The SEC Network is an American multinational

sports network Sports channels are television speciality channels (usually available exclusively through cable and satellite) broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programming. The first spor ...

owned by

ESPN Inc. ESPN Inc. is an American multinational sports media conglomerate majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Communications as an equity stakeholder. For management and financial reporting purposes, the company is the main entity wit ...

, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

between

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

(which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which holds the remaining 20% interest). The channel is dedicated to coverage of

collegiate sports College athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games. World University Games The first World University Games were held in 1923. There were originally called the ''Union Nationale des ...

sanctioned by the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) including live and recorded event telecasts, news, analysis programs, and other content focusing on the conference's member schools. The network is estimated to have 70 million subscribers, more that any other dedicated sports network. The network's coverage serves as the successor to an eponymous syndication package (later renamed SEC TV), which was produced by its syndication arm

ESPN Regional Television ESPN Events is an American multinational sporting event promoter owned by ESPN Inc. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and shares its operations with SEC Network and formerly with ESPNU. The corporation organizes sporting events f ...

. SEC Network is operated out of ESPN facilities in

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, shared with

ESPN Events ESPN Events is an American multinational sporting event promoter owned by ESPN Inc. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and shares its operations with SEC Network and formerly with ESPNU. The corporation organizes sporting events ...

, some operations for the ACC Network, and formerly ESPNU. While Charlotte is not an SEC market itself, it is in close proximity to universities that are members of the conference and shares a television market with the northern part of

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, which is part of the

South Carolina Gamecocks The South Carolina Gamecocks represent the University of South Carolina in the NCAA Division I. The University of South Carolina uses "Gamecocks" as its official nickname and mascot. While the men's teams were traditionally known as the Fighti ...

' television market.

History

On May 2, 2013, SEC Commissioner

Michael Slive Michael Lawrence Slive (July 26, 1940 – May 16, 2018) was an American attorney and college sports executive. Slive was the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), a college athletics association, from 2002 until 2015. As part of his ...

and ESPN president

John Skipper John Skipper is an American television executive, former executive chairman of DAZN Group, and former president of ESPN. Career Education and early career Skipper attended Lexington Senior High School in Lexington, North Carolina. He the ...

formally announced that as part of a long-term, 20-year agreement lasting through 2034, ESPN would launch SEC Network, a network devoted to the conference and an accompanying digital platform, in August 2014. The network would aim to provide "unparalleled content from one of the most competitive conferences in the country with the highest quality, most innovative production partner in the sports industry", and joins the Big Ten Network and Pac-12 Network as cable television networks devoted entirely to a single college athletics conference. During the announcement of the SEC's football schedule for the 2014 season, Michael Slive officially announced that SEC Network would launch on August 14, 2014. Its first live regular season football games aired on August 28, 2014, between

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

and

, and

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

and Vanderbilt. SEC Network officially launched on August 14, 2014, at 6:00 p.m. ET with the premiere of its news program ''SEC Now'', which featured live broadcasts from each SEC school, highlights from football training camps, and live look-ins of an exhibition women's soccer game between the

Arkansas Razorbacks The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas student body voted to change the name of the school mascot (ori ...

and

Creighton Bluejays The Creighton Bluejays, or Jays, are the athletic teams that represent Creighton University, a Jesuit/Catholic University in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. They compete in NCAA Division I in the Big East Conference. Sports sponsored Baseba ...

(which was broadcast in its entirety via

WatchESPN WatchESPN was a branding of the Internet television website and mobile application operated by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst C ...

as the first live event produced by SEC Network). On August 14, 2019, the network's fifth anniversary, a new on-air presentation was introduced along with redesigned sets for the network's shows.

Programming

SEC Network airs events across the 21 sports that are sanctioned by the conference; within its first year, the network and its digital outlets planned to broadcast at least 1,000 live events, with at least 450 on television. Annually, the network will broadcast about 45

football games Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, 100 men's

basketball games Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, 60 women's basketball games, and 75 baseball games. However mostly they air football, women's college volleyball, women's soccer, men's & women's college basketball, women's college gymnastics, college softball & college baseball & all overflow games planned for the SEC Network on the SEC Network Alternate channel & all other games online on the SEC Network + on ESPN's website. For football, SEC Network airs three Saturday games per week in early, afternoon, and evening windows (plus any additional games on the alternate channel, if necessary), typically the least prominent games of the week. While

