RE: FSU/Clemson fans thoughts on the new ACCN?
I’m not sure that I’m the type of Clemson fan that you are looking to get a response from. I don’t have the same level of doom and gloom as some of the other Clemson fans when it comes to the ACC.
For me, I think we need to come back to these questions in a few days after there has been a formal announcement and after more details have trickled out. Right now, we just don’t know any financial details. I will admit that the 2036 date is a little concerning. There is definitely the potential that the financial gap between the ACC and the B1G/SEC could be much improved with this deal, but may diminish over time as the other conferences renegotiate. However, it is not worth stressing over now since we don’t know the details and we can’t predict what the landscape is going to look like years from now.
In terms of the ACC Network itself, I’m very excited about this. As a Clemson fan, I hope to hardly ever be on the network during football season, however. :) I’m always going to hope for 8 PM on ABC for home games and Noon on ABC for away games, but realistically, there will always be our games against the in-state FCS teams, as well as our games against G5 schools, plus the less than stellar conference matchups that I will be more than happy to watch on the new network.
The biggest thing I’m looking forward to will be more non-football content. I think Clemson gets pretty good coverage during football season, and decent coverage during basketball season. However, more basketball coverage during the non-conference portion of the season, as well as more baseball and soccer coverage will be very welcome. Some coverage of golf could be cool also. I might even watch some lacrosse, even though we don’t have a team at Clemson. Heck, I even hope they have shows covering cool research projects going on at the different universities. Maybe even televise stuff like the ACC InVenture competition.
Overall, if this means that I can see a lot more Clemson basketball, baseball, and soccer, I’ll be very happy. Seeing the other stuff I mentioned will be nice as well.
Now, back to the financial topic. If the 2019 delay of the linear network is based on the expiration dates of Disney’s current contracts with DIRECTV, Dish, and the larger cable companies, then I understand. I also understand that the longer it is delayed, the less expensive it is for our partner, ESPN, to re-acquire content from Raycom should that be necessary. I just hope the per-year payouts go up considerably between now and then based on the fact that we committed to such a long term contract. In other words, I hope we don’t have to wait until after the channel exists in 2019 to see a large increase. There better be a pretty attractive increase immediately based on the 20-year commitment. I also hope we don’t have issues getting on these platforms like the PAC-12 has. I don’t expect that we will, based on the fact that we are partnered with Disney and they have their suite of channels to package together and that we are not trying to have all of those crazy regional channels like the PAC-12 did. A lot can change with the market between now and 2019, however.
Oh, one last thing… We better be staying at eight conference games. :) I don’t think this needs any additional conversation because we’ve gone over it many times, but as you know, we Clemson fans are pretty passionate about staying at eight conference games. In fact, I really hope we get some confirmation on that topic this week as it relates to the new agreements and the new networks. I’m ready to hear some confirmation that we are staying at eight games and then I can get back to stressing over which P5 teams Clemson is going to schedule in 2021, 2024, and beyond.
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