Ski Channel Reaches RCN Carriage Pact

The Ski Channel has secured a long-term distribution deal with with cable company RCN, the network's chairman, Steve Bellamy, plans to announce Monday (Dec. 14).

According to Bellamy, RCN will add the channel to its VOD lineup in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Lehigh Valley, New York, and Washington systems.

The channel last month announced a deal with Dish Network that expanded its reach to 21 million, and had signaled another deal was in the pipeline to take it to over 25 million.

Ski Channel launched Christmas Day 2008 with long-term carriage deals from DirecTV and Verizon, as well as distribution on systems owned by Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks. It now also has deals with Cablevision, and AT&T's U-Verse.

Ski Channel is an ad-supported free, digital VOD channel that extends beyond skiing to a bevy of other sports, including hiking and biking and snowboarding.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.