Yesterday Pitt and Comcast announced a Pitt Panther TV channel.

Pitt and The Comcast Network are proud to announce the launch of Pitt Panthers Television, a breakthrough programming service that will annually present more than 500 additional hours of Pitt athletics coverage to area fans exclusively on The Comcast Network, including live broadcasts of men’s basketball games this season and football coach Dave Wannstedt’s weekly press conferences as well as re-airs of all home football games.

Pitt Panthers Television, which debuts Sept. 21, will also broadcast live football and men’s basketball pre- and postgame shows, women’s basketball games and women’s volleyball games as well as other Olympic sports and original programming. It will also bring rebroadcasts of football and basketball games to Comcast’s Xfinity On Demand platform, allowing Comcast digital customers to enjoy all the Panthers’ great moments whenever they want.

As you would expect it is limited to Western Pennsylvania and some parts of Central PA. It is on channels 188 or 210. As long as you live in the region and are a Comcast subscriber this is a great thing.

The channel will have pre-game and post-game shows for the Miami-Pitt game tomorrow. Rebroadcasts of games will be a big hook.

There will be rebroadcasts of football and men’s basketball games, and they will be available from On Demand. Thursday’s game with Miami will be rebroadcast on Sunday using the PantherVision production and Pitt’s radio call.

Any men’s basketball games that aren’t picked up by other stations (ESPN, CBS, FSN, etc.) will be aired on Pitt television.

So, don’t expect HD.

For the school, the big attraction is also being able to air other sports. Well, essentially,they will be transmitting the signal they use for the sports they air on the All-Access internet feeds.

This sort of thing is part of a trend.

Pederson said other schools in the Big East Conference such as Connecticut and Syracuse have announced similar initiatives, and that it is seemingly the way many athletic departments are headed.

It makes sense. It really doesn’t cost Comcast or any cable provider too much to offer. They have the extra spectrum. The content is already being produced by Pitt’s athletic department. And even most of the advertising sales appears to be handled by Pitt. Really, it’s a no-brainer for both sides.

Of course, for those of us out of the market or with other TV content providers will have to stick to ESPN3.com and All-Access subscriptions for this stuff.