The SEC is the 800 lb gorilla of college football. A conference steeped in tradition, rivalry and pagaentry and one that is consistently the cream of the crop when it comes to the product on the field. And thanks to new contracts with CBS and ESPN, you won't be able to escape watching the conference on Saturdays.
http://mattsarzsports.com/2009/SEC.aspx
The SEC's new TV deals are the Rolls-Royce of television contracts. Starting with the CBS contract, the SEC will have 14 regular season games on CBS and the conference championship game. Under the previous contract, ESPN was allowed to select ahead of CBS a few times per year. That is no longer the case and CBS will have the top pick from the SEC every week. The contract with CBS runs for 15 years. The CBS windows are exclusive windows so that no other SEC telecast can occur at the same time.
ESPN's contract with the SEC is even more expansive. Previously ESPN/ESPN2 had the rights to 18 games, with the rest of the selections going to Raycom Sports, back to the schools for PPV or games just went untelevised. No games on ESPNU either. Now ESPN Networks owns the rights to all games not selected by CBS. ESPN/ESPN2 now has the rights to 20 games and ESPNU has a primetime window for the SEC every week (at least 13 games). So the SEC has drastically increased its number of national telecasts. ESPN Classic will also have the option to select games if there is a surplus of games available. ESPN windows are not exclusive, allowing for other regional telecasts to occur at the same time
ESPN Regional Television then created the SEC Network, replacing the Raycom Sports component of the TV deal. Unlike Raycom who concentrated their efforts in SEC states, ERT has ramped up something close to a national network of affiliates to carry these games, mixing regional sports networks and over the air stations, several from markets which did not carry the Raycom telecasts in the past. The SEC Network games will kick off at 12:21pm ET and the telecast window starts off with a brief pregame show.
A second regional component was carved out when ESPN sublicensed games to a pair of regional broadcasters in the southeast, Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) and the Fox Sports Net regional networks covering the SEC states (FSSouth, FSSouthwest and Sun Sports). FSN has access to seven games and CSS has access to at least six games. These games are typically in the evening, but must occur outside of the CBS telecast window.
Anything that isn't picked up by the entities revert back to the schools for them to produce PPV telecasts. Under the new deal, schools may not produce more than one PPV game per season. Judging by the sheer number of telecast options available, that should not be an issue. The PPVs, on the surface, appear to be mostly non-conference games.
The SEC also has some unique schedule quirks. For example, several games are played on a specific Saturday every season, like Tennessee-Alabama and Florida-Georgia. In addition to the specific date for Florida-Georgia, because it is consistently played off campus in Jacksonville, FL, the schools also have requested that the game be a day game every year, which means that it is likely that the game will always be selected by CBS for telecast.
The final splash that the SEC made was to regain their copyright. Not a lot was made of this important detail and no one could really explain what it meant, but the SEC will now be able to make money off of classic games and sublicense these games to video providers on television and the Internet and be able to receive an additional revenue stream.
The SEC, previously the best in football with one of the lousiest TV deals in terms of national telecasts and PPV, now gets to have its cake and eat it too. Conferences are now scurrying to find out whether they can get something comparable to the SEC in terms of coverage since they likely won't match them in revenue. Won't be able to escape them this fall or any fall for the foreseeable future.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
SECSports.com Redesign and Regaining Copyright
Just in time for the upcoming foootball season, SECSports.com has been given a facelift. The site appears to be a joint venture between XOS Technologies and AmericanEagle.com. AmericanEagle.com did the layout of the site, while XOS will be involved in the digital media aspects of the site, including the SEC Digital Network.
The digital network's creation was part of the SEC's agreements with ESPN and where the SEC regained their copyright from those two entities. Viewing content could be free or cost a nominal fee. Folks who want that content available via offline means like a DVD or having the media permanent available on their hard drive are expected to pay an additional cost.
The Big Ten also regained copyright of their games in their latest TV contract and used it for their Big Ten Network's Big Ten Greatest Games series that airs on the network with older episodes now available on Hulu.com.
The digital network's creation was part of the SEC's agreements with ESPN and where the SEC regained their copyright from those two entities. Viewing content could be free or cost a nominal fee. Folks who want that content available via offline means like a DVD or having the media permanent available on their hard drive are expected to pay an additional cost.
The Big Ten also regained copyright of their games in their latest TV contract and used it for their Big Ten Network's Big Ten Greatest Games series that airs on the network with older episodes now available on Hulu.com.
