Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

ACC Network Launch Day: With Buy-In From ESPN and All 15 Schools, Newest College Sports Network Is Poised for Success

22/08/2019

ACC Network Launch Day: With Buy-In From ESPN and All 15 Schools, Newest College Sports Network Is Poised for Success Years of preparation comes to fruition as ACCN debuts on Thursday evening By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Thursday, August 22, 2019 - 4:29 pm

Print This Story

Story Highlights

Hang on, I just got to put down the paper bag I've been breathing into. Even for an industry veteran like ESPN Senior Coordinating Producer Amy Rosenfeld, this feeling never goes away.

With the network since 2007, Rosenfeld has worked her fair share of major events, network launches, and property debuts, but, as the long-awaited and highly anticipated ACC Network kicks off on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, the butterflies will be just as intense as on her first day on the job.

After years of preparations, the ACC Network launches on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.

We are feeling really, really lucky to be able to be part of something that not a lot of people get to do, says Rosenfeld, whose career encompassed work on numerous Olympics, FIFA World Cups, X Games, and much more. We're going to put a lot of energy into Aug. 22, and, hopefully, we are going to put on a really robust, interesting, and exciting show. What we've tried to emphasize to everyone, though, is [that] we better have a little left in the tank because, as far as I'm aware, we're still on the air on Aug. 23 and Aug. 24 and in September and in October and in November.

To say that this day has been a long time coming would be an understatement. For more than three years, the Atlantic Coast Conference's 15 member institutions have been expanding staffs, campaigning for funding (even in front of the government in their state capitals), remodeling their venues, and building multimillion-dollar broadcast facilities all to be a part of what promises to be the most technologically comprehensive and advanced college-sports television network to date.

It has been complete buy-in, from the brass at ESPN to athletic directors across the ACC map, that has helped set up this network for success on its opening day.

This is not blowing smoke here: the support at ESPN, I'll tell you, [has] that same feel like when we did [FIFA] World Cups, says Rosenfeld. The company is all in. One of the great benefits of being in Bristol is the access to the people, not just the infrastructure. That's where I take a lot of relief and joy in that we couldn't be in a better place and have a better support structure.

ESPN Coordinating Producer Meg Aronowitz concurs: Honestly, every school to a person, all 15 of the schools have the same level of enthusiasm for this project and have had that same level of enthusiasm from day one.

She and ESPN Director, Remote Production Operations, Rex Arends (who has now worked on three of the college network launches: besides this one, Big Ten Network in 2007 and SEC Network in 2015) have served as ESPN liaison to all the schools. I mean there was a time where Rex and I were traveling around to the schools and were calling it the IF Network' because there was not even a contract signed, she says. But we wanted to start having conversations with them about what this would look and feel like if we were to launch the ACC Network.

A Path Different From the SEC Network's

ESPN has, of course, fought through this forest before, launching the University of Texas's Longhorn Network in August 2011 and, more broadly, the wildly successful SEC Network in 2015.

Another key executive, Stephanie Druly, EVP, event and studio production, ESPN, has led the charge on all three network debuts. However, to say the ACC Network is simply a cut-and-paste of the SEC template would be a gross underestimation of this project. The ACC Network has benefited from nearly a decade's worth of learning how to prepare and, most important, maintain a sports network of this scope.

Prior to the SEC Network launch, sure, each campus bolstered its onsite production facilities substantially, but a large amount of the focus went into acquiring equipment and preparing the schools for what was largely expected to be streamed productions exclusively. Quickly, those school-produced live events were being relied on to fill out the SEC Network linear schedule and were even finding their way onto other networks in the ESPN family.

As ESPN prepared the ACC schools this time around, its team had the foresight to spend a good 18 months training the staffs on the art, philosophy, and execution of live sports television.

It was something that we really, frankly, didn't have the ability to do when we launched the SEC Network, says Aronowitz. When we launched the SEC Network, a lot of us came on board shortly before the network launched. The school piece was meant to be a digital play. We didn't really think through the process of mentoring and educating and supporting the schools on that level. So the four-plus years of experience that we've [attained with] the SEC Network taught us how we needed to ramp up for the ACC Network.

From left: ESPN executives Stacy McCollum, Amy Rosenfeld, Meg Aronowitz, and Rosalyn Durant have played key roles in ESPN's launch of the ACC Network.

On top of that, many of the 15 ACC Network institutions are already seasoned pros at producing live events from their studios for ESPN. Over the past 18 months, more than 120 games produced by the staffs and facilities of the ACC schools have aired on linear ESPN networks.

