#ACCKickoff | Conference Media Day Opens with a Bang

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Kevin White, Vice President and Director of Athletics at Duke University, Chair of the ACC Television Committee

Charlotte, NC– The first thing you notice when you come to ACC Media days, dubbed the ‘#ACCKickoff’ is the congenial nature of the event.  As a first time attendee and native southerner, it feels like a casual gathering and is by no means pretentious or rigid.  However, the ACC does have the staging and the bright lights that other conference media days boast.  Those lights will get bigger in 2019 when the conference, as announced today, will launch it’s brand new digital network.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford and ESPN President John Skipper were on hand to make the announcement about the oncoming network.  The “comprehensive linear and digital network”, will begin a 20 year partnership between the league and the network and become a formidable multi-media arm.

” It also provides for the extension of the conference’s existing rights agreement with ESPN to 2036. ESPN is the ACC’s exclusive worldwide rights holder,” the conference announced today.

“Beginning in August 2016, fans can access more than 600 exclusive live events from across the conference via a digital live-events channel ‘ACC Network Extra’, immediately available to users who have access to ESPN3 via WatchESPN and the ESPN app, with that number growing each year.  More than 1,300 ACC events will be distributed across the platforms in 2019 when the linear network launches.

It’s a move that the ACC had to make because of the attention that is necessary for leagues given the fight in the Power 5 structure, competing for bowls and more importantly, national championships.