Versus disappears from DirecTV
EDIT: Sports Business Journal has Versus at 27-29 cents per sub, higher than what I put in the original entry.
Versus has indeed disappeared from DirecTV due to an ongoing contract dispute. Not sure what each side is expecting to pay or receive from the other (Versus gets around 27 to 29 cents per subscriber) but at this moment, there is no effect to those of us following college football or fans of two other major Versus properties, the IRL (next race September 19th) and the NHL (season starts in October).
Versus's college football schedule starts on 9/12 with a mix of Big 12, Ivy League, MWC and PAC-10 games.
All times ET (Bold indicates game involving a preseason ranked team in either AP or Coaches Poll)
9/12 Texas at Wyoming 3:30pm
9/19 Duke at Kansas 12pm
9/19 Florida St. at BYU 7pm
9/26 Cornell at Yale 12pm
9/26 PAC-10 Game 7:30pm (Wash. St.-USC or AZ-OR St.)
10/3 PAC-10 Game 7pm (OR St.-AZ St., UCLA-Stanford or Wash St.-Oregon)
10/17 Princeton at Brown 12:30pm
10/17 Colorado St. at TCU 4pm
10/17 PAC-10 Game 7:30pm (Stanford-AZ, Cal-UCLA or OR St.-Wash. St.)
10/24 Big 12 Game 12:30pm
10/24 Air Force at Utah 4pm
10/24 TCU at BYU 7:30pm
10/31 Big 12 Game 12:30pm
10/31 UNLV at TCU 4pm
11/7 Big 12 Game 12:30pm
11/7 TCU at San Diego St. 4pm
11/14 Big 12 Game 12:30pm
11/14 PAC-10 Game 7pm (Five Games Available)
11/21 Harvard at Yale 12pm
11/21 San Diego St. at Utah 4pm
11/21 PAC-10 Game, 7:30pm or 10pm (Oregon-AZ, AZ St.-UCLA or Cal-Stanford)
Versus has indeed disappeared from DirecTV due to an ongoing contract dispute. Not sure what each side is expecting to pay or receive from the other (Versus gets around 27 to 29 cents per subscriber) but at this moment, there is no effect to those of us following college football or fans of two other major Versus properties, the IRL (next race September 19th) and the NHL (season starts in October).
Versus's college football schedule starts on 9/12 with a mix of Big 12, Ivy League, MWC and PAC-10 games.
All times ET (Bold indicates game involving a preseason ranked team in either AP or Coaches Poll)
9/12 Texas at Wyoming 3:30pm
9/19 Duke at Kansas 12pm
9/19 Florida St. at BYU 7pm
9/26 Cornell at Yale 12pm
9/26 PAC-10 Game 7:30pm (Wash. St.-USC or AZ-OR St.)
10/3 PAC-10 Game 7pm (OR St.-AZ St., UCLA-Stanford or Wash St.-Oregon)
10/17 Princeton at Brown 12:30pm
10/17 Colorado St. at TCU 4pm
10/17 PAC-10 Game 7:30pm (Stanford-AZ, Cal-UCLA or OR St.-Wash. St.)
10/24 Big 12 Game 12:30pm
10/24 Air Force at Utah 4pm
10/24 TCU at BYU 7:30pm
10/31 Big 12 Game 12:30pm
10/31 UNLV at TCU 4pm
11/7 Big 12 Game 12:30pm
11/7 TCU at San Diego St. 4pm
11/14 Big 12 Game 12:30pm
11/14 PAC-10 Game 7pm (Five Games Available)
11/21 Harvard at Yale 12pm
11/21 San Diego St. at Utah 4pm
11/21 PAC-10 Game, 7:30pm or 10pm (Oregon-AZ, AZ St.-UCLA or Cal-Stanford)
Monday, August 31, 2009
Bowl News
Two items:
- Fox will continue its decade long partnership with the Cotton Bowl, signing on for another four years to televise the game. Part of the deal, now that the game has moved to Cowboys Stadium, is that the game will be played at night starting with New Year's Day 2011.
- The PAC-10 and Alamo Bowl have made it official. The conference will provide its top non-BCS bowl selection to the Alamo. The Alamo hopes to finalize the other half of the bowl, the Big 12, within a few weeks.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Week 1 Viewers Guide
Labor Day weekend is the start of the college football season. Its a mixed bag like in prior years where there are some decent games but a glut of FCS-FBS matchups.
