America Channel will be in the regional sports network arena starting with the 2008 college sports fall season. According to CEO Doron Gorshein, the programming will launch "in advance of NCAA
football season," which begins in late August. The company just made an affiliate deal with Comcast for seven regional sports networks, and will have action from 172 universities. The pact will give
America Channel access to 26 markets, including San Francisco, Boston, New York, Chicago, Denver and Detroit. Neither side is discussing details --but in a regulatory filing earlier this year,
America Channel said that "in exchange for carriage, it would offer "its programming to Comcast without a per-subscriber fee for an initial period of three years, after which the parties would
negotiate the terms of carriage." Along with the Comcast deal, Gorshein says America Channel has deals with RCN in three markets as Verizon's FiOS TV service, and has agreements with smaller providers
that have yet to be announced.
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