http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-college-sp...i_18209860

More detail about the challenges of starting up a Network

Couple of key things from the article for me:

Quote:Scott and Weiberg said they want the widest possible distribution within the six-state Pac-12 footprint and they are more flexible in where and how the network is carried outside the region. They still want a Colorado, USC, or Washington fan living in New York or Florida to be able to have access, but they might have to pay more for it.

So maybe Basic Cable/Digital Cable tier (Sort of like ESPNU) in the footprint, and then places like Chicago or New York, have it part of the 'sports package'.

Chris Hill taking some shots at the MWC:

Quote:"The biggest difference I think is going to be the passion that there is in this league for everybody to get their games," Hill said. "So the one thing I could say is start with reasonable expectations and don`t promise the world and then deliver more.

"That`s what will happen. I`m very confident in that because of the passion. Everyone is going to want to see those games. That wasn`t the case in the Mountain West. There were some places in the Mountain West that didn`t have the passion in their market to demand it."

And at the MWC for not getting in on HD:

Quote:"I think you have to start it off really understanding there is an investment on the front end to make it high quality," Hill said. "So that when people see it, they don`t see it as a secondary station. A simple example is in the Mountain West when they didn`t have HD coming in. I`m not an HD snob, but at the same time, that makes a statement. If you look at one station versus the other, it makes a statement."

Putting a Big East and ECU perspective since the BE seems to be studying and mentioning the PAC 12's expansion and tv contracts:

This basic cable/digital cable tier issue could greatly help ECU either through a Big East channel directly or further expanding of the current "Big East Network" operated through ESPN Regional as it has been widely rumored that all the cable systems in NC and Southeastern VA would put that a created BEN on basic cable/digital cable tier.