Longhorn Network (LHN) was an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between The University of Texas at Austin, ESPN and Learfield (formerly IMG College), and was operated by ESPN (itself owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company, Hearst Communications, and the National Football League). 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 media partners.
Longhorn Network was announced by ESPN on January 19, 2011.Texas, ESPN announce new network 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, with supplemental programming carried via its own cable channel SEC Network), the network was closed on June 30, 2024. The LHN branding was repurposed for a school-run digital platform that carries 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 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 have also added the channel – namely Consolidated Communications, Bay City Cablevision, Mid-Coast Cablevision, Texas Mid-Gulf Cablevision, En-Touch Systems, E-Tex Communications and Grande Communications.
The only major provider serving Texas that did not carry the Longhorn Network was Comcast.
Carriage agreements 2012 On October 4, 2012, New York-based Cablevision Systems Corporation began carrying LHN on its systems in the Western United States. Its New York City area systems were not included in the deal. Two months later on December 12, Cox Communications announced a comprehensive long-term distribution agreement that included adding the Longhorn Network to its systems in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. 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, Texas and Virginia.
2013 On August 8, 2013, Time Warner Cable announced that it would begin carrying LHN in its Texas service areas.
2014 On March 3, 2014, The Walt Disney Company and Dish Network 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 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 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); 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 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 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 as "the History channel". 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 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 of its documentary miniseries 05 (which profiled the Longhorns football team's 2005 national championship run) and a staff roll. At that time, SEC Network broadcast a special edition of SEC Nation from the UT–Austin campus, as part of programming marking the official move of the Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners 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 2011Longhorn Network announces additional programming , 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 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 first live football game telecast on the network aired on September 3, 2011, in which the Longhorns played against the Rice Owls.Longhorn Network names on-air team , KXAN-TV. 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's 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, which featured University of Texas golf alumnus Jordan Spieth. It also broadcast 44 hours of coverage from the 2015 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 games per season.
Texas A&M, 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 [in favor of the SEC] almost overnight."
Public high school athletics in Texas are governed by the University Interscholastic League (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 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. 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