Conference network limitations

[raleighpanther]

Many here dream of our conference getting an ACC network up and running. It will provide the conference and each school with an extra revenue steam. But there are costs and disadvantages too.

The revenue isn't for nothing. TV networks payout large sums of money in exchange for content.

Tonight, the ACC tournament basketball games will be center stage on the main ESPN channel, with Duke/ND and Carolina/ VA. They will be shown nationally, to fans and recruits alike.

At the same time the B10 games will be exclusively on the BTN. Living outside of the B10 footprint, I won't get these games, and neither will most of the country. The B10 can't strong arm the cable companies outside of the B10 into putting their crappy network onto their standard packages, and only serious B10 fans will pay for the network as an extra. So the B10 games will get regional coverage.

A colleague, who is a big U of Texas fan, moved back to Austin several years ago, he complained that even in Texas most people couldn't get the Longhorn Network, so many of Texas' football and basketball games were unavailable in-state. Its gotten better now in Texas, but is still limited outside of the state.

Texas paid a price. Other factors were at play too, but my friend complained that Texas for the first time was losing recruits to A&M, in part because they moved to the SEC, but he also said, in total disbelief, that they were losing recruiting battles with schools like Baylor. He agreed that this was partly due to so many Texas games essentially being blacked out for a couple of years, by being swallowed up and hidden on the Longhorn Network.
The beast had to be fed. Texas gained money through the network, but lost exposure. I know an ACC network is coming, which I suppose is mostly for the best, but these things have their costs.

I don't think it will matter long-term anyway, as the whole way in which sports programming is delivered will likely change in the next 5-7 years, and these networks may become obsolete. Or at least their structure and delivery will change enough to change the whole paradigm and due away with the current type of network contracts.

This post was edited on 3/13 6:33 PM by raleighpanther

 

[deepelemblues]

you're right about things changing

not long after high-speed internet truly saturates the country and is cheap (aka not tied to cable companies) the a la carte model is really going to take off. your tv will stream off the internet if necessary to get you what you want just like your computer does (and some tvs already do as well).

you want to watch just pitt games, you pay X amount per game

you want to watch specialized programming about pitt past the games, you pay Y amount per month or whatever. same thing for any team, or if you want to be able to watch all ACC games, all games + specialized programming for the conference and its teams, pick and choose which teams inside a conference you want to follow, which conferences you want to follow, the whole thing if you want. whatever you can think of in terms of choosing which content you want available, it will be an option eventually. and these prices are going to be fairly cheap too. well not if you want to get everything for every P5 team or something like that, but in general it will be quite affordable.

maybe not 5-7 years for that kind of thing but definitely within a generation

This post was edited on 3/13 9:07 PM by deepelemblues

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

Re: Well, Thought Out, Thank You!

I enjoyed reading your post. Yet, even though the Networks do come with costs, SEC and Pac-12 have produced profits for each school in one year unlike the Big ten taking a tad longer having to pay back some the cost before being given the profits.

The Network Models along with Conference TV Money are built on short term sell out values not long term value. The TV Networks and Cable survival will still survive as they buy the Technology that is still will be regulated and tied to different revenue streams.

The Power Conferences are heading towards a For Profit League that will support the Universities Sports Departments as they do now and more. The NFL is just as concern with keeping Attendance in ever Fan Base getting used to watching the games on various devices not just TV.

There is already and innovative company out there preparing for the demise of the high paying Networks ready to sell out and take their profits. There will always be a Bronfman Billionaire making mistakes by selling DuPont Stake and buying Entertainment Businesses at the wrong time. Or ESPN hiring a 30's CEO that blew off the Big Ten and challenged them to start their own Network and they did and he was fired. But those are the losers of dreaming visions at the wrong time not knowing how new ways to dream will grow but not in the way they thought or dreamt?
http://catdirtsez.blogspot.com/2012/01/fortunes-fool-edgard-bronfman-jr-warner.html

In any event, Popularity of Sports Programing is one of the few areas still growing and that includes streaming because they are TV Episodes of games no one knows until decided, still better than TV Shows designed for hopeful popularity until they fade and have to end.

At one time, TV did re-invent itself like in the 1970's when Mini-Series on Novels took place like Captain and the Kings, Roots, Rich man Poor man, and Able and Cain, but those faded too. Cable came into popularity and they produced series that were more popular and could be seen commercial free and still making money.

Now that concept has gone to streaming and watching the new Shows when, where, and how one wants to se them. New Show Concepts, Content and writing is better than ever. Lilyhammer, Sons of Anarchy, all shows that arew ay better than anything produced on TV right now, except College and NFL Football? PBS is still doing Free Series as well, and all these series can be sold later on CDs, Downloading and Streaming, still giving a Return on Investment but at a longer recovery period!

Arbitron now known as Neilson since they were bought in 2012 does the tracing and ratings. Just like every song that is played anywhere is traced. Here is a link on how they follow and measure TV, Radio, and Streaming and turn them into Ratings. I know of 3 people in the Western Pennsylvania region that are part of the 70,000 that wear this meter and how they follow the Programs and Technology from Electronic Signals. If They ever tell anyone they lose the meters because it is important advertisers and entertainment industries don't find out who the carriers are because they could be targeted and manipulated.
LINK;
http://radio.about.com/od/forprofessionals/a/What-Is-Arbitrons-Portable-People-Meter-And-How-Does-It-Work.htm

In any event, the future will not come from the Shows but the Advertisers Revenues, Technology Innovations, and how people demand to watch, share, or see what they want and this will present more opportunities for artists, novelists, writers and entertainment. It will grow Opportunities for Artists not contract them and the Big record companies will adjust accordingly and some will disappear because the profits will be in ADs and just not Streaming, CDs or MP3.
http://recode.net/2014/04/24/the-future-of-the-music-industry-selling-audiences-to-advertisers/

Yet, when it comes to Sports, Sports Leagues , one will still control the competition and have to play the games to win or lose and that will always make money, how is may change but money will be made, unlike Artists players still need a Team, Team Mates, Organization and Opponents!

