Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Notes on 11/1 & 11/5 CFB TV Selections and Six Day Holds

* Again, 11/1 is included because the television decision was made today.  Should be no surprise that Western Michigan's game is on ESPN2 while they are still undefeated.

* For the six days holds, yes, it does seem like too many games are being held for the number of openings.  Thosee openings are:
  • 12pm & 3:30pm (ABC)
  • 12pm, 3:30pm, 7pm & 10:30pm (ESPN)
  • 12pm, 3:30pm and 7pm (ESPN2)
  • 3:30pm & 7pm (ESPNU)
  • 12:30pm (ACC Network)
  • Sometime between 4pm & 7pm (Pac-12 Networks)
The Mountain West having both of their games on ESPN2 and ESPNU in the late evening throws off a few things, at least from my perspective, and keeps a few split window options in place, either for two games on ACC Network at 12:30pm or the possibility of a split national window on ABC at 3:30pm between the ACC and Big 12 where the game that isn't available in your area is only on ESPN3 (this appears to still be allowed).

This also allows for a Pac-12 game to be shown earlier in the evening, presumably Washington at California provided both have positive results this weekend.  It also feels like FS1 was at the back of the bus when it came to Pac-12 Saturday, though they'll have the school currently leading the Pac-12 South on Thursday 11/3 (UCLA at Colorado).

* An interesting move by FOX to move its broadcast network game to 3:30pm ET out of its previously scheduled time of 7:30pm ET.  With Alabama at LSU & Nebraska at Ohio St. at 8pm ET on CBS and ABC, respectively, coupled with available selections from the Big 12 and Pac-12, it may have been a wise move to bow out of that timeslot.

* So far, 21 American Athletic Conference games have been scheduled for ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU, including the conference championship game.  I believe they'll need another five total scheduled for those networks on 11/12, 11/19 and 11/26.  Black Friday will provide them with two games on those networks, which should get them to 28.

* Stanford still needs another game on Pac-12 Networks, which is why I think FS1's Saturday selection was behind both ESPN's two picks and the Pac-12 Networks.  They should make up for it with the Rice game on 11/26.

* The Pac-12 should occupy three of FOX's five broadcast network games on 11/12, the 11/19 doubleheader, 11/25 & 11/26 to get to the minimum number of eight broadcast network telecasts.  My expectation is that the Apple Cup will be selected over TCU at Texas on Black Friday, so that should take care of one game.  Also, FOX should owe the conference one more 7:30pm ET game.  They have had three evening games so far with four primetime games expected by the conference as part of the FOX Sports package.

4 comments:

arc727 said...

I'm glad you brought up the possibility of an ABC split national window because I've been curious about this. To my knowledge, the use of the split window has decreased significantly in recent years, to where I don't think it was used at all last year and hasn't so far this year. But I remember this used to be the big thing. I'm guessing the launch of the SEC Network, ESPN Extra, and (indirectly) FS1 have freed up space for more games to be shown with a full national broadcast?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

I'd say the other item that freed ABC from doing split national windows is greater use of ABC in general at other times. They've added about 6-7 12pm games per season over the past couple years plus by NASCAR leaving, they've added a couple evening slots where NASCAR previously had Saturday night races in addition to the changes in the Big 12 contract, which allowed for both ABC and FOX to have greater freedom with their network selections.

Matt Sarzyniak said...

To be clear, 6-7 more ABC games compared to prior seasons where the 12pm window was used 4-5 times a season. Now its expected to be used every week.

arc727 said...

Yeah that's an interesting point. I always wondered why the early ABC slot was never used every week in the past since I don't think anything was being shown other than local programming. Could be wrong, though. But I'm glad a lot of broadcasts are full national now. In a somewhat similar regard, I've noticed Big 12 conference games are on regional FSN at lot less frequently now too.