ROOT SPORTS and the Houston Astros are now streaming in-market Astros games for authenticated pay TV subscribers. As part of an agreement with MLBAM (MLB Advanced Media), Astros games will stream at no additional cost to authenticated pay TV subscribers of ROOT SPORTS distribution affiliates who have chosen to participate including DIRECTV and Consolidated Communications. Streaming will also be available for AT&T U-Verse subscribers soon. Fans can find the Astros broadcast schedule at www.astros.com/broadcast. <o:p>
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"This is an important step for ROOT SPORTS and great news for Astros fans," said Patrick Crumb, president of AT&T Sports Networks, which owns and operates ROOT SPORTS. "We will continue to work toward expanding our streaming rights portfolio so fans will have additional ways to watch the sports content they love." <o:p>
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"We are excited our fans now have increased flexibility and access to Houston Astros broadcasts," said Reid Ryan, Astros President of Business Operations. "We appreciate the efforts our partner ROOT SPORTS has made to improve the accessibility of our games for our fans and look forward to reaching an even greater number of distribution affiliates for both broadcast and streaming in the future."<o:p>
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AT&T Sports Networks' addition of Astros authenticated in-market streaming rights is part of its ongoing effort to make sports content available to fans in new and convenient ways.<o:p>
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To stream Astros games, viewers must be current customers with one of the authenticated ROOT SPORTS distributors and subscribe to a level of service that includes the regional sports network. For the 2017 season, games will be made available to the distributors to stream to their authenticated customers and MLBAM will authenticate ROOT SPORTS viewers on MLB.com, HoustonAstros.com and MLB At Bat, as ROOT SPORTS continues to develop a platform of their own to deliver the games to viewers. <o:p>
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ABOUT ROOT SPORTS SOUTHWEST:<o:p>
ROOT SPORTS Southwest is the television home of MLB's Houston Astros and NBA's Houston Rockets. The network reaches approximately 4.2 million households across five states including Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas and parts of New Mexico and delivers more than 250 live events each year - all of which are available in high definition. ROOT SPORTS Southwest is owned and operated by AT&T Sports Networks, which operates regional sports networks in the Northwest, Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain and Southwest regions. The four networks combined reach approximately 13 million households across 22 states and own exclusive rights to produce and distribute live events from more than 25 teams and conferences. <o:p>
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