major L ...
owned as a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
between The
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
,
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
and Learfield (formerly IMG College), and was operated by ESPN (itself owned jointly by
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
and the
Hearst Communications
Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
). The network, which launched on August 26, 2011, focused on the Texas Longhorns varsity sports teams of the University of Texas at Austin, and broadcast programs such as pre- and post-game shows, event replays, coach's shows, original series and documentaries chronicling the Longhorns and their history, and live coverage of Longhorns events not carried by other
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...
media partners.
Longhorn Network was announced by ESPN on January 19, 2011. The name and logo were revealed during the Longhorns' spring football game on April 3, 2011. It held the third-tier media rights to the Longhorns, and featured events from 20 different sports involving the Texas Longhorns athletics department, along with original and historical programming. The network also featured academic and cultural content from the UT Austin campus.
Due to the Longhorns' move from the Big 12 Conference (whose media rights structure allowed for the arrangement Longhorn Network was established under) on July 1, 2024 to the SEC (whose media rights are fully owned by ESPN, and has its own cable channel in
SEC Network
SEC Network (SECN) is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which hold ...
), the network was closed on June 30, 2024. The LHN branding was repurposed for a school-run digital platform that will carry similar content, as well as archived original programming from the ESPN-run channel.
Carriage
The first national provider to carry the Longhorn Network was
fiber optic
An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...
television service Verizon FiOS, which announced a deal to carry the network in August 2011. On August 31, 2012, the network began to be carried on AT&T U-verse. Several smaller cable providers throughout
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
have also added the channel – namely
Consolidated Communications
Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. is an American broadband and business communications provider headquartered in Mattoon, Illinois. With 36,000 fiber route miles, it is a top ten fiber provider in the U.S., serving customers in 23 sta ...
Comcast
Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau.
As American settlement i ...
. Its
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
area systems were not included in the deal. Two months later on December 12,
Cox Communications
Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable), is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services comp ...
announced a comprehensive long-term distribution agreement that included adding the Longhorn Network to its systems in
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
,
Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
,
Louisiana
Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
and
Oklahoma
Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
. On December 31, 2012, Charter Communications announced that it would add LHN as part of a wide-range long-term carriage deal with ESPN and The Walt Disney Company. Charter also took over Cablevision's western systems in the first quarter of 2013 and maintained the rights agreed to by Cablevision for LHN. It is available on its systems in Arkansas, Louisiana,
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
, Texas and
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
.
2013
On August 8, 2013,
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...
announced that it would begin carrying LHN in its Texas service areas.
2014
On March 3, 2014, The Walt Disney Company and
Dish Network
DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation.
The company was originally establ ...
announced a deal to carry the Longhorn Network as part of a new long-term, wide-ranging distribution agreement.
The channel became available on the satellite provider on May 28 of that year. On December 23, 2014,
DirecTV
DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
announced a long-term, wide-ranging distribution agreement with Disney that included the carriage of Longhorn Network.
2015
Longhorn Network launched on DirecTV on January 21, 2015 along with Fusion. It became available on regional sports network on the Choice package in the Southwestern United States and on the Sports Pack everywhere else.
2017
In May 2017, DirecTV Now reduced the presence for the Longhorn Network from nationwide coverage to solely to the Big 12 territory (DirecTV's satellite service continued to carry LHN nationally).
Online presence
Although the Longhorn Network had an internet presence hosted by ESPN, it functioned as a
TV Everywhere
TV Everywhere (also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video on-demand) refers to a type of American subscription business model wherein access to streaming video content from a television channel requires users to "authenticate" ...
service that was unavailable to subscribers unless their cable and internet service provider carried the network, with further geographical restrictions (usually confined to the states contained within the
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...
); ESPN.com and the ESPN App enforced the same restrictions in carrying the network."College sports should hook 'em online" from Policy By the Numbers (September 8, 2012) Patrick Ryan, Policy Counsel, Open Internet at
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
pointed out that the reach of LHN as of September 2012 was about 10 million potential viewers, whereas if it were online, it could reach 230 million viewers in the U.S., or as many as 2 billion potential viewers.
Closedown
With UT–Austin's
move
Move or The Move may refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Move (company), an American online real estate company
* Move (electronics store), a defunct Australian electronics retailer
* Daihatsu Move, a Japanese car
* PlayStation Move, a motion ...
to the SEC in 2024, athletic director Chris Del Conte stated in May 2022 that Longhorn Network would most likely be shut down (referring to it
tongue-in-cheek
Tongue-in-cheek is an idiom that describes a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner.
History
The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walte ...
as "the
History channel
History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...
"), and that they were ready for UT–Austin programming to shift to the ESPN-run
SEC Network
SEC Network (SECN) is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which hold ...
and its full national coverage. In August 2022, ESPN president of programming Burke Magnus confirmed that Longhorn Network's programming would be "folded" into SEC Network upon the completion of the transfer of UT–Austin and the
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...
into the SEC.
