Charter Communications to carry SEC Network

Charter Communications will broadcast the SEC Network after ESPN reached an agreement with the satellite company on Thursday.

The conference announced the agreement on Wednesday.

The addition of Charter means the SEC network will be available in 91 million households.

"We are excited to be bringing the SEC Network to Charter customers," said Allan Singer, SVP of Programming for Charter Communications.  "We know that there are many SEC fans and grads in our footprint who are ready to cheer on their team and we are glad that the SEC Network will be available to them when it launches on August 14th."

"With the addition of Charter, SEC Network is currently slated to be available to eight of the top ten distributors nationwide at launch, covering 90 percent of all U.S. cable homes," added Sean Breen, Disney and ESPN Media Networks Senior Vice President, Affiliate Sales.  "We look forward to serving Charter customers nationwide, including many SEC markets."

Charter joins competitors such as DirecTV, Dish, Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Google Fiber, AT&T U-Verse and Bright House Networks in carrying the channel. The SEC Network will have carriage on all five on the country's largest cable providers. Verizon FiOS is the largest cable company not to carry the channel. 

ESPN announced the agreement with DirecTV on Monday.

More: The International Space Station will receive the SEC Network

The first football game the network will air is No. 20 Texas A&M at No. 9 South Carolina on Aug. 28. 

Cable providers are paying $1.40 each month per customer for the network in the 11 states that compose the SEC "footprint" and $0.25 per customer per month in all other states. The SEC Network is scheduled to air more than 1,000 live events in its first year, including at least 45 exclusive SEC football games. It will be operated by ESPN, which signed a 20-year agreement with the conference. 

- Chris Johnson and Alex Hampl