All times Eastern
Thursday
Really, there is only one good game of note and you should stay up for it.
Oregon at Boise St. (ESPN HD, 10:15pm) - Chip Kelly's 1st game running the ship for the Ducks vs. a juggernaut in Boise St. Kellen Moore needs to avoid any form of the sophomore jinx to give the Broncos a marquee win as they attempt to again represent the non-AQ conferences in a BCS bowl.
Saturday
Minnesota at Syracuse (ESPN2 HD, 12pm) - Minnesota is coming off a two season stretch where they improved by six wins from 2007 to 2008. Doug Marrone, in his 1st season at SU, is hoping to make a similar leap with the Orange, his alma mater. Plenty of press for the Orange, from the culture changes at practice (more focus on conditioning) and who will be the QB (former Duke point guard Greg Paulus).
Georgia at Oklahoma St. (ABC HD/ESPN2 HD, 3:30pm) - An early season matchup of upper tier Big 12 and SEC teams and a rematch of a 2007 matchup than ended in a 35-14 victory for the Dogs in Athens. Oklahoma St. has made some marked improvements since then, but like a fair amount of the Big 12, it is more known for its offensive firepower than its defensive work. Georgia's balance could be the difference, but they'll need someone to step up to replace both Matt Stafford and Knowshon Moreno at QB and RB, respectively.
BYU vs. Oklahoma (ESPN HD, 7pm) - This one will be played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington as part of an agreement between the Big 12, ESPN and the Cowboys to play an opening Big 12 non-conference game there every season. BYU's Max Hall vs. defending Heisman winner Sam Bradford is the QB battle and OU may be the most complete team in the nation, but BYU will not be a cakewalk as coach Bronco Mendenhall will have his team prepared, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
Alabama vs. Virginia Tech (ABC HD, 8pm) - Another neutral site game and the game of the day involving two teams involved in BCS bowls last year. Virginia Tech's top RB had his year cut short and the Hokies will need to control the ground game to keep themselves within reach of the Tide. A blocked punt or two couldn't hurt.
Monday
Cincinnati at Rutgers (ESPN HD, 4pm) - Important conference game to start off the Big East season. Rutgers finished strong last year, winning their last seven including their bowl against NC State. Cincy won the Big East for the 1st time but lost the Orange Bowl to Virginia Tech. The key will be the Bearcats defense, which is almost entirely turned over at the starter level.
Friday, August 28, 2009
SU game times announced
http://suathletics.com/news/2009/8/28/FB_0828090323.aspx
I wrote the other day that I took them down and now I have a good reason. They are not being televised (yet) on Time Warner Cable, but they will be webcasted on SUAthletics.com
I wrote the other day that I took them down and now I have a good reason. They are not being televised (yet) on Time Warner Cable, but they will be webcasted on SUAthletics.com
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Conference TV Contract: The PAC-10
The PAC-10 has always taken flak for its TV deals, usually from those of us on the east coast. From games that start too late (not for me, but for others), broadcasting entities that some portions of the media will tell you that they can't find to a general lack of televised games available. Will these change over time or are the conference presidents and officers generally happy with the coverage.
http://www.mattsarzsports.com/2009/PAC-10.aspx
The PAC-10 has a contract with ABC for over-the-air coverage with some games on ESPN. The contract calls for 20 telecast windows and 6-8 of those windows can be national telecasts on ESPN. By allowing games on ESPN, the conference can have a few games scheduled on Thursday nights or part of Labor Day or Thanksgiving Friday coverage if it desires. When ABC televises a game at 3:30pm it is exclusive and no other PAC-10 game is available for telecast at that time. The PAC-10 contract with ABC is a five year contract and will end after the 2011 football season. ABC and ESPN can concurrently televise games, but this is the only scenario where ABC can coexist with a PAC-10 cable broadcaster. ABC also televises a fair number of PAC-10 games in their 8pm ET/5pm PT telecast slot, often on split telecast windows.
FSN is the pay-tv rightsholder for the conference and has national rights to 18 telecast windows. FSN sells off five telecast windows per season to Versus and keeps thirteen windows. In the early part of the decade, the five games that FSN has sold off to Versus belonged to TBS and before that they were syndicated on over-the-air networks in the PAC-10 footprint.
