Approximately 1 million more households will be able to catch Charlotte Bobcats games this season, as SportSouth has reached an agreement with multiple service providers in the area to provide the network for no extra charge to the cable companies.

Head of SportSouth Jeff Genthner said the pool of potential viewers will grow from 1.87 million last season to 2.8 million this season.

“We’re almost now at the point where anyone who lives in North or South Carolina will have access to Bobcats games through some (television) provider – cable, satellite or telephone. At least one,” Genthner told the Charlotte Observer. “Now any holes only exist to the extent of someone’s willingness or unwillingness to change service providers.”

In past seasons, viewers in areas as close to the stadium as Rock Hill and Lake Norman couldn’t watch games because networks refused to pay surcharges to carry the regional Fox Sports network. Bobcats President Fred Whitfield said this was especially frustrating to season ticket holders who could not watch road games.

The Bobcats broadcasting rights have been unstable since the team’s inception in 2004. First, then-owner Bob Johnson began C-SET, a network that stayed afloat for only one year before Time Warner got exclusive rights to the regular season games. SouthSport has had media rights to the franchise since 2008.

Whitfield said the team’s ultimate goal is to provide all of its games to viewers in North and South Carolina, and this progression is a step in the right direction.