Football is over, our hoops team sucks, so let the speculation threads begin!

Seriously though, what are your predictions for the new C-USA TV deal that will be negotiated soon?

I think it's clear that CBS no longer has an interest in C-USA. I'd like to see..
Tier 1- FOX
Tier 2- ESPN
(or a collaborative effort between the two, Fox pick, ESPN pick, Fox pick, ESPN pick, etc. etc.)
Tier 3- ASN

And any games not picked up by those 3 get put on ESPN3.

Any chance of that set up?

(01-16-2015 07:59 AM)MUsince96 Wrote:  Football is over, our hoops team sucks, so let the speculation threads begin!

Seriously though, what are your predictions for the new C-USA TV deal that will be negotiated soon?

I think it's clear that CBS no longer has an interest in C-USA. I'd like to see..
Tier 1- FOX
Tier 2- ESPN
(or a collaborative effort between the two, Fox pick, ESPN pick, Fox pick, ESPN pick, etc. etc.)
Tier 3- ASN

And any games not picked up by those 3 get put on ESPN3.

Any chance of that set up?

Fox yes, espn probably not. Espn already has so much live sports on contract that they sell some of it off to cbs sports, AAC games in particular. I think espn might be interested in a small package of mid-week games but C-USA schools have not shown any interest in doing that. Espn also might make an offer just to put our games on the shelf (espn3) as they have done with other conferences.

I think our best chances at a decent contract would be an inventory grab by Fox. I believe it was arkstfan that also had this opinion. We should brace ourselves for the tv contract because it might surprise us in either direction.

If nbc sports decided to get a portion of our inventory, that would help.

ASN will want a lot of inventory but I would think they would offer very little $ but I don't know for sure.

We still have just over a year before a new contract would need to be in place. We will have a clue on what the potential media partners want if we see a replacement named for UAB. If no one is named, that indicates to me that we are tightening our belts and don't see a good media deal. If we do replace and then add more schools on top of that, I believe that indicates that our media partners, particularly Fox, want inventory and are willing to make it worth our while. JMHO.

I am happy most WKU games are on FCS due to our students...Still would like to see us on NBCSPorts Network....I think both FS1 and CBSSN, those networks have moved on from CUSA..I thought we would have games on FS2, but apparently that station is worthless right now...

Why is CBSSports not interested in CUSA? Please explain becasue I love their coverage.

(01-16-2015 09:14 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  Why is CBSSports not interested in CUSA? Please explain becasue I love their coverage.

They already have inventory from the MWC plus espn sells them (likely inexpensively) AAC games that espn does not use. So cbssports apparently has no incentive to buy more C-USA games.

Cbssports also has contracts with Army and Navy.

NBC was interested in the American, and I hope we can make a deal with them. NBC + Fox + ASN could be a good deal. My main concern is the weakness of CUSA basketball currently. It's not a good time to likely be a 1 bid league.

I don't want this to turn into an expansion thread, but there is a great hoops name out there we could add that would bring value to the new TV deal.

Can someone remind me what our previous TV deal was (what companies, dollar payout, length of contract, etc.)?

(01-16-2015 10:20 AM)RedParallax Wrote:  Can someone remind me what our previous TV deal was (what companies, dollar payout, length of contract, etc.)?

Fox and CBS with ESPN owning the rights to the football championship game.

Total was $14 million, or $1 million per team after expansion to 14 teams.

I don't know the length of the contract.

(01-16-2015 10:28 AM)Niner National Wrote:  

(01-16-2015 10:20 AM)RedParallax Wrote:  Can someone remind me what our previous TV deal was (what companies, dollar payout, length of contract, etc.)?

Fox and CBS with ESPN owning the rights to the football championship game.

Total was $14 million, or $1 million per team after expansion to 14 teams.

I don't know the length of the contract.

So that was the TOTAL payout or the annual payout? That sounds like an annual payout of $1m per team.

(01-16-2015 10:38 AM)RedParallax Wrote:  

(01-16-2015 10:28 AM)Niner National Wrote:  

(01-16-2015 10:20 AM)RedParallax Wrote:  Can someone remind me what our previous TV deal was (what companies, dollar payout, length of contract, etc.)?

Fox and CBS with ESPN owning the rights to the football championship game.

Total was $14 million, or $1 million per team after expansion to 14 teams.

I don't know the length of the contract.

So that was the TOTAL payout or the annual payout? That sounds like an annual payout of $1m per team.

That is correct. It was $14 million per year over seven IIRC, but C-USA was a 12-team league when the original deal was signed.

I've had some contacts at a couple of the networks over the years (won't disclose which ones as they have been very good sources for me personally), and I'm getting the sense there is a lot less certainty about how this next round is going to play out.