Its last live sporting event was the Longhorns baseball team's regular season finale against Kansas on May 18, 2024. The network closed on June 30, 2024 at 5 p.m. CT, preceded by a
marathon
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...
of its documentary miniseries ''05'' (which profiled the national champion 2005 Longhorns football team) and a staff roll of
closing credits
Closing credits, aka end credits or end titles, are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television show, or video game. While opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to or at th ...
before going dark, followed by the channel's shutdown notice, which remain on for a few hours before cable services begin broadcasting a slide notifying the network's closure. At the same moment, a special edition of ''SEC Now'' originating from the UT–Austin campus began to count down and celebrate the official transition of the school from the Big 12 to the SEC.''''
On July 1, the Longhorn Network brand was repurposed for a free school-run digital platform, which carries similar team content such as coach's shows, post-game press conferences, and team radio broadcasts. It also maintains the library of Longhorn Network's past original programming.
Programming
Regular programming
Longhorn Network to launch Aug. 26; first slate of shows announced , Austin American-Statesman, retrieved 25 July 2011 , Austin American-Statesman, retrieved 5 August 2011
*''Longhorn Extra: This Week'' – A weekly broadcast that covered news on the university's 20 varsity teams.
*''Rewind with Steve Sarkisian'' – A Monday program that featured analysis from the football coach of the past weekend's game.
*''Texas All Access'' – A weekly insider show about the Longhorns sports teams, focusing on the football team during the fall months.
*''Game Plan with Tom Herman'' – A Thursday night preview show to the upcoming weekend's football game.
*''Texas GameDay'' – A two-hour pre-game show, similar in format to ESPN's '' College GameDay'', which was broadcast from the site of Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium for home games and the Austin-based network studio for road games.
*''Texas GameDay Final'' – A 90-minute post-game show, similar in format to ESPN's '' College Football Final'', on site at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium for home games and the Austin-based network studio for road games.
*''Longhorn Legends'' – A roundtable discussion program with Longhorns football coach
Mack Brown
William Mack Brown (born August 27, 1951) is an American former college football coach. Brown most recently coached at the University of North Carolina, where he had two stints, first from 1988 until 1997, and again from 2019 until his firing ...
and a rotating selection of former players.
*''The Season: 2005 Texas Longhorns'' – An in-depth review of the 2005 Longhorns football season, during which the team earned its fourth national championship in the university's history.
*''Texas' Greatest Games'' – A Top 10 countdown of what is considered to be the program's best football games.
*''Texas' Greatest Athletes'' – A program that covered those who are considered to be the best athletes (across all sports) that the school has produced.
*''Traditions'' – A look into how some of the university's historical sports traditions started.
Sports
The first live sports event broadcast on the network aired on the date of its launch, the women's volleyball team's 2011 season opener against the
Pepperdine Waves
The Pepperdine Waves are the athletics teams of Pepperdine University, located outside the city of Malibu, California. They compete at the NCAA Division I, Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA. The school is a me ...
. The first live football game telecast on the network aired on September 3, 2011, in which the Longhorns played against the
Rice Owls
The Rice Owls are the sports teams representing Houston's Rice University in college sports. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates in NCAA Division I athletics. A member of the American Athletic Conference, Rice sponsors ...
.Longhorn Network names on-air team ,
KXAN-TV
KXAN-TV (channel 36) is a television station in Austin, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Llano, Texas, Llano-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KBVO (channel 14); Nexstar also provides certain s ...
. Retrieved 25 July 2011. The Longhorn Network would expand its sports coverage to include five UTSA Roadrunners football games to its schedule for sister campus
University of Texas at San Antonio
The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA or UT San Antonio) is a Public university, public research university in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Established in 1969,inaugural football season, the first of which aired on September 10, 2011. The majority of the live events are handled by the Longhorn Network Operations department, which manages the crew that sets up the equipment used to air the event. Over 200 live events were managed by this department during the 2011–12 school year.
In 2015, Longhorn Network simulcast featured groups coverage of the
Open Championship
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
2015 Pan American Games
The 2015 Pan American Games (), officially the XVII Pan American Games () and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am Games (Toronto 2015), were a major international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Pan American Games, ...
in Toronto.
In February 2018, the network began to produce and carry coverage of women's softball games at UT's McCombs Field where the university mainly served as a host school for neutral-site series and games between northern teams (southern schools and domes regularly host the programs of northern schools in baseball and softball during the winter), allowing the schools to have full coverage of their games without having to take on additional travel and production costs for broadcasting their games.
Controversies
High school football
From the initial announcement of the Longhorn Network, ESPN had made it known that it desired to broadcast up to 18
high school football
High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...
games per season.
Texas A&M
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...
, due to what that university viewed as possible recruiting violations, cites the LHN as the reason for its decision to leave the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012. However, in 2022, R. Bowen Loftin, who was A&M's president when it joined the SEC, revealed that the decision to leave for the SEC had already been made no later than the summer of 2010, invalidating the previous claim—though he had also stated in a 2021 interview, ""When the LHN was announced, that just galvanized our former and current students. We went from 50-50 to 95-5 n favor of the SECalmost overnight."