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

maintains its first pick of games for its afternoon telecast, it no longer has an exclusive broadcast window for SEC football games, allowing the SEC Network to air games alongside CBS. SEC Network announced plans to broadcast football games featuring all fourteen of the conference's member schools within the first month of the 2014 season. Events not broadcast on television are streamed online through SEC Network's website and the WatchESPN service under the SEC Network Plus branding. ESPN staff worked with each SEC member school to ensure that they have in-house production facilities capable of originating programming and live events for SEC Network. These games also include home Conference USA men's soccer matches featuring the two men's soccer playing members of the SEC. Original content on SEC Network includes studio and analysis programs, along with programs produced by the SEC's member institutions.

Paul Finebaum Paul Finebaum is an American sports author, former columnist, and television-radio personality. His primary focus is sports, particularly those in the Southeast. After many years as a reporter, columnist, and sports-talk radio host in the Birmin ...

signed with ESPN Radio to host ''The Paul Finebaum Show'', which is simulcast by SEC Network, along with Finebaum's previous flagship station

WJOX-FM WJOX-FM (94.5 FM) is a radio station licensed to Birmingham. The station airs a sports radio format. WJOX is owned by Cumulus Media (the parent of radio network Westwood One). The station was assigned the WJOX-FM call sign by the Federal Commun ...

. During college football season, it airs ''

SEC Nation ''SEC Nation'' is an ESPN entertainment show previewing college football games from the Southeastern Conference. Based on the format of College Gameday, the show previews SEC football games from a SEC school each week. The show airs from 10 a. ...

'', a travelling pre-game show similar to ESPN's own '' College GameDay'', hosted by ESPN commentator

Laura Rutledge Laura Rutledge ( née McKeeman; born October 2, 1988) is a reporter and host for ESPN and the SEC Network. She is an American beauty pageant titleholder from St. Petersburg, Florida, who was named Miss Florida 2012. Biography She won the title o ...

. The network also airs encore presentations of SEC events, along with classic games involving its members. 2018 saw the premiere of the network's first non-sports series, ''True South'', where food writer

John T. Edge John T. Edge (born December 22, 1962) is a writer, commentator, and, since its founding in 1999, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He has wr ...

travels throughout the Southeast and highlights local cuisine and history. During late July/early August, the network airs a marathon of programming featuring all 14 of the conference's schools, with each school “taking over” the network for 24 hours and airing various sporting events from the previous season and classic games as well.

On-air talent

SEC Nation personalities - 2018 SEC Summerfest 4

On December 30, 2013, ESPN announced that former

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

, and New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow had signed a multi-year deal with ESPN to serve as a college football analyst. Tebow also will make appearances on ''

''. On March 12, 2014, ESPN named Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer as lead game announcers for SEC Network's football telecasts. As a result, Musburger was no longer assigned to '' Saturday Night Football'' or post-season bowl games. He remained a commentator for

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

basketball games aired on ESPN, and made a one-off return to call the 2014

Iron Bowl The Alabama–Auburn football rivalry, better known as the Iron Bowl, is an American college football rivalry game between the Auburn University Tigers and University of Alabama Crimson Tide, both charter members of the Southeastern Conferen ...

game. Musburger left ESPN in 2017 to pursue a new

sports gambling Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...

radio network in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, and was replaced on the flagship ''SEC Saturday Night'' by the new team of Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers and

Cole Cubelic Cole Cubelic is a former college football player for the Auburn Tigers and current sports analyst. Cubelic played center for the Tigers from 1996-2001. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Communications and Media Studies. He joined ESPN in ...

. On March 24, 2014, it was announced that former

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

and New York Jets quarterback

Greg McElroy Gregory Vincent McElroy, Jr. (born May 10, 1988) is an American football commentator and former quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL) in the seventh round of ...

was hired as a college football analyst for the SEC Network on a multi-year contract. In August 2016, former

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

quarterback Jordan Rodgers (brother of

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

quarterback Aaron Rodgers) was hired as a college football analyst.

Availability

AT&T U-verse U-verse TV is a DirecTV brand of IPTV service. Launched on June 26, 2006, U-verse included broadband Internet (now AT&T Internet or AT&T Fiber), IP telephone (now AT&T Phone), and IPTV (U-verse TV) services in 48 states.Sports Business Journal'' reported that ESPN was seeking a carriage rate of $1.30 per-subscriber per month in SEC markets, and $0.25 in non-SEC markets; in comparison, Big Ten Network charges around $1 per subscriber in Big Ten markets. It was also noted that SEC Network's opening doubleheader may have been intended to put pressure on Comcast,

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...

