B1G and Fox close to Media Rights Agreement

[southernoregonhusker]

I'm not crazy about all of ESPN's announcers, but I get all of NU's games now and am happy about that. I hope that continues with Fox.

 

[garn]

As someone who follows the business of sports media, I'm not at all surprised that Fox has acquired a portion of the lucrative B1G tv contract and wouldn't surprise me if Fox takes it all. Unless Fox can improve distribution of Fox Sports 2, I don't see B1G games on that network. That leaves Fox Sports 1 and the Fox broadcast network with a wildcard of the regional Fox sports networks (Fox Sports Midwest, etc.).

The only issue there is that in some B1G states (IA, IL, PA, MD) the primary regional sports net is an NBC owned regional sports net (Comcast SportsNet Chicago as an example), perhaps that opens the door for NBC and its NBCSN and regional sports networks to outbid ESPN, I don't see it though especially with NBC having the rights to NASCAR in the fall. Fox does own the majority interest in the Yankees YES Network.

All of that said, even though ESPN is bleeding money, not having the B1G and their preference for 11am kicks would kill their 11am windows across all networks.

 

[Red Five]

Interesting thought by Sam. How would you feel having ESPN not airing any B1G games?

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Interesting thought by Sam. How would you feel having ESPN not airing any B1G games?

Sam's tweet brings up 2 thoughts.

1) I think Tirico is going to NBC to be the Sunday Night Football play by play man when Al MIchaels retires (Al is 71 years old). It would be hard for for Tirico to do a college game on Saturday and then be prepared enough to be the main guy on the biggest NFL game of the week on Sunday night.

2) I wouldn't mind having no games on ESPN, but if that happens, the B1G could lose a lot of eyeballs. A lot of people flip to ESPN for sports, just because that's what they are used to doing. It would take a lot of education to have go to NBC or NBC Sports network or what other channel would pick up the B1G games.

 

[Red Five]

2) I wouldn't mind having no games on ESPN, but if that happens, the B1G could lose a lot of eyeballs. A lot of people flip to ESPN for sports, just because that's what they are used to doing. It would take a lot of education to have go to NBC or NBC Sports network or what other channel would pick up the B1G games.

I think being off ESPN has some negatives.

You also have to think about coverage. If you don't have games on ESPN, I would be worried that your highlights/profiles/publicity would be pushed to the back burner (see the NHL). And in college sports, getting publicity helps tremendously with recruiting.

Eyeballs on games as you mentioned is a big one. I assume a random 11am ESPN2 Minnesota/Purdue game out rates a random FS1 Texas Tech/West Virginia game by a fair margin just because the average person knows what channel ESPN/ESPN2 is.

edit to add: I found some ratings

Just choosing at random 11am games from 10/24:

ESPN - Iowa St/Baylor - 1.65M

ESPN2 - Nothwestern/Nebraska - 1.75M

FS1 - Kansas St/Texas - 0.90M

 

[RedDenver]

All of that said, even though ESPN is bleeding money, not having the B1G and their preference for 11am kicks would kill their 11am windows across all networks.

ESPN is not bleeding money. ESPN remains the most valuable entertainment property in the world. The only thing that has happened is that ESPN has become slightly less profitable than it was a few years ago. Frank the Tank has a good blog post about it.

 

[southernoregonhusker]

All of that said, even though ESPN is bleeding money, not having the B1G and their preference for 11am kicks would kill their 11am windows across all networks.

ESPN is not bleeding money. ESPN remains the most valuable entertainment property in the world. The only thing that has happened is that ESPN has become slightly less profitable than it was a few years ago. Frank the Tank has a good blog post about it.

Hmm. Skip Bayless isn't going to be resigned by ESPN either. I think the problems at ESPN are bigger than some think.

 

[AFhusker]

Uh.........not sure about this. I remember having games on Fox channels when we were in the Little 12. They were pretty bad productions.

I like the Fox telecasts that have been done recently.

You must be a Joe Buck fan then. Me, not so much. Can't stand the guy and it will hurt my ears if I have to listen to him do our games.

Anything is better than having Beth Mowins call our noon est games on ESPN. She is by far the worst announcer in the business today.

 

[RedDenver]

All of that said, even though ESPN is bleeding money, not having the B1G and their preference for 11am kicks would kill their 11am windows across all networks.

ESPN is not bleeding money. ESPN remains the most valuable entertainment property in the world. The only thing that has happened is that ESPN has become slightly less profitable than it was a few years ago. Frank the Tank has a good blog post about it.

Hmm. Skip Bayless isn't going to be resigned by ESPN either. I think the problems at ESPN are bigger than some think.

ESPN has lost/gotten rid of many "personalities" over the years and it hasn't hurt them. That's because it's the content and production quality that matter far more than the faces in front of the camera. Even if ESPN was making even more money than years past, they could still cut Bayless loose. (Does anybody actually tune in to hear Bayless shouting about stuff?)

When ESPN loses out on content they really want, then there's evidence that they're doing some bean-counting for cost savings. But even then, there's a large difference between some cost savings and "bleeding money".

 

[RedDenver]

Uh.........not sure about this. I remember having games on Fox channels when we were in the Little 12. They were pretty bad productions.

I like the Fox telecasts that have been done recently.

You must be a Joe Buck fan then. Me, not so much. Can't stand the guy and it will hurt my ears if I have to listen to him do our games.

Anything is better than having Beth Mowins call our noon est games on ESPN. She is by far the worst announcer in the business today.

Not sure Mowins is the worst. Don't get me wrong, she's bad, but there's an army of announcers out there that suck big time.

 

[Michiganball]

Uh.........not sure about this. I remember having games on Fox channels when we were in the Little 12. They were pretty bad productions.

I like the Fox telecasts that have been done recently.

You must be a Joe Buck fan then. Me, not so much. Can't stand the guy and it will hurt my ears if I have to listen to him do our games.

Anything is better than having Beth Mowins call our noon est games on ESPN. She is by far the worst announcer in the business today.

Not sure Mowins is the worst. Don't get me wrong, she's bad, but there's an army of announcers out there that suck big time.

Chris Berman doing Monday night football, still get the shivers thinking about it.

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

Nope, Mowins is the worst. Makes me annoyed and angry at the same time. Angroyed?

 

[VectorVictor]

Nope, Mowins is the worst. Makes me annoyed and angry at the same time. Angroyed?

I think they make a medicine to put on that.

And there's more follow-up in the B1G Conference thread, including multiple reactions from various outlets about how monumental this deal is for the B1G and how it's not a coincidence that it's up the year before Big XII GORs are done.

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

Nope, Mowins is the worst. Makes me annoyed and angry at the same time. Angroyed?

I think they make a medicine to put on that.

And there's more follow-up in the B1G Conference thread, including multiple reactions from various outlets about how monumental this deal is for the B1G and how it's not a coincidence that it's up the year before Big XII GORs are done.

I'll check it out, thanks!

...

I mean the other thread, not the medicine.... You know what I mean.

 

[Mavric]

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