SEC Network hits 60 million homes with Time Warner Cable, Bright House deals

The SEC announced a deal with Comcast in mid-July to put the network in nearly 50 million homes nationwide, and it just added two other major deals. Via SEC release:

ESPN, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks have reached an agreement for carriage of the SEC Network when the channel launches on August 14, 2014. The network will be available to fans and followers of the Southeastern Conference in all Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks markets ahead of the first SEC 2014-15 college football season game, Texas A&M vs. South Carolina, on August 28 at 6 p.m. ET. With the addition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, the SEC Network will be available to approximately 60 million households nationwide.

That shrinks the number of major systems without the network:

Charter Communications is the only top-five cable provider without a deal to carry the SEC Network, and only DirecTV and Verizon (which offers cable subscription through its FiOS service) rate mention by Ourand as “big SEC-area distributors” in his report.

There remains some worry that the SEC Network might not be able to get a deal done with DirecTV in time for the season, since the provider has not been able to strike up a deal with the Pac-12 Networks and had prolonged talks with the SEC and ESPN. However, both sides have expressed confidence that a deal will get done before the first SEC football broadcast. The network launches two weeks prior to that on August 14.