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NRTC Announces New Distribution Agreements with Sports ProgrammersHERNDON, Va. --(Business Wire)-- The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC (News - Alert)) announced today that it had signed distribution agreements for a number of sports services, including NFL Network, NFL Network HD, NFL RedZone, MLB (News - Alert) Network, MLB Network HD, Fox Soccer Plus, Big Ten Network and Big Ten Network HD. "High quality sports programming is in high demand in our members' markets," said NRTC Interim President and CEO Jack Harvey. "I'm proud that NRTC can expand its sports programming portfolio to meet the needs of its members and their customers." Available in both standard and high definition to NRTC members, NFL Network is the destination for all that happens around the sport of football, during the season and throughout the year. Every year, NFL Network airs nearly 2,000 hours of original programming including: NFL Total Access, NFL GameDay, NFL Replay, The Coaches Show, NFL's Top 10, Sound FX, Playbook, NFL Classic Games and the Emmy® Award-winning America's Game series, in addition to live NFL games in high-definition with Thursday Night Football. NFL RedZone, produced by NFL Network, whips around every NFL game on Sunday afternoons delivering the touchdowns and most exciting moments as they happen and in high definition. NFL RedZone keeps fans up-to-date in real time, switching from game to game with live look-ins, highlights and a chance to see the key plays. For Major League Baseball fans, NRTC has signed a distribution agreement with MLB Network, which includes standard- and high-definition programming rights. Launched on Jan. 1, 2009, MLB Network covers the national pastime all the time with more than 2,500 live hours of baseball programming throughout the year. In its inaugural year, MLB Network was honored with four Sports Emmy® Awards and 12 nominations by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, including three awards for its signature studio program MLB Tonight. With live games, original programming, highlights, classic games and coverage of baseball events year round, MLB Network is the ultimate destination for baseball fans. "Knowing how important national and college sports are to our member's consumers, NRTC has placed a priority on the completion of these agreements for the benefit of our members," said NRTC Vice President of Video Services Madeleine Forrer. "With the addition of these channels, telcos can offer highly marketable sports programming with relative ease." Fox Soccer Plus is a premium network intended to complement Fox Soccer Channel by providing the best international sports experience. Fox Soccer Plus features live, exclusive soccer matches from England's Barclays Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, England's FA Cup, Italy's Serie A, Coca-Cola Championship, Carling Cup and England Men's National Team. Fox Soccer Plus aso delivers premium rugby from the Magners League, SANZAR, Guinness Premiership and Heineken Cup among other competitions. "The demand for soccer programming continues to grow throughout the country, and we want to make sure that our telco members are able to provide it to their subscribers," said Forrer. "We're pleased to bring Fox Soccer Plus, as well as its sister network, Fox Soccer Channel, to our members in rural America." The Big Ten Network provides more coverage of Big Ten Conference sports than any other network, showcasing approximately 350 live sporting events each year, including more than 35 regular season college football games, over 100 men's basketball games, 55 women's basketball contests and nightly studio shows with segments from each campus. The channel is available to NRTC members in both standard- and high-definition formats. "The Big Ten Network is a very exciting addition to our TelcoVideo programming offering," Forrer added. "It's complementary to our other sports programming, and it allows subscribers in our members' service areas to keep up with all of the sports news and events happening at their favorite Big Ten schools." NRTC's TelcoVideo offering gives telcos access to hundreds of video and audio channels-including more than 90 high-definition (HD) channels. With the powerful programming available through TelcoVideo, telcos can customize programming packages to appeal to a wide range of customers-from residential subscribers to commercial accounts. Packages are also divided into white-labeled, highly marketable tiers, including the HD, Hispanic and Variety Tiers. Premium channel packages, including HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Encore, Showtime and The Movie Channel complete this robust offering. About NRTC The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) represents the advanced telecommunications and information technology interests of more than 1,500 rural utilities and affiliates in 48 states. Founded in 1986, NRTC provides products and services developed specifically to meet the needs of rural utilities and their customers, such as high-speed Internet access via satellite, full service Internet access and support, advanced metering infrastructure, wireless technologies, power quality products, long distance programs, mobile phone service, IP backbone services, direct broadcast satellite service (DBS) with DIRECTV and programming distribution rights for video providers. For more information, visit www.nrtc.coop. About NFL Network NFL Network airs seven days a week, 24 hours a day on a year-round basis and is the only television network fully dedicated to the NFL and the sport of football. Fans turn to NFL Network to receive information and insight straight from the field, team headquarters, league offices and everywhere the NFL is making news. NFL Network gives fans unprecedented year-round access to all NFL events, including the Super Bowl, Playoffs, regular season, preseason, Pro Bowl, Pro Football Hall of Fame induction weekend, NFL Draft, Scouting Combine, Senior Bowl, league meetings, minicamps and training camps. For more information log onto NFL.com, the exclusive home of NFL Network, NFL video highlights, NFL chats, news and information. About MLB Network MLB Network launched on January 1, 2009, as the largest debut in cable television history and is currently available in approximately 55 million cable, telco TV and satellite homes. In its inaugural year, MLB Network was honored with four Sports Emmy Awards and 12 nominations by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. With live games, original programming, highlights, classic games and coverage of baseball events, MLB Network is the ultimate television destination for baseball fans. For more information and to find MLB Network in your area, go to www.MLBNetwork.com. www.Facebook.com/MLBNetwork www.Twitter.com/MLBNetwork Fox Networks Affiliate Sales and Marketing is a unit of Fox Networks Group (FNG) and includes 37 domestic programming services in which FNG holds interests. Together these networks reach more than 550 million subscribing television homes and represent one of the media industry's largest and most diverse programming groups. Fox Networks Sales and Marketing distributes FX, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Fox Reality Channel, Fox Movie Channel, FUEL TV, FSN and 19 regional cable sports networks, SPEED, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox College Sports, FOX Deportes and the Big Ten Network (co-venture with the Big Ten Conference). FNG also includes the FOX broadcast network, Fox Digital Media, and Fox Sports Enterprises, which manages interests in sports franchises and leading statistical information provider STATS (News - Alert), LLC.
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