August 22, 2007
A Mtn of trouble
BYU and Utah have set aside their epic rivalry to hire an Olympian lawyer to review their TV contracts with the aim of increasing their national visibility. The rest of the MWC joined them to form a unified voice.
Like C-USA, the MWC has primary television contracts with CSTV and VERSUS. Where C-USA maintained its prior arrangements with ESPN, the MWC launched the first ever cable network devoted to a single conference last year, “The Mtn” (pronounced “the mountain”)
The instigating issue is that fans in southern Utah are unable to get The Mtn, thus missing many BYU, Utah and UNLV games they are accustomed to seeing. The MWC rebuttal can be found here. Maybe I’m a bit cynical but the dollars are tied to the lack of national coverage, and St. George Utah just isn’t that big of a market.
When asked by me by e-mail about “the feasibility of selling rights to ESPN Gameplan to air games with blackouts in MWC markets” The Mtn responded with “At this stage, there are no plans to sell rights to ESPN. If you have further specific questions for your article, please email them back so that we may answer them for you. We like hearing from fans, viewers, and MWC supporters.”
Reading between the lines it appears that if The Mtn does not get picked up by a satellite network by next year they will be out of a conference, and all of its programming. It is reasonable to think that the satellite networks are waiting to see the results of the Big Ten Network which launches August 30th, becoming the second network devoted to an NCAA conference.
The SEC is considering a network of their own, pending the success of the Big Ten Network. If this happens other conferences would follow suit and The Mtn would likely get picked by satellite networks in the frenzy to catch the new wave of conference devoted sites.
Conference specific networks allow conferences more control over scheduling the dates and times of games. They also allow conferences to feature games that the national media would often ignore, maybe by replaying them later that week. They allow other sports to get air time that they would not otherwise get, which could lead to increased fan interest in other sports as well. The Mtn covers all MWC championships, not just football basketball and baseball. The Big Ten Network plans to do the same.
The down side is that national markets are bought into ESPN hook line and sinker, and even ESPN is having trouble introducing new sports channels. With ESPN featuring round the clock commentary and sports like the World Series of Poker wouldn’t it be refreshing to have sports networks run by the NCAA conferences trying to feature their athletes for a change?
I am looking forward to seeing the results of the Big Ten Network experiment several times this year at my favorite unnamed Panama City Beach sports bar. (If the owners of said sports bar are reading this, offer me a price for advertising, and I will discuss it with Kevin Donohue)
Comments:
Candace Salima said:
posted on August 22, 2007 11:42 AM — 72.8.73.44 — link — abuse?
Precisely what Brad Smith of the 1984 National Championship team said when I interviewed for my book, 13 and 0: Reflections of Champions.
1. The BCS monopoly needs to be broken.
2. I HATE the Mountain West network. Hate it, hate it, hate it! We have to pay extra on our cable just to get it. I think BYU and Utah are right to take this issue to court. Denying fans the right to watch games they've always watched so the stupid conference can have more dollars in their pockets is incredibly wrong!
3. The others following suit is a terrible idea, I think. What was once such a fun thing now is a power play by the big boys as everyone jockeys for more money in their pockets and to heck with the fans!
As a fan myself and with four nephews on this year's team, I will be enraged if I am unable to watch their games on television. I blogged about my boys the other day, BYU Cougars Rock!. I'm so proud of them and this nonsense just makes me crazy.
posted on August 22, 2007 1:16 PM — link — abuse?Kevin Donahue said:
Ben - Tell 'em to set up the comp pitchers and we'll plug em all day long! ;)
joninaz said:
posted on August 22, 2007 3:01 PM — 68.110.73.232 — link — abuse?
The MWC has a decent footprint - San Diego, NV, NM, CO, WY, UT, and Dalls/Ft. Worth to begin with. These aren't the largest TV markets by far, but they are loyal to their local teams. I went to Colorado State but now live in Arizona along with 10,000 other CSU alumni and would switch TV service to whomever picked up the channel. I don't know how many others would, but even if 5000 did nationally, that's about $6 million in new annual revenue for Dish or DirecTV. I'm guessing the number of switchers would be higher, simply based on the number of combined alumns from all schools - there's one petition in Utah with over 10,000 signees. Also keep in mind that BYU is the flagship university for a pretty big religion and Air Force represents a big arm of our military.
