Speaking of ESPN, the company is launching ESPN College Extra, a new college sports platform designed to offer hundreds of ESPN3 exclusive live college sports events on TV including football, basketball, baseball, softball and more. Contests will be accessible to customers of AT&T U-verse and DIRECTV as well as Bright House Networks, Cox, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS and select NCTC members at launch beginning Sept. 5 with the start of the football season. Games include FBS conferences such as the ACC, The American, Big 12, MAC and Sun Belt as well as FCS teams and will be showcased on up to eight channels through a sports tier or other affiliated TV package. “ESPN is at the forefront of media innovation with a long history of working closely with distributors to better serve customers,” said Sean Breen, Senior Vice President, Affiliate Sales, Disney and ESPN Media Networks. “ESPN College Extra is the latest example of that ongoing collaboration and we are pleased that AT&T U-verse and DIRECTV, Bright House Networks, Cox, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS and several NCTC members have recognized the value it adds to the multichannel video subscription.”