DirecTV to carry GAC's Opry broadcasts

Email | Print By Drew Ruble

08-25-2004 2:53 PM — DirecTV, the nation’s leading digital multichannel television service provider, has responded to an outcry from country music fans across the country who miss seeing Saturday night performances of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry on their televisions.

Until last year Opry performances were broadcast on Country Music Television (CMT), an MTV network that was on most basic cable plans nationwide. When in 2003 Gaylord Entertainment Co., owners of the Grand Ole Opry, struck a deal with CMT’s rival network, Great American Country (GAC), to carry the exclusive live performances from the Grand Ole Opry instead, millions of television viewers across the nation lost their ability to watch the Opry as a result of GAC’s smaller presence in the cable marketplace.

This week DirecTV announced a new agreement with Colorado-based Jones Media Networks, owners of GAC, which is produced here in Nashville, to make the cable channel available through the DirecTV programming package, which features more than 145 channels, and is available nationwide for $40 per month. That programming will make its DIRECTV debut on September 21.

A DirecTV statement issued earlier this week states that in recent months the service provider has received more requests for GAC than any other channel.