WABI-TV Channel 5 in Bangor will televise two University of Maine football games beginning with Saturday’s home opener against the University of Rhode Island.
The broadcasts were made possible through a contract with the American Sports Network, a subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group that owns 164 television stations in 79 markets across the country.
Sinclair doesn’t own a station in the Bangor market.
American Sports Network will produce the games and provide the on-air talent. The other game is the Nov. 7 home game (7 p.m.) against Towson.
WABI-TV Channel 5 will produce a half-hour pregame show hosted by Tim Throckmorton beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday. He is the longtime Channel 5 sports director and anchor.
The Black Bears, 0-2 after losses to Football Bowl Subdivision teams Boston College and Tulane, will be on television six times this season.
ABC-TV Channel 7 in Bangor is televising three home games: Oct. 17 vs. Yale, Oct. 24 vs. Stony Brook and Nov. 14 vs. Elon.
NBC Sports Network will air the Oct. 31 game at Villanova.
Mike Young, WABI’s general manager, said they hooked up with American Sports Network for two Maine football road games a year ago and have developed a healthy relationship.
“They’re great to work with,” said Young. “They’re an outstanding company. Their production values are superb. They use the very best and latest broadcast technology. And it’s all in high definition.
“The [on-air] talent is awesome and the camera angles and graphics are superb,” added Young.
American Sports Network and WABI each will secure income from the sale of advertising, and WABI also has cleared weekend late night/early morning air time on its affiliate, the CW, for televising Ring of Honor professional wrestling as part of their agreement.
“There is significant interest in wrestling among the viewers that we serve,” said Young, who hopes to continue the relationship with American Sports Network for sports programming.
In addition to its agreement with WABI, the American Sports Network has consummated a two-year deal with Hockey East.
American Sports Network will televise 13 games this season involving Hockey East teams along with the Hockey East women’s championship game.
That package begins with an Oct. 23 nonconference matchup pitting Hockey East’s Notre Dame against Minnesota-Duluth of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.
Maine will appear on one American Sports Network game, 5 p.m. Nov. 15 against UMass Lowell.
American Sports Network also air several other Division I college hockey games.
There will be Friday night doubleheaders that involve Hockey East teams in the 6 p.m. opener. Those will be followed by 9 p.m. contests featuring western schools.
“Hockey East is excited about joining with the American Sports Network to bring the best of college hockey to fans across the country,” Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna said in a press release. “This innovative package marks a major step for our sport in how we promote our game. We look forward to a long relationship with [American Sports Network].”
Brian Smith, director of communications for Hockey East, said there won’t be exclusivity rights with American Sports Network games as there were with games that were televised by the New England Sports Network.
If NESN was televising a Hockey East game as part of the deal with the league, other Hockey East games couldn’t be shown on other networks.
“The schools will have a lot more flexibility now and they are out making their own TV deals,” said Smith.
He also said they are negotiating with NESN in the hope of maintaining a working agreement with the network.