ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network, launched HD operations Aug. 28 with the kickoff of ESPNU HD and presented its first live HD event that evening with coverage of a football matchup between Vanderbilt and Miami (OH).
In its first year, ESPNU HD expects to air more than 200 HD events, including all of its Thursday and Saturday live college football games and exclusive coverage of college basketball, lacrosse, baseball, softball, volleyball, wrestling and hockey.
ESPNU HD becomes the fifth HD service ESPN has launched among its family of networks. ESPNU HD has carriage agreements in place with Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS TV, RCN, Atlantic Broadband and Broadstripe.
Currently, ESPN HD reaches more than 20 million subscribers and is available to more than 96 million homes; ESPN2 HD reaches more than 19 million subscribers and is available to more than 86 million homes.
ESPNU HD is the third HD network ESPN has launched this year. The others are ESPN HD Australia and EPNEWS HD.
