ESPN2 HD Inks Deals with DirecTV, Adelphia

[Gregg Lengling]

ESPN will light up ESPN2 HD today, and the sports programmer has agreements with DirecTV and Adelphia for carriage of the new high def sports network.

ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD will offer 82 live events during the first 83 days of 2005 across both services, the sports programmer said. In total, ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD will deliver 300 major events plus 2,000 programs totaling 6,000 hours in high definition in 2005, ESPN said.

All high-definition programming on ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD will be delivered to cable systems and satellite providers in the 720p high-definition format.