Duck said:
posted on August 22, 2007 8:14 PM — 64.122.40.19 — link — abuse?
TrojanHorse:
Once you travel outside your bubble called California, you will notice that there are quite a few sizeable markets in the MWC. Salt Lake City is just as big as Las Vegas and San Diego is a sizeable market as well. You should also know that BYU is a church-owned school and has a good following from members of the LDS church (see Notre Dame for a similar example, even though BYU doesn't have the numbers of Notre Dame).
Therefore, there are plenty of people who would be interested in having access to the MTN.
posted on August 23, 2007 9:11 AM — 150.176.192.1 — link — abuse?
#1) You forgot Dallas/Ft Worth and Denver
While I agree that MWC has a much smaller fingerprint than the SEC, they also have intense fan loyalty. Remember Utah sold extra tickets for the Fiesta Bowl after Pittsburgh was unable to sell all of theirs.
#2) If you read the first sentence of my article and follow the links that is what they have done.
#3) At least we agree on the state of the BCS. I am a Utah Man, and will be 'til I Die!
#4) Can do!
#5) BYU already has its own network on satellite; although it is often filled with religious and educational material it does feature prominent BYU athletics.
#6) By the standards used to judge the MWC markets in #1 the PAC 10 has only one market, LA. Let us remember that LA, the largest market, can't even support one NFL team, despite a population indicating it should be able to maintain two.
College football in Salt Lake City, and the South East for that matter, is bigger than the NFL.
I believe the Big Ten Network will exceed the expectations of the satellite providers and a wave of conference networks will form.
The MWC will likely have a bad year for coverage, but a two year head start in organization and programming experience.
By all accounts they provide a quality product; it is the distribution that is criticized.
College Pigskin Fan said:
posted on August 23, 2007 7:33 PM — 4.244.209.209 — link — abuse?
This falls into the category of "the first step that leads to the next step". For the most part the Mountain West Conference is screwed for TV time with a major network.
ABC/ESPN and ESPN 2 is on overcrowd with the Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big East, and now they just inked a deal with the Big 12 and I think the PAC 10.
CBS has the SEC, and I haven't heard anything about them covering another conference.
NBC has Notre Dame, and I know they won't expand since they are thinking big for their next sports contract.
TBS dropped the Big 12 and PAC 10 to clear up money and air time for Major League Baseball playoffs.
Unless the Mountain West gets a contract with FOX Sports Net Rocky Mountain, West, Southwest combo type of coverage, they don't have much to go with. I don't see FOX using FX as a sports carrier, even though it would be a good idea since, for the most part, it's a repeat channel.
Hopefully they can get something worked out for themselves, otherwise they might have to hire a JP Sports type of company, and resort to syndication for their home games.
Candace Salima said:
posted on August 24, 2007 10:03 AM — 72.8.73.44 — link — abuse?
I am going to be completely ENRAGED if I am not able to see any one of the BYU games this year. I am a Direct TV customer and I moved from Dish for a reason. (Some shmuck hacked into our count and fulfilled his very sick fantasy of having porn 24/7 and it ended up on our bill. Okay, I won't finish the story, my husband about burst a blood vessel when dealing with the situation.) So, I wouldn't go back to Dish for any reason.
If the MWC contracted with The Mtn (what a stupid name) they should have made sure all their fans could see the games.
I'm still on a quest to find a friend who is still on Comcast for Saturday's game.
Clay said:
posted on August 24, 2007 11:32 AM — 67.138.52.207 — link — abuse?
Although the LDS church has its own TV station, it doesn't show football games live. In fact, last year I couldn't find any of the BYU games from 2006-07 on BYUTV - live or delayed. The prominent BYU games you refer to are old games like the 1984 Holiday Bowl that they show a few times every year.
The only reason I can figure is that they are under contract with the mtn to NOT show any mtn games in order to cause fan outrage to the satelite and cable providers. Problem is that all my phone calls to Dish Network have done nothing.
