VectorVictor
Heisman Trophy Winner
KCHusker_Chris, you are correct. Out-of-footprint teams pay less, as the BTN would be on upper tiers and aren't required to be on the lower tiers.Does anyone know what the difference in subscriber revenue is for those of us out of the "footprint" of B1G? I know I pay $5 a month for BTN and a couple other worthless sports channels to make sure I have it.
I wonder if adding Omaha/Lincoln's 300k subscribers at a negotiated .70 cents a piece (per month - just guessing here) outweighs the million or so Nebraska fans that subscribe out of the footprint at a premium.
Sure, it's nice to get that local fan base and get BTN on every TV set, but it's probably as important, if not more important to have that national draw and get those out of state subscribers paying the premium price.
I'm assuming there is a major disparity between what my cable company in Kansas City pays for BTN, than what the local cable provider in Nebraska has to pay for it. I could be wrong though.
Also, the Big Ten did communicate by their actions that having a national draw was more important than expanding the local footprint. That may change now that they have four national brands, and two of the top four most valuable football programs (per Forbes). The blogger Frank the Tank illustrates this point with more articulation than I have at this link here.
An additional blogpost that looks at local footprint vs. advertising and the revelation that Nebraska isn't chopped liver is here.
Frank's May 10th hypothesis of Nebraska, Mizzou, and Rutgers (hey--he's batting .333), is here.
Of note from Frank's April 19th blog:
Lots of good work, good blog to follow IMO.(3) If the Big Ten wants to make a ton of TV money, it will invite Nebraska – I’ve been increasingly become more and more supportive of Nebraska joining the Big Ten lately and Patrick’s analysis completely sealed it. Nebraska’s small market be damned – the Husker fan base is as rabid as any other in the country and they will tune in anytime, anywhere. (If you were wondering, the photo at the top of this post is evidence of how Nebraska fans completely took over South Bend a few years ago when they played Notre Dame.) In fact, Patrick’s figures mean that we should remove Nebraska from the realm of “Well, they might be coming instead of Missouri” or “They’re a good back-up if Notre Dame doesn’t want to join” and put the Cornhuskers into the “lock” category instead. I will now officially be shocked if Big Ten expansion occurs without Nebraska involved.
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