A huge factor in the ACC Network's successful lead-up to its debut has been the emphasis on people. All of the school's 15 athletic directors, in addition to budgeting for facilities, signed off on the expansion of their content-creation, technical, and engineering staffs to support the year-round efforts.

[That's], arguably, the bigge
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/08/22/acc-network-launch-day-with-buy...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

25/08/2026

Law and Crime Moves Court TV to Amagi CLOUDPORT for Unifi...

Amagi, the media industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced that Law&Crime has migrated its Court TV channel, s...

25/08/2026

Broadcast Solutions demonstrates world-class technology a...

Broadcast Solutions, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast and media industry, is showcasing the breadth of its ca...

25/08/2026

Leader boosts Test and Measurement capabilities for Denma...

Thatcham, UK 25 August 2026: Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, has announced that leading broadcast rental company Minitech has purchased a Le...

25/08/2026

Appear and TVTEL power centralised VAR signal transport i...

Appear's X20 Platform enables visually lossless video contribution with sub-frame latency and full path redundancy for TVTEL's centralised VAR operation...

25/08/2026

Big Blue Marble to showcase next-generation 5G Broadcast...

World-first demonstration combines 5G Broadcast and Media over QUIC for seamless, ultra-low-latency hybrid media delivery Big Blue Marble will showcase new dev...

25/08/2026

MNC Software Unveils Unified Software Suite at IBC2026 to...

MNC Software, a global leader in network management and operational support systems tailored to the broadcast and media industry, will showcase its complete sof...

25/08/2026

VAB: Ads in Local News Boost Sales and Brand Perception

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/08/2026

ESPN to Bump Up Streaming Subscription Prices

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/08/2026

HPA Opens Call for Award Entries

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/08/2026

CNN Returns to Air After Technical Difficulties

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/08/2026

Calrec to Showcase DMF Capabilities at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/08/2026

Imagine Communications to Showcase AI and MCP Strategy at...

Company to Demonstrate Practical AI Applications That Add Value Today and Longer-Term Path Toward Agentic AI At IBC2026 (Sept. 11 14, RAI Amsterdam, Stand #1.B...

25/08/2026

KRK Kreate Series Standardizes Monitoring at Miamis WDNA...

Serving South Florida with a unique blend of jazz, Latin jazz, salsa, reggae, blues, and culturally reflective programming, WDNA 88.9FM operates as both a tradi...

25/08/2026

GlobalM Brings GMX Broadcast Platform to Oracle Cloud Inf...

GlobalM announced that it is integrating its GMX software-defined media platform with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), bringing together Oracle's global c...

25/08/2026

Escape to the country as Cheap Irish Homes returns for a brand-new series

The new series begins Tuesday 1 September at 7pm on RT One and RT Player The search for Ireland's hidden housing gems is back as Cheap Irish Homes return...

24/08/2026

New Book Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN' Preserves Founder Bill Rasmussen's Origin Story and the Lessons That Still Define the Network Today

Co-authors Mike Soltys and Garrett Sutton reflect on Rasmussen's vision, intentional optimism,' and fan-first philosophy following his death last week...

24/08/2026

Dr. Fill from Yurt Rock

Human-played drum fills on demand Sample library developers Yurt Rock have announced the launch of a new plug-in that's dedicated to creating drum fill...

24/08/2026

Black Rooster Audio launch PS-VC1 Vocal Chain Channel

Debut plug-in in new Professional Series Black Rooster Audio's latest plug-in delivers an all-in-one vocal-processing tool, and is the debut release in ...

24/08/2026

SBS WorldWatch embraces digital future with move to SBS On Demand

SBS WorldWatch embraces digital future with move to SBS On Demand 24 August, 2026 Media releases On 18 September, SBS WorldWatch will transition from a lin...

24/08/2026

Rohde & Schwarz addresses operational efficiency and infrastructure resilience at IBC 2026 in Amsterdam

Rohde & Schwarz addresses operational efficiency and infrastructure resilience a...

24/08/2026

Rohde to Focus on Operational Efficiency, Sustainability at IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

24/08/2026

Calrec advances the EBU Dynamic Media Facility vision at...

As the broadcast industry moves toward more flexible production platforms, Calrec will present its evolving audio ecosystem at IBC 2026, on Stand 8.C47. The dem...

24/08/2026

Stop Using Boring Static Highlights - Pro After Effects Workflow

Stop Using Boring Static Highlights - Pro After Effects Workflow Graham Quince August 24, 2026 0 Comments Did you know you can use After Effects expre...