Public high school athletics in Texas are governed by the
University Interscholastic League
The University Interscholastic League (UIL) is an organization that creates rules for and administers almost all athletic, musical, and academic contests for public primary and secondary schools in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the largest organ ...
(UIL), which is owned by The University of Texas at Austin. During an August 1, 2011, meeting of all Big 12 athletic directors, it was decided that the issue of airing high school football games on the LHN would be postponed for one year, allowing time for the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
to rule on the matter, though no high school games would be broadcast in that time.Big 12 sets up restrictions on Longhorn Network ''
Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...
''. Retrieved 1 August 2011 Ten days later, the NCAA ruled that no school or conference network would be permitted to broadcast high school sports or any other high school programming.High school games cannot be on school networks , CBS Sports, retrieved 11 August 2011
Big 12 Conference football
In addition to a non-conference game each season, ESPN desired to place a Big 12 Conference game on the Longhorn Network. At the same Big 12 meeting that discussed high school football telecasts, it was agreed upon that a conference game would be acceptable as long as both schools and the conference office approved the broadcast. It was reported that ESPN asked Texas Tech for permission to broadcast the team's November 5, 2011, game against the Longhorns on the network. ESPN told the university that the game would most likely not be carried on any of the ESPN family of networks, leaving a broadcast on the LHN as its only option. In return, ESPN promised to televise two non-conference football games over the next four seasons, televise some other non-football programming, $5 million cash, and help from the network to try to arrange a home-and-home series against a top BCS conference school. Texas Tech passed on the offer with the university's chancellor Kent Hance explaining that "I don't want a Tech fan to have to give one dime to the Longhorn Network". ESPN then contacted
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...
about airing games on the network; that university also refused the invitation to appear on the network.Tech says no to Longhorn Network , '' Amarillo Globe-News''. Retrieved 9 August 2011/ Texas Athletics eventually announced that the
Kansas Jayhawks
The Kansas Jayhawks, commonly referred to as simply KU or Kansas, are the athletic teams that represent the University of Kansas. KU is one of three schools List of college athletic programs in Kansas, in the state of Kansas that participate in ...
had agreed to let its game against the Longhorns on October 29 air on LHN (the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...
's third-tier media rights are also managed by LHN co-owner IMG College). The agreement allowed the Longhorn Network to be the national carrier of the game, except in Kansas markets, where the game was shown on
broadcast television
Broadcast television systems (or terrestrial television systems outside the US and Canada) are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals.
Analog television systems were standardized ...
.Texas-Kansas football game to air on Longhorn Network TexasSports.com. Retrieved 2 September 2011. ESPN revealed plans to broadcast the Texas Tech-Texas State game on the Longhorn Network in 2012, however Texas Tech threatened to drop the game in favor of an 11-game schedule, resulting in the game being removed from LHN's schedule.
In November 2012, ESPN syndicated a second feed of a Longhorn football home game against Iowa State to ABC- affiliated television stations across Iowa (including KETV in
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...
, which is owned by ESPN part-owner
Hearst Corporation
Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
) to provide access to the game within that state. A secondary announcing team was used for the Iowa State feed. The same was done in September 2013 for a matchup against Ole Miss throughout the state of Mississippi.
Mediacom
Mediacom Communications Corporation is the United States' fifth-largest cable television provider based on the number of video subscribers, and among the leading cable operators focused on serving smaller cities and towns. The company has a sig ...
eventually established an online/traditional network with Iowa State in their service area, Cyclones.tv, featuring university programming, along with any live games featuring Texas which are only available through Longhorn Network with Iowa State overlaying their own play-by-play and commentary, or producing their own telecast entirely.
Potential conflict of interest
In 2011 ESPN's financial stake in the LHN was accused of creating a potential
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...
.Open Mikes: Is the Longhorn Network a good or bad idea? USA Today. Retrieved August 29, 2011 Some fear that ESPN's involvement in the network will inhibit journalistic integrity as that network has a financial interest in the success of the athletic programs at the University of Texas. ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
'' writer Richard Deitsch wrote: "The network's existence... creates an impossible situation for ESPN's college football producers and reporters (plenty of whom care about reporting). For every story ESPN does on Texas and its opponents, they'll be skeptics wondering what the motivation was for the story."
In 2011 the stipulation included in the network's founding agreement that gives Texas the right to dismiss LHN announcers that do not "reflect the quality and reputation of UT" was questioned. An ESPN spokesperson addressed the situation by stating: "This is not common in ESPN agreements because this UT network is so unique/new for us ...The provision does not allow for random replacement of commentators or reaction to critical comments... it's more about potential situations where a commentator makes completely inappropriate comments or gets involved in inappropriate actions."Longhorns TV Deal: Texas Can Fire ESPN Broadcasters Burnt Orange Nation. Retrieved August 29, 2011