• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 31, 2012

AT&T U-verse, which has a heavy presence in Texas, will begin carrying the ESPN-owned Longhorn Network (LHN) in time for subscribers to watch the University of Texas’ home football opener Saturday. ESPN indicated the deal will give the network over 1 million more subscribers on top of its current 4 million-plus.

The year-old network, devoted to all things UT, only had distribution by Verizon, Grande Communications and several smaller operators in the Lone Star State before AT&T changed the game. Its deal could put pressure on satellite and cable operators to begin offering it.

Texas’ first two games of the season are available exclusively on LHN. Like Verizon, AT&T will also make the network available outside Texas.

AT&T will make LHN available to customers in the state with the U200 package and higher and elsewhere with the U450 package.

AT&T will also provide the network  to subscribers who have it at home on other devices in TV Everywhere fashion.