ESPN announced Wednesday that high-definition video-on-demand is now available to all cable operators.
Initially, one college football and basketball game will be offered each week to affiliates. As more sporting events and programs are produced by ESPN in high-definition, the service will expand, offering more choices for the consumer.
"Once again, ESPN continues to develop new products and services to meet our affiliates’ goals and business objectives," said Matt Murphy, vice president of interactive sales at ESPN.
"The rising interest of HD among consumers, combined with the powerful consumer proposition of video-on-demand, makes HD VOD the next step in the evolution of advanced services," he added. "We believe that ESPN HD is revolutionizing the way people watch sports. Combining the two will only help to increase the demand for digital cable and help our affiliates to meet their business objectives."
ESPN HD VOD will offer its viewers NCAA men's-basketball coverage highlighting top teams including Connecticut, Duke, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Marquette and North Carolina.
Games from the Big East and Big Ten conference tournaments will air on ESPN HD in March and be made available on-demand, along with the championship game of the Big 12 Tournament.
College-football match-ups that can be made available to viewers with ESPN HD VOD include Tennessee at Auburn, Ohio State at Wisconsin, Miami at Virginia Tech and Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh. Bowl games such as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta or the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., will be made available, as well.
