Longhorn Network: Flop or Fortune?

The Longhorn Network launched August 26 to a sea of expectant fans. But here we are, three months later, and chances are that very few of those fans actually have access to the channel.

Predictions project that barely over 4 million cable customerse have access to LHN. The primary national cable carrier is Verizon FiOS. Regionally, Grande broadcasts LHN to 180,000 viewers in cities across Texas.

 “We've attempted to do similar deals with Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, Dish and Comcast,” ESPN said in October. “Unfortunately, these operators have not engaged in active negotiations in the past month.

The LHN/ESPN partnership creates an complementary brand. “No matter how ESPN spins it, the Longhorn Network is a P.R. arm of Texas,” wrote Richard Deitsch, a media columnist for SI.com.

While the initial partnership seemed to launch UT Austin further into collegiate stardom, what are the repercussions for the lack of coverage? How does this affect the university’s brand reputation?

In my opinion, the potential flop of the Longhorn Network definitely weakens the University of Texas brand image. People will criticize the amount of hype and coverage Longhorns expected to receive and failed to get and rank this attempt as a loss. Lord knows the Longhorns have enough enemies to crank that rumor mill.

Please feel free to share your thoughts.