On a side note, I cannot figure out why the Colorado State vs. BYU game last year on Fox Sports - Colorado was blacked out since I'm in Idaho Falls and Colorado IS my local Fox Sports channel. The Dish Network customer service rep. with a strong Indian accent could not explain it to me. He kept on telling me that it's not my local Fox Sports affiliate. Lies!
It's all about the $$$.
FSU fan said:
posted on August 24, 2007 5:22 PM — 76.3.15.20 — link — abuse?
I'm not sure this is such a good idea, in the south east we watch a lot of games on TV. I mean you go to the games in person and bring hand helds to watch the other games going on in other conferences. You watch the games at tail gate parties while you wait for yours to start. You watch two or three ball games at once! What I'm wondering is does this mean we can't watch multiple games without multiple premium networks? ACC fans have to have the SEC and BIG 10 channel to get the rest of worthwhile east coast football? And now I can't watch a Big Least game when nothing else is on because I sure as hell would not pay for that! I would never see any mid major (C-USA, MWC, MAC etc.) games unless I'm at a sports bar or something? Will standard networks carry the games people want to see still? I don't really know what all this means but I sure don't like the sound of it!
FSU fan said:
posted on August 24, 2007 5:22 PM — 76.3.15.20 — link — abuse?
I'm not sure this is such a good idea, in the south east we watch a lot of games on TV. I mean you go to the games in person and bring hand helds to watch the other games going on in other conferences. You watch the games at tail gate parties while you wait for yours to start. You watch two or three ball games at once! What I'm wondering is does this mean we can't watch multiple games without multiple premium networks? ACC fans have to have the SEC and BIG 10 channel to get the rest of worthwhile east coast football? And now I can't watch a Big Least game when nothing else is on because I sure as hell would not pay for that! I would never see any mid major (C-USA, MWC, MAC etc.) games unless I'm at a sports bar or something? Will standard networks carry the games people want to see still? I don't really know what all this means but I sure don't like the sound of it!
Zac said:
posted on August 25, 2007 9:26 PM — 64.12.116.136 — link — abuse?
Ya know what bothers me about stuff like this? Stuff like this, not to mention stuff like ESPN "Game Plan" is nothing more than a prelude to Pay-Per-View. Before long you'll have to pay for every game you wanna watch on TV, not to mention the CF NC & the Super Bowl. What really torques me is when they black out a game within the market where the game is played, as if they have to, in order to lure the fans to see the game live. When I think of the major programs which consistently sell-out or nearly sell out their games week after week, it stinks to think TV treats the rest of the fans in that area that way.
jeremy said:
posted on August 27, 2007 2:09 PM — 67.177.37.111 — link — abuse?
The second year and The Mtn. is still not on any dish network, its a joke. Comcast 'claims' they would get more money by being picked up by a dish service. Comcast is in a no lose situation, because if they keep it how it is they get people to switch to comcast and become paying subscribers, or comcast gets money by having the Mtn. distributed on dish networks. The concept is great, but this is year 2 of minimal football coverage if you dont have the mtn. Also, in Texas where TCU is located and has shot at bcs game, the Mtn. has ZERO coverage in the state.
Candace Salima said:
posted on August 28, 2007 2:20 PM — 72.8.73.44 — link — abuse?
Thought I'd mention that my husband and I, along with Dick Harmon are speaking at the Legends grill on Friday night, 6:30 to the Cougarnet folks and the Athletic hosts. Should be fun --
Ross said:
posted on September 3, 2007 1:43 AM — 69.92.213.156 — link — abuse?
Contract deals, network greed, major sports carriers...yup, life is great if you're a student at a 1-AA university in a small conference (Idaho State University, BigSky). We only have to deal with Altitude and BigSkyTV. Have fun with the big guys!
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TrojanHorse said:
posted on August 22, 2007 10:53 AM — 132.228.195.206 — link — abuse?You know if this was a BCS type conference I'd care.. otherwise the MWC just doesn't have any markets of interest besides LAS.
I hope the P10 gets a channel as that would suit me fine but again, outside of L.A. and the Bay area, there are not many huge markets.. but come to think of it what are the major markets in the SEC besides maybe ATL?