Sports Technology & Communications News from Around the World

To the sports lovers’ delight, The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) recently announced an expansion in its sports programming portfolio. In a recent press release, NRTC announced that it had signed distribution agreements for a number of sports services, including NFL Network, NFL Network HD, NFL RedZone, MLB (News - Alert) Network, MLB Network HD, Fox Soccer Plus, Big Ten Network and Big Ten Network HD. The company serving rural utilities took up the initiative to meet the needs of its member networks.

In his statement, NRTC (News - Alert) Interim President and CEO, Jack Harvey, said, “High quality sports programming is in high demand in our members’ markets. I’m proud that NRTC can expand its sports programming portfolio to meet the needs of its members and their customers.”

NRTC’s TelcoVideo offering, consisting of Premium channel packages, including HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Encore, Showtime and The Movie Channel, is intended to give telcos access to hundreds of video and audio channels. Packages are divided into white-labeled, highly marketable tiers, including the HD, Hispanic and Variety Tiers. The expanded package is going to make NRTC’s sports programming portfolio even more exciting.

NFL Network is a must-watch network for the soccer lovers. The network s to bring all that happens in the world of football in both standard and high definition to NRTC members, thanks to NRTC’s recent move to bring the major sport services under its wing.

Baseball fans too are not going to be deprived. For Major League Baseball fans, NRTC has signed a distribution agreement with MLB Network, which includes standard- and high-definition programming rights. With live games, original programming, highlights, classic games and coverage of baseball events year round, MLB Network is the ultimate destination for baseball fans.

“Knowing how important national and college sports are to our member’s consumers, NRTC has placed a priority on the completion of these agreements for the benefit of our members. With the addition of these channels, telcos can offer highly marketable sports programming with relative ease,” NRTC vice president of Video Services, Madeleine Forrer, said in a statement.

In response to the rising demands for soccer programming, NRTC also signed agreement with Fox Soccer Plus, which is believed to provide one of the best international sports experience.

The Big Ten Network, which showcase approximately 350 live sporting events each year, including more than 35 regular season college football games, over 100 men’s basketball games, 55 women’s basketball contests and nightly studio shows with segments from each campus, is another exciting addition to NRTC’s TelcoVideo programming offering.

Last month, NRTC announced that it was going to offer a new service to assist telcos with retransmission consent negotiations with local stations and station management groups. According to NRTC, it has added this service to complement its TelcoVideo programming offering and to help members offer a video lineup of national networks, local broadcast stations and regional sports networks.