After three years of planning, building and negotiating, ESPN was ready earlier this month to reveal the studio for its newest television channel, the ACC Network. A 30-minute teaser was produced, but when the scheduled time to stream it came and went, it became clear the hype-building exercise was a dud.

“In true Live TV form, we’re standing by with technical difficulties,” an ESPN communications staffer wrote on Twitter.

ESPN hopes the actual debut Thursday night goes more to plan.

The channel will be both influential for college sports and anachronistic to many viewers. The Atlantic Coast Conference is the fourth Power Five league with its own dedicated television channel. The venture will be owned by ESPN, which will split expenses and revenue with the A.C.C. Among the top conferences in college sports, only the Big 12 remains on the outside looking in when it comes to the upside of a league-focused network.

Of the Power Five, the A.C.C. distributes the smallest share of money to each member school. The ACC Network should change that, accelerating the arms race in college sports of coaching salaries and ever more opulent facilities even as each school takes on millions in debt from building on-campus studios.