In my opinion, everybody is watching what will happen to the Big Ten Network and TV Deals that will be done in 2018. In my opinion, this will touch off another Conference Expansion Contraction and I still have a Hunch that there will be 4 Conferences of 18 to 20 Teams and Eight Team Playoff.

The Big-12 is not sustainable both at 10 Schools and only 5 States, the ACC tied to ESPN Interests due To Swofford's personal conflicts of interest is a vulnerability for the ACC and an Asset for ESPN. As far as I ma concern, each year delayed will cause an ACC School or 2 or 4 will make a jump for the bigger money being made in SEC and the Big Ten. This is perhaps the next move since Five Conferences make less sense than 4 or 6 or 8?

Finally, once it all settles, a For Profit College Football League will be created and many Conferences and Schools will be re-organized within them.

Pitt's Chancellor Gallagher comes from a place of Innovation Vision and he did not make a recommitment to Pitt Sports for no reason and within 4 months of taking over Pitt? Pitt Football can comeback more easily than seeing how Baylor, Missy State, UCLA, and TCU have made it happen. Branding and other ways to build a 10+ Game Winner capable of playing in a National Championship Playoff is just as important as Conference Association and that is going to grow.

This is why it is taking so long to find the right Athletic Director for Pitt, that person has to adjust and meet the same vision Gallagher is going to demand and share with him. Always look at who was named in charged of finding that New Athletic director that will have to be approved by Gallagher?

President Gee was brought back to advance WVU clean up and bump up after dealing with some Academic Alumni Contributors Scandals, being in a New Power Conference, and now advancing WVU in the Big-12.

Penn State President Barron is a clean up Artists of having to deal with split Alumni, Trustees, dumping a legendary coach and Sports Scandals and still won a National Title. (Remember

Pitt on the other hand, is not dealing with such scandals and divisions, but has to prepare and correct the Nordenberg/Pederson rebuilding whose by-product of success in some areas still led to disorganization and disunity of the while planning new innovations to compete in a Power Conference.

Pitt unlike Penn state and WVU has the easier path and stronger leadership vision.

Film schools have waiting lists now and harder than ever to get into due to demand for entertainment, sports is still entertainment. The Marriage of Entertainment Programers are just starting and are in great demand.
Just like many young people are no longer watching the Networks, they are still watching streaming shows, listening to streaming music, and that invites new ways to make money in looking for new ways to dream.

Especially when one can go to them in virtual reality or set up their own leagues. They just invented a Virtual Reality Computer Training System to train QB's to improve reading Defenses. All NFL Teams are leasing them for over $600,000 and Colleges are doing it too.

The bottom line is the way the games are played and bet on, will not change since that outcome is a New TV Show every game, and smart people will figure out better ways to make money regardless of how they come to the people that will demand to watch them or even be in them in a league they develop to bet and win.

So long as they remain popular, the how they will be seen will still make money, and why Schools have to come together and stay together to benefit together among competition. It is not and never has been a game, that is and has been illusionary, it is and always has been a business!

We shall see?

 

[razzaba]

Down here in Raleigh, and I'm assuming most of the rest of ACC country, the tournament games have been blacked out on ESPN and instead broadcast on Raycom/ACC network - which, for us, is on the local CBS affiliate WRAL. Same thing when Duke/UNC play.

Point being, ESPN still chose to broadcast ACC tournament nationally, even though the areas which arguably have the most interest for the tournament, will instead be watching on local TV.

 

[Dr. von Yinzer]

Michigan/Wisconsin was on ESPN yesterday. I had it on in my office while I worked.

 

[raleighpanther]

Yes, they were on in the daytime. But the ACC owned the evening nationally, and the B10 games were on a limited regional network. The B10 is back on network TV again today, so the point is not that they have disappeared altogether. But their exposure is somewhat limited to regional network, due to the content demands of their contract. Secondary ACC games have no regional network to gobble them up, so most are on the an ESPN channel with a national feed.

 

[Dr. von Yinzer]

The SEC semifinals are on ESPN right now. I think that is probably closer to what we could expect than the Big Ten tournament. I hear what you're saying but I don't think it is that big of a deal or disadvantage. Also, I think pit baseball would be helped tremendously but the presence of a television network. ACC baseball is pretty good and getting our spring sports on television would definitely help those programs.

 

[raleighpanther]

Dr. Von, I'm not sure how much baseball programs get helped by these networks, if you mean exposure leads to new recruits. But some of us would enjoy watching Pitt baseball games on an ACC network. So from a fan perspective -- and that is who we all are -- I would support it.

We tend to view these things from a AD perceptive and forget our own fan perspective. I'm sure there were some Texas fans that were really happy when their school sold out to ESPN for the Longhorn network because of the extra money for the program, despite the fact that fewer games would be available on the usual TV channels for them to watch.