24/08/2026

Paledusk Performance Captured with URSA Cine Immersive

Paledusk Performance Captured with URSA Cine Immersive Brie Clayton August 24, 2026 0 Comments Creative production company THINGS. brings the band'...

24/08/2026

Sky Arts Confirms Double Classical Documentary Showcase Ahead of Edinburgh TV Festival

The Handel Scandal and Dangerous Debussy will both air on Sky Arts this AutumnMo...

24/08/2026

Dalet Accelerates Media Transformation with AI, Automation and Governance at IBC 2026

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, w...

24/08/2026

Arvato Systems becomes a service partner of HANDELSVERBAND.swiss

Arvato Systems Becomes a Service Partner of HANDELSVERBAND.swiss Zurich - Arvato Systems Switzerland has been a service partner of HANDELSVERBAND.swiss since ...

24/08/2026

Up to 30x More Work Per Watt: NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 Sets a New Efficiency Standard for AI Agents

According to OpenRouter data, agentic AI workloads consume 15x more tokens than ...

24/08/2026

With Groq 3 LPX in Full Production, NVIDIA Extends Vera Rubin Inference for Agents

The next era of AI inference won't be defined by a single breakthrough chip,...

24/08/2026

How XPUs Meet a World-Class AI Factory

To generate intelligence at scale, AI factories run continuously, and their economics are defined by delivered output: tokens per second, tokens per watt, cost ...

24/08/2026

Documentary on the life and writings of James Connolly to air on RT

We Only Want the Earth: The Life & Ideas of James Connolly airs Wednesday 26 August on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm RT is to air the compelling documenta...

23/08/2026

Parish Audio introduce Parametric Compressor

Offers up to 10 bands of compression Parish Audio's latest release allows users to place individual compressors anywhere in the frequency range, but tak...

22/08/2026

Macon Blair on Filmmaking and the Long Road to Idiots

O'Shea Jackson Jr., Dave Franco, and Mason Thames appear in Idiots by Macon Blair, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of ...

22/08/2026

Crafting the Contenders: Adam Bricker, ASC on bringing Hacks home

By the time Hacks reached its fifth and final season, Adam Bricker ASC had spent six years shaping one of television's most distinctive visual identities. T...

22/08/2026

World Cup Drives TVP to Retain Top Spot in July as Live Sport Buoys Polish Viewership

Polsat reclaims second place, ByteDance climbs to eighth, and live football miti...

22/08/2026

DirecTV Offers New Customers a Year of Free Netflix with Ads

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/08/2026

Judge Sets Early October Hearing for ABC Lawsuit Against FCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/08/2026

ORF Taps Net Insight for Full IP Upgrade

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/08/2026

Breezeline Teams Up with DirecTV to Launch New Streaming Bundle

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/08/2026

Avid brings agentic media production to IBC2026

Avid brings agentic media production to IBC2026 Brie Clayton August 21, 2026 0 Comments After launching Avid Content Core at NAB 2026, Avid expands it...

22/08/2026

Making of Lord of the Flies Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro

Making of Lord of the Flies Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro Brie Clayton August 21, 2026 0 Comments Filmmaker Lisa Marie Russo shoots on the bea...

22/08/2026

Homecoming Artist Spotlight: Dogs In A Pile

Homecoming Artist Spotlight: Dogs in a Pile The rising jam band talks about where it all started on the Berklee campus ahead of their Homecoming performance o...

22/08/2026

Berklee Alumna Lexi Vollero MA '22 Receives Fulbright Award to Brazil

Berklee Alumna Lexi Vollero MA '22 Receives Fulbright Award to Brazil Vollero, a Berklee NYC graduate, has been selected for a Fulbright Open Research Awa...

21/08/2026

FOX Sports Rolls Out Its Most Ambitious Live Motorsports Production' Ever at IndyCar Freedom 250 GP in DC

A massive deployment of specialty cameras, graphics, and AR will showcase the na...

21/08/2026

Creative Studio Zookeeper Embraces Pinball Motif for West Coast Conference PSA

The West Coast Conference unveiled its new 30-second public service announcement, the latest expression of the Conference's We Rise in the West brand iden...

21/08/2026

ESPN Soft-Launches a New NFL Graphics Package, Scorebug During Thursday Night's Raiders-Texans Preseason Game

New look will serve as the foundation for ESPN's upcoming NFL season and Sup...

21/08/2026

ESPN to Debut Little League Alumni Alt-Cast for 2026 MLB Little League Classic

ESPN will air the ninth annual MLB Little League Classic presented by New York Life on Sunday, August 23, at 7 p.m. ET from Historic Bowman Field in Williamspor...