Wednesday, July 27, 2011

College Football on Fox Sports Detroit for September 2011

Received an email confirming the live football telecasts that Fox Sports Detroit will have for September 2011.  In short, they'll have all the FSN games live on the main channel, with the 12pm SEC Network games shown on the plus/alternate channel.

9/1 8 pm, Mississippi State at Memphis
9/3 12 pm, Miami (OH) at Missouri
9/3 12 pm, Kent State at Alabama (FS PLUS)
9/3 3:30 pm, UCLA at Houston
9/3 10 pm, Louisiana Tech at Southern Miss
9/4 7:30 pm, SMU at Texas A&M
9/10 12 pm, Iowa at Iowa State
9/10 12 pm, Mississippi State at Auburn (FS PLUS)
9/10 3:30 pm, Virginia Tech at East Carolina
9/10 7 pm, UTEP at SMU
9/17 12 pm, Ole Miss at Vanderbilt (FS PLUS)
9/17 1:30 pm, Colorado State at Colorado
9/17 10 pm, Oklahoma State at Tulsa
9/24 12 pm, SMU at Memphis
9/24 12 pm, SEC Game TBD (FS PLUS)
9/24 3:30 pm, PAC-12 Game TBD

Friday, July 22, 2011

1st 3 Weeks of CFB on Fox Sports South & SportSouth

Received this from Fox Sports South this morning.  All times Eastern.  Most of the national FSN games have been pushed to SportSouth, while FSSouth gets the regional ACC & SEC packages.

Thu 9/1/2011 Mississippi State @ Memphis 8:00 PM SPSO
Sat 9/3/2011 Miami (OH) @ Missouri 12:00 PM SPSO
Sat 9/3/2011 UCLA @ Houston 3:30 PM SPSO
Sat 9/3/2011 James Madison @ North Carolina 3:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/3/2011 East Carolina vs South Carolina 7:00 PM FSSO
Sat 9/3/2011 Louisiana Tech @ Southern Miss 10:00 PM SPSO
Sun 9/4/2011 SMU @ Texas A&M 7:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/10/2011 Iowa @ Iowa State 12:00 PM SPSO
Sat 9/10/2011 NC State @ Wake Forest 3:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/10/2011 Virginia Tech @ East Carolina 3:30 PM SPSO
Sat 9/10/2011 UAB @ Florida 7:00 PM FSSO
Sat 9/17/2011 Kansas @ Georgia Tech 12:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/17/2011 Colorado State @ Colorado 1:30 PM SPSO
Sat 9/17/2011 Arkansas State @ Virginia Tech 4:00 PM FSSO
Sat 9/17/2011 North Texas @ Alabama 7:30 PM FSSO
Sat 9/17/2011 Oklahoma State @ Tulsa 10:00 PM SPSO

Remember that Fox Sports Carolinas & Fox Sports Tennessee are subfeeds of Fox Sports South.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Schedule Stuff & Media Days

* Media days for conferences and independent schools start today with the BYU media day on BYUtv and ESPN3.com.  ESPNU will also carry coverage of the SEC (7/20-7/22), Pac-12 (7/27, taped from 7/26), Big East (8/2) and whip-around coverage on 7/25 & 7/26, which should cover the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 and possibly coverage from the MAC & MWC.  ESPN3.com will simulcast all ESPNU coverage.

I'm unsure if its been confirmed, but I'll be surprised if the Big Ten's media days are not covered by BTN on 7/28 & 7/29.

* ABC will have five 12pm ET windows in 2011, four on Saturdays and one on Black Friday.  Three of the five windows have games attached to them (9/17: Auburn at Clemson, 10/8: Oklahoma vs. Texas, 11/25: Nebraska at Iowa).  The other two windows are on 9/24 and 11/26.  11/26 is very likely to be the Ohio St.-Michigan game and the 9/24 game could be one of two Big East games that are marked for TV on an ABC/ESPN platform (Notre Dame at Pittsburgh or LSU at West Virginia).

* FSN is extremely stretched this year with the addition of C-USA to its roster nationally and the ACC on a regional basis.  Next year the load could be lighter as all Pac-12 content will move to F/X.   An early casualty, regionally, is the Southern Conference who closed a deal with public broadcasting entities in NC, SC and GA.  When the SEC moved on to CSS, several SoCon games moved from CSS to local TV, so this isn't much of a surprise.