That said, the Tier 1 and 2 deal we are currently under was basically co-tier 1 between Fox and CBS, but as has been pointed out already CBS has basically pulled a majority of their broadcasts of the league (you know once Western came into the league

As I pointed out back in the fall, the American partnership has been a trial run that I think is without question going to be part of the next deal given how well that has worked so far for us. Hopefully, they don't go out of business, because I'm not sure their model is financially stable. Case in point take note when you watch one of the games on ASN how much of the ad time is given public service announcements. Those PSA's are almost always not paid slots. I hope and suspect that's largely due to being so new and not having time to sell those spots, but they have a lot of work to do there.

Going forward I would not be surprised to see a similar arrangement where we have a shared tier 1 deal between one of the networks and ASN. I don't believe ASN is tier 3 in the next deal. I believe they are Tier 2 at a minimum and possibly a co-number 1 tier. And that could be great for us in terms of access to being able to see our games but could be problematic for us on the financial end of that spectrum. Unfortunately, exposure is going to remain a huge problem for the league because most college football is watched on ESPN. A MAC game on a Tuesday night is going to draw higher ratings than if we're on FS1 in the primetime slot on Saturday night. I call it the bar effect. Every bar, frathouse, and Joe Blow College fan automatically clicks an ESPN channel regardless if they have a specific interest in the game or not.

So, I see either Fox or NBC bidding to become our Tier 1 though I view both as an enigma as they would rather show a UFC rerun or taped body building event rather than live college football games, which I just have a hard time understanding the rationale with that. And I believe NBC will want it but will not want to throw the money at it. Fox is much more willing to overpay and then stick a bunch of games on regional networks, so for that reason I suspect we get Fox as a Tier 1 with the ASN as a close Tier 2 though with little financial benefits tied to it and then we're probably looking at schools doing their own thing for any Tier 3 options. I don't believe there is going to be a market for that unless ASN slips down to that.

At this point I'm hoping we just maintain $1 million per school payout, which might be tough. The P5 vs. G5 nomenclature has really hurt us in that regard more than I was expecting a few years ago.

I want to add that if we hear of a new deal early, before we are open to dealing with those outside our current contracts, that should mean we have a reasonably good offer and won't be going on the open market for bids.

Miner what would you consider early? I know negotiations are already ongoing. I expect a new deal to be announced before the end of the summer.

(01-16-2015 09:24 AM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote:  

(01-16-2015 09:14 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  Why is CBSSports not interested in CUSA? Please explain becasue I love their coverage.

They already have inventory from the MWC plus espn sells them (likely inexpensively) AAC games that espn does not use. So cbssports apparently has no incentive to buy more C-USA games.

Cbssports also has contracts with Army and Navy.

Add OVC games also to your list...I have noticed more OVC games on national TV than CUSA games this season...

Quote:Hopefully, they don't go out of business, because I'm not sure their model is financially stable. Case in point take note when you watch one of the games on ASN how much of the ad time is given public service announcements.

Almost every commercial slot in an ASN broadcast is an Ad Council ad. My understanding is that those ads generate zero revenue for the broadcaster, or maybe avery small mount in a few limited cases. Financially, they are on par with a "house ad" - which is an in house ad for a broadcaster or publisher for their own shows/publications. That's just filler for when the space wasnt sold.

That said, I was under the impression that CUSA and the other conferences ASN works with were paying their production costs. If so, that eases the burden a good bit. Still, and this is sad, if you are a CUSA fan, you should do a little fist pump anytime you see (whichever current annoying ad Geico is running) appear in an ASN game, because at least they are making some money and are that much closer to being around next season.

(01-16-2015 11:29 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  Miner what would you consider early? I know negotiations are already ongoing. I expect a new deal to be announced before the end of the summer.

It depends on what our contracts with Fox and cbs say about first dibs on negotiations. The dust up with espn on that issue, which was settled out of court, would be a good reason to stay within the wording of the contract, which I'm not privy to. I doubt that first negotiating rights are over by this summer but I don't know for sure. You probably know more about those types of clauses than I do. Our current contracts are not completed until a year from this May or June.

It could drag on no doubt. I believe there will be incentive to get a deal done soon to capitalize on the season we had this year.

I know Fox Sports is national, but from a personal view perspective, NBCSports is pretty good and has great availability in the mid atlantic. I also see ASN sell some of their games to the MASN network up here, which isnt bad because they have pretty good viewership and probably more sports fans. I wouldnt mind seeing NBCSports be a bigger part of the mix, along with ESPN or FOX (but Fox needs to show more CUSA games if they are our flagship station) and ASN. Ive been happy with the production and availability of ASN.