Cox cable picks up LHN

But third-largest cable provider doesn’t serve Central Texas.

The good news: Cox Communications has picked up the elusive Longhorn Network.

The bad news: The nation’s third-largest cable provider doesn’t serve Central Texas.

The deal, signed Thursday, makes the ESPN-run Longhorn Network accessible to about 6 million additional customers nationwide. Terms of the multiyear contract between Cox Communications and the Walt Disney Co., which owns ESPN, weren’t disclosed.

Cox Communications is a division of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, parent company of the American-Statesman. It offers cable, Internet and phone services in cities including: Cleveland; Las Vegas; New Orleans; Omaha, Neb.; Roanoke, Va.; San Diego; Tucson, Ariz.; and Tulsa, Okla.

Several other channels are also covered by the agreement, including ABC Family, the Disney Channel, Disney Junior, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNEWS. Many networks will be accessible online and via smartphones and tablets.

“We’re enabling our customers to access their favorite news, sports and entertainment video content whenever and wherever they want it,” said Mark Greatrex, a Cox Communications senior vice president.

In the Austin area, the Longhorn Network is available to AT&T U-verse and Grande Communications subscribers. Elsewhere, Cablevision, Google Fiber, Verizon FiOS and several small cable systems in East Texas carry the network, launched in fall 2011.

Time Warner Cable, the largest cable provider in Central Texas, has yet to pick up Longhorn Network. Dish Network and DirecTV don’t carry the network, either.

Channels 609 and 1609 (HD)

Channels 29 and 829 (HD)