, and

Charter Communications Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribe ...

to carry the network, as they predominantly involved teams located within their service areas. In March 2014,

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...

reached an agreement to carry SEC Network as part of a wider carriage deal with

Disney–ABC Television Group Disney General Entertainment Content, doing business as Walt Disney Television, is an American entertainment company that oversees television content and assets owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. Forming the company's General Enterta ...

for its ABC owned-and-operated stations and cable television networks. On April 30, 2014, Google Fiber was added as a carrier. In June 2014, network head Justin Connolly expressed concern for the lack of carriage deals for SEC Network beyond those with AT&T and Dish Network, and considered the situation to be "alarming." However, he also noted that the network may successfully negotiate more carriage deals closer to its launch. On July 9, 2014,

Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...

, whose subscriber base includes four SEC markets, reached an agreement to carry SEC Network. Exact terms were not disclosed. Nine days later, ESPN also reached a deal with Comcast to carry SEC Network; in SEC markets, the provider will pay a carriage rate of $1.40 per-subscriber per month. On July 25, Time Warner Cable and

Bright House Networks Bright House Networks, LLC also simply known as Bright House, was an American telecom company. Prior to its purchase by Charter Communications, it was the tenth-largest multichannel video service provider and the 6th largest cable internet prov ...

reached deals to carry SEC Network, followed by

Cable One Cable One, Inc. is an American broadband communications provider. Under the Sparklight brand, it provides service to 21 states and 900,000 residential and business customers. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, though it does not serve that ...

and

Wide Open West WideOpenWest (doing business as WOW!) is the sixth largest cable operator in the United States with their network passing 3,248,600 homes and businesses. The company offers landline telephone, cable television, and broadband Internet services. ...

on August 1. On August 2, 2014, Suddenlink Communications announced that it had reached an agreement to carry the network on the launch date. On August 4, 2014,

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

, and

C Spire Wireless C Spire, formerly known as Cellular South, Inc., is a privately owned technology company headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi. The company consists of three business divisions – C Spire Wireless, C Spire Home Fiber, and C Spire Business. C ...

both announced agreements to carry the network (the latter deal was made through the National Cable Television Cooperative, in which C Spire would provide its Fiber to the Home HDTV subscribers with access to the SEC Network App). These announcements were followed by an agreement with Charter Communications on August 6, 2014.

Mediacom Mediacom Communications Corporation is the United States' fifth largest cable television provider based on the number of video subscribers, and among the leading cable operators focused on serving smaller cities and towns. The company has a s ...

reached an agreement to carry the network on August 14, 2014. With the Mediacom agreement, the two major television providers that did not reach a carriage deal prior to launch were Verizon FiOS and

Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...

. However, on August 21, 2014, ''Sports Business Daily'' reported that Verizon FiOS had reached a deal to carry the network in its

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

service areas (which are within the SEC footprint). Cablevision does not have any markets within the SEC footprint.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

(whose

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

and

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

s are well within SEC territory) arranged for the SEC Network to be made available on the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

. Some of SEC Network's programming is carried on Sirius XM, including ''The Paul Finebaum Show'' (which airs on

ESPN Xtra ESPN Xtra is a satellite radio station that carries sports talk programming produced by ESPN. The channel was originally on XM 141, but is now broadcast on Sirius XM Radio channel 81. In February 2008, three shows from local ESPN Radio owned- ...

), and as part of Sirius XM SEC Radio, which launched in March 2018. The SEC Network is also carried by both

PlayStation Vue PlayStation Vue (PS Vue) was an American streaming television service that was owned by the Sony Interactive Entertainment subdivision of the Sony Corporation of America division of Sony. Launched with a limited major-market rollout on March 18, ...

and

Sling TV Sling TV is an American streaming television service operated by Sling TV LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dish Network. Unveiled on January 5, 2015, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor aim ...

. Outside the United States, SEC Network became available in Mexico in 2017.

References

External links

* {{ESPN Southeastern Conference 2014 establishments in the United States College sports television networks English-language television stations in the United States ESPN media outlets Sports television networks in the United States Television channels and stations established in 2014 Companies based in Charlotte, North Carolina College basketball on television in the United States College football on television