(09-21-2015 02:48 PM)gulfcoastgal Wrote:  

(09-21-2015 02:00 PM)monarx Wrote:  Not a good thing. More competition for airtime on what is basically our major outlet. At least before, the AAC teams were relegated to E3 in many cases, while we were on actual TV, albeit a small crappy channel. Now, instead of showing UNCC vs. FIU for example, ASN may choose to show Temple vs. Memphis. They didn't have that option before. This combined with the fact that our football conference is not very great this year doesn't help our argument to increase our TV revenue contract and exposure. I'm a bit concerned about it to be honest.

I don't think it'll have much of an impact at all on fball seeing as how the contract is for 10 bball games. The release noted that Cincinnati and Tulsa are the only two AAC schools in the current footprint. That's as good a guess as any for a starting point. Conference games are guaranteed national coverage, so these 10 will most likely be OOC buy games which really shouldn't affect CUSA.

I do, however, agree with the poster suggesting that something may be brewing between ASN and ESPN.

10 basketball games "this year", but it sets a precedent. Football tv is already scheduled for this season, so they just announce hoops for now. I find it interesting that the ASN games will still be broadcast on ESPN3. Considering ASN has completely crapped the bed on streaming, and they keep saying "its coming", "stay tuned", I wonder if they might plan to work out a streaming agreement with ESPN 3 for all ASN content? I'd be ok with that. ESPN 3 is available everywhere for mobile and smart TV. At this point, I just want high production value and game availability, online or on TV doesn't matter to me as much personally, oh yeah, and some more money.

(09-21-2015 04:49 PM)PurpleReigns2012 Wrote:  

(09-21-2015 04:19 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(09-21-2015 03:43 PM)gulfcoastgal Wrote:  Hmm, I wonder if this could be the whispered about ASN dedicated channel.

Matt Sarzyniak ‏@mattsarz 24m24 minutes ago
Sinclair considering buying Tennis Channel is interesting when you consider ASN is currently their "sports department".

SBJ/SBD ‏@sbjsbd 26m26 minutes ago
Bell: Sinclair Broadcast Group in talks to buy Tennis Channel … ESPN reportedly gearing up for cuts. http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily...-Bell.aspx … $

It makes sense—no matter how much college product ASN acquires, there's only so many hours in a week that it can fill with it (they're not going to get schools to move a football game to a weeknight for syndication/digital-tier cable, for example, and there's rarely anything live to broadcast during a weekday). So tennis-heavy programming fills the gaps.

Tennis, ROH, college football, basketball, soccer, hockey, baseball softball, lacrosse, etc and they have a start. I'm worried this would burst the TV sports bubble though. CBSSN is already thin with not much studio programming as is.


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I guess it depends on what their expectations are. A Sinclair sports channel almost certainly will never get ESPN ratings, or even FS1 ratings. But so long as they understand that the bulk of their viewers will be people only there because their team is playing on that channel, and they don't jack up the carriage rates from whatever they are now, there's room on the digital sports tier for them.

They probably won't even bother doing much studio programming outside of perhaps a halftime/between-game update desk; what's the point in trying to go heads up with ESPN on a nightly Sportscenter-type show or a talking-head shoutfest? Even the more-established channels with better clearance can't make any headway there.

Here is what's happening. Many of these G5 games have virtually no value. But much like a ton of the content on Netflix has little value, there is value when you become an aggregator and collect all this content in one place. I suggested that the G5 do this same thing with a "G5 Network". ESPN3 has been collecting low end content for years and aggregating it under the ESPN-3 banner. They have created a model where ESPN-3 now actually has enough content that they can actually charge internet providers a carriage fee to allow their customers access to the site. ESPN has monetized this previously "valueless" content.

ASN is doing the same thing. They are collecting content for virtually nothing, and aggregating it under one banner. They will soon have a cable network, an affiliate based over the air network, and they will no doubt eventually have a streaming ESPN-3 type site. Its not ESPN, but it will likely be a profitable multi-leg stool sports broadcast model that makes sense. My guess is that they will lock in a niche market where they have studio shows that discuss the G5/FCS world of sports. The cable network could be sold for 5 or ten cents a month. At that price, it will be on virtually every cable network as part of the basic package and bring in between 60 and 120 million a year to ASN. There are few costs because the content was already being produced for the OTA network. The digital site could gain carriage fees or change a fee like Netflix---just way cheaper---like a buck a month. The broadcast arm will earn money through advertising---just as it does now.

The G5 could have done something very similar---without the OTA component. Hell, a G5 aggregator utilizing little more than 3rd tier G5 rights would have much more attractive content package than ASN. .....Another opportunity missed by G5 commissioners with little vision.