But the SoCon deal with public TV isn't as viewable as some would make it out to be.  A poster on the506.com (a great place for all things sports and TV) noted that the games would appear on digital subchannels, not on the main channels of these public broadcasters.  Could mean that an extra digital tier might need to be purchased on cable for the games.  Satellite folks could be out-of-luck as subchannels aren't required to be carried as part of "must carry" laws and very few appear on these systems, usually only those that are Big Four affiliates.

* CBS Sports Network's new deal with the Patriot League will give the network a foothold in the "Championship Week" arena with its 1st conference championship.  The conference will also have a national outlet for at least two football games per year, which puts it ahead of more prestigious FCS conferences like the Big Sky, CAA and SoCon.  At this time, only the Ivy League places more games on a national network with their package of games on Versus.

* The move of the Air Force-Navy game to CBS on 10/1 was a great move.  Too bad CBS allowed Versus to have the rights to Army-Air Force.  Would make great sense, and be a very cool gesture, to have the three Commander-in-Chief's games on network television.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Longhorn Network, ESPN's use of HD & Pac-12 Network

ESPN's use of HD

This revolves around the GamePlan package and reverse mirror games that usually occur at 3:30pm with a Big Ten game and on occasion at 8pm.  The good news is that it appears that ESPN plans to make both reverse mirror games available in HD to 100% of the nation.  Previously, it would depend on how widely distributed a game would be on ABC and subsequently on ESPN.  It would take me a long time to explain, but the rule of thumb used to be if a game would be seen by over 50% of the nation on ABC, it would not be in HD on ESPN.  Now ESPN's plan is to make everything available in HD for these situations.

Item #2 revolves around the GamePlan package, which will not be in HD this year.  I have not subscribed to GamePlan in several years, using ESPN3.com and regional sports networks to fill in the gaps.  I do realize that this upsets some people, particularly those who do not have the ESPN3.com option or go to bars/restaurants to watch games. 

All courtesy of this Twitter exchange.

Longhorn Network

It came out yesterday that the opener vs. Rice would officially be the 1st live football game on the Longhorn Network.  The item that was somewhat surprising, though alluded to by John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, is that the network will air a 2nd Texas game and it will be a Big 12 conference game.

Based on several tweets and discussions yesterday, this is what we know:
  • FOX received some form of special considerations for allowing the 2nd LHN game.  It could be that FOX will leapfrog ABC in the selection order a certain number of times during the season for a premium game on F/X or FSN and/or that FOX Network will be able to air a Big 12 game or two.
  • Any game on Longhorn Network beyond the initial game that is set aside for them to air, as per the new media deal starting next year, will come out of ABC's rights agreement.  But ESPN had to work with FOX to get any games for 2011.  This means that ABC could air 15 Big 12 games as a maximum in 2011.  ABC is contracted for 18 games and when Texas-Texas A&M appears on ESPN, it counts towards the 18 games.
  • The current deal with ABC allows for a team to appear on ABC no more than six times as part of the contract.  Since both Longhorn Network games come out of ABC's pool, plus ESPN has set aside the Baylor (ABC), Oklahoma (ABC) and Texas A&M (ESPN) games, ABC will likely have only one other Texas game as part of the Big 12 contract (ie. excluding their appearance at UCLA).
  • Texas can still appear on ESPN as part of games sublicensed from FOX, such as the BYU game.  Those do not count towards appearances from the ABC contract.
  • These games will not be available on ESPN3.com
What we don't know:
  • Does the 2nd game have to be a Texas home game?  I assume that it does, so either road game vs. Missouri and Oklahoma St. could end up being the other ABC appearance.  That leaves home games vs. the Kansas schools, plus Texas Tech as options.  My money feels safe on Texas Tech.  Makes sense too since you are trying to sell the network in Texas.
  • How would the other Big 12 team get compensated for a game on LHN?  My assumptions, since it comes out of the ABC pool of games, is that they get compensated as if the game aired on ABC.
  • Can I see these games on LonghornNetwork.com?  You might.  Maybe that's where they end up instead of ESPN3.com
Pac-12 Network

Per a series of tweets from Jon Wilner, the Pac-12 Network expects to have overflow channels for football games like BTN uses throughout the season.  Also, FOX & ESPN will consult with the conference office to determine game draft order and scheduling to allow for all parties, including the Pac-12 Network, to have premium content available to them throughout the season.

Wilner also notes that no distribution models have been finalized and that having TV overflows could be a companion to digital/mobile outlets.