The games not chosen for national telecast revert back to the individual schoold to sell for regional telecast. Many of the regional rights holders are affiliates of FSN, but some are not:
One item missing from the PAC-10, particularly with the FSN and Versus games, is an accompanying webstream of the game. The ABC/ESPN games are often accompanied by an ESPN360 stream. Accoring to the FSN contract press release, FSN has new media rights, but it is unclear whether they can stream games live.
One of the interesting things about the PAC-10 is that they often have at least 50% of their ABC/ESPN and FSN/Versus telecasts chosen before mid-June. ABC/ESPN has to provide the conference the games the will televise and telecast windows where there will be a 6-12 day window selection by May 1st before the forthcoming season. FSN and Versus must then choose their game telecasts and selection windows before June 1st.
FSN also appears to have the ability to select specific games ahead of ABC. For example, the USC-UCLA game can be locked in for an FSN telecast one time every four seasons and was locked in for 2009.
As their contract is now at the halfway point, questions have risen as to where the PAC-10 should go next. The FSN portion of the television side continues to be derided and new commissioner Larry Scott, formerly of the WTA tour, has been given the charge of raising the conference profile. Rumors have come out about the conference partnering with the ACC to create some form of east coast-west coast network to try to increase the number of national telecasts. Others want to move more telecasts from FSN over to ESPN.
Whatever the PAC-10 decides to do, it will be interesting if it does indeed raise the profile of the conference east of the Mississippi beyond late night telecasts and the perception of USC and nine other schools.
http://www.mattsarzsports.com/2009/PAC-10.aspx
The PAC-10 has a contract with ABC for over-the-air coverage with some games on ESPN. The contract calls for 20 telecast windows and 6-8 of those windows can be national telecasts on ESPN. By allowing games on ESPN, the conference can have a few games scheduled on Thursday nights or part of Labor Day or Thanksgiving Friday coverage if it desires. When ABC televises a game at 3:30pm it is exclusive and no other PAC-10 game is available for telecast at that time. The PAC-10 contract with ABC is a five year contract and will end after the 2011 football season. ABC and ESPN can concurrently televise games, but this is the only scenario where ABC can coexist with a PAC-10 cable broadcaster. ABC also televises a fair number of PAC-10 games in their 8pm ET/5pm PT telecast slot, often on split telecast windows.
FSN is the pay-tv rightsholder for the conference and has national rights to 18 telecast windows. FSN sells off five telecast windows per season to Versus and keeps thirteen windows. In the early part of the decade, the five games that FSN has sold off to Versus belonged to TBS and before that they were syndicated on over-the-air networks in the PAC-10 footprint.
The games not chosen for national telecast revert back to the individual schoold to sell for regional telecast. Many of the regional rights holders are affiliates of FSN, but some are not:
- FSN Northwest: Oregon St., Washington St., Washington
- Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket: UCLA and USC
- Fox Sports Arizona: Arizona St.
- CSN Bay Area/California: California and Stanford
- Oregon Sports Network: Oregon
- Arizona Wildcasts Sports Network: Arizona
One item missing from the PAC-10, particularly with the FSN and Versus games, is an accompanying webstream of the game. The ABC/ESPN games are often accompanied by an ESPN360 stream. Accoring to the FSN contract press release, FSN has new media rights, but it is unclear whether they can stream games live.
One of the interesting things about the PAC-10 is that they often have at least 50% of their ABC/ESPN and FSN/Versus telecasts chosen before mid-June. ABC/ESPN has to provide the conference the games the will televise and telecast windows where there will be a 6-12 day window selection by May 1st before the forthcoming season. FSN and Versus must then choose their game telecasts and selection windows before June 1st.
FSN also appears to have the ability to select specific games ahead of ABC. For example, the USC-UCLA game can be locked in for an FSN telecast one time every four seasons and was locked in for 2009.
As their contract is now at the halfway point, questions have risen as to where the PAC-10 should go next. The FSN portion of the television side continues to be derided and new commissioner Larry Scott, formerly of the WTA tour, has been given the charge of raising the conference profile. Rumors have come out about the conference partnering with the ACC to create some form of east coast-west coast network to try to increase the number of national telecasts. Others want to move more telecasts from FSN over to ESPN.
Whatever the PAC-10 decides to do, it will be interesting if it does indeed raise the profile of the conference east of the Mississippi beyond late night telecasts and the perception of USC and nine other schools.
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