Before I begin this post, I want to state I have Dish TV, subscribe to the football package, and get a bunch of tv games from ESPN, FOX, and, yes, CSTV. As I drive around the Washington, DC area, I see more and more Dish TV satellites on homes.

Having said that, I would like to see CUSA also do a CSTV agreement....for Saturday afternoon games. CUSA could start a game at 11AM and then follow up with a second Saturday afternoon telecast beginning at 3PM. This is what Big-12 does with FOX and always has two FOX Saturday telecasts....sometimes three Saturday telecasts on FOX. For this reason also, I don't think FOX/SW is an alternative to ESPN for CUSA.

The problem for MWC and weekday nite games is the very, very cold temperatures which can turn bitterly cold in Oct and Nov. Weekday nite games should not be that problem in hot weather sites for CUSA in ECU, UCF, UAB, S. Miss, Tulsane, Rice, and Houston. Other remaining CUSA sites are warm weather sites unlike MWC. Therefore, I hope to see lots of weekday nite CUSA games on ESPN.

The CSTV/MWC effort, I don't think, is the big gamble that MWC critics portray it to be. For after all, CUSA won't have very many Saturday telecasts with ESPN....so why not put them on CSTV? CUSA, in conjunction with MWC games, would make CSTV efforts to succeed all that much better.

Yes, CSTV is a gamble. BUt, in a way, staying solely with ESPN is a gamble of your future also. The definition of lunacy is dong the same thing over and over again...and expecting different results. For CUSA and CSTV, what is the gamble here...when CUSA doesn't have that many Saturday games aired anyway? IMO, the alternatives to ESPN discussed on this board are not there...but CSTV is there, hungary and rearing to go. Let's jump on that horse and see how far CUSA can ride with it.

Tallgrass Wrote:Before I begin this post, I want to state I have Dish TV, subscribe to the football package, and get a bunch of tv games from ESPN, FOX, and, yes, CSTV. As I drive around the Washington, DC area, I see more and more Dish TV satellites on homes.

Having said that, I would like to see CUSA also do a CSTV agreement....for Saturday afternoon games. CUSA could start a game at 11AM and then follow up with a second Saturday afternoon telecast beginning at 3PM. This is what Big-12 does with FOX and always has two FOX Saturday telecasts....sometimes three Saturday telecasts on FOX. For this reason also, I don't think FOX/SW is an alternative to ESPN for CUSA.

The problem for MWC and weekday nite games is the very, very cold temperatures which can turn bitterly cold in Oct and Nov. Weekday nite games should not be that problem in hot weather sites for CUSA in ECU, UCF, UAB, S. Miss, Tulsane, Rice, and Houston. Other remaining CUSA sites are warm weather sites unlike MWC. Therefore, I hope to see lots of weekday nite CUSA games on ESPN.

The CSTV/MWC effort, I don't think, is the big gamble that MWC critics portray it to be. For after all, CUSA won't have very many Saturday telecasts with ESPN....so why not put them on CSTV? CUSA, in conjunction with MWC games, would make CSTV efforts to succeed all that much better.

Yes, CSTV is a gamble. BUt, in a way, staying solely with ESPN is a gamble of your future also. The definition of lunacy is dong the same thing over and over again...and expecting different results. For CUSA and CSTV, what is the gamble here...when CUSA doesn't have that many Saturday games aired anyway? IMO, the alternatives to ESPN discussed on this board are not there...but CSTV is there, hungary and rearing to go. Let's jump on that horse and see how far CUSA can ride with it.

OK, you've got the football package, the vast majority do not. Overall dollars are nice, but I'd be willng to take a hit financially than lose exposure.

ESPN gives us exposure, CSTV (as it stands right now) would gives us squat.

Quote:For CUSA and CSTV, what is the gamble here...when CUSA doesn't have that many Saturday games aired anyway? IMO, the alternatives to ESPN discussed on this board are not there...but CSTV is there, hungary and rearing to go. Let's jump on that horse and see how far CUSA can ride with it.

Here's a risk from a Memphis perspective. If we lose ESPN as a basketball partner, we lose out ability to recruit at the level our coach has established. Then we lose our coach. That's a deal breaker for us. Plus I don't care about CUSA games being on a channel I can't see at 99% of the sports bars around the country or any hotel room. We should be working to be ESPNs best friend. Adding Marshall helps our case alot. In fact I think UCF, UTEP, and SMU help our case as well (sorry Rice). I want no part of CSTV yet. Let's see what they are doing 3 or 4 years from now. If all they are showing is ACC women's soccer, MWC football, and the SEC swim meet of the week, the channel will still not be a factor in sports tv.

I say the deal is good financially but they do not reach enough homes. The exposure on ESPN is priceless for recruiting. If CSTV can 1 day compete head to head with ESPN for college sports then I say we give them an opportunity if they are going to show our games live on Saturdays. I don't mind seeing games on Wed or Thurs nights on ESPN but I am opposed to Tues and Friday games on ESPN. Tuesday is not as bad as Friday. Friday is a day for high school football IMHO. It pissed off high school coaches in the area when college football is played on Friday nights. ESPN needs to air 2 games on Thursday night IMO. The showcase game on ESPN and another game on ESPN2.

Watched Game Day today. No mention of CUSA. I thought when they were talking about predicting conference champions that they'd mention CUSA but no. For a moment I thought that they would not mention the BE either but in the last part they had WV's coach on. Still no mention of CUSA.

And that was a replay from a couple of weeks ago.

I just read the MWC TV Deal and a lot of things will have changed once their contract starts in 2006. I don't have a problem with their TV package. Lets be real, no one on the East Coast are going to be watching their games so it looks as if the MWC is going to focus on the regional aspect where people are familiar with their programs and I don't think it's a bad idea. Lets remember college football TV ratings doesn't draw well on a national level but does well from a regional standpoint. I think the MWC may be on to something. Those homes in Utah that doesn't have access to this channel probably will have it in 2006 so I think it was a wise move on the MWC part to take this deal. And they keep their games on for Saturdays which is when college football should be played. Convenient for the fans and students.

Go Blazers!

Tallgrass Wrote:The CSTV/MWC effort, I don't think, is the big gamble that MWC critics portray it to be.

It's very risky:

1. The comany is only 18 months old with 8 million sibscribers.....
2. ESPN/ABC can keep the MWC off their programing basiclly eliminating them from homes with those stations.
3. ESPN owns part of just about every bowl there is this includes the Las Vegas and Fort Worth bowls , ESPN can and may take them away from the conf.
4. CSTV is only 18 MONTHS OLD, they could go bankrupt at anytime. Ive seen many cable comanies come and go.


Even the MWC ppl have started to see the holes it this deal. But unless CSTV reaches an agreement with every other Non BCS Conf and reaches 55-60 million homes FREE can you say that the MWC deal was sucsessful and ground breaking.

From DShoe, our local ESPN exec:

Quote: wow.....you guys are almost as good at putting a positive spin on this as the CSTV folks.

just a note, the CSTV deal with Comcast only ALLOWS the local (individual) systems to add CSTV if they choose to do INDIVIDUAL deals with them, it is NOT a system-wide agreement and guarantees CSTV no homes........will some Comcast systems add them? sure....will all or nearly all, not likely for some time to come...........go to their website and try to find out just where they are avaible other than the Direct TV "sports pack"'s 2 million homes.

Will CSTV make it? who knows, but spending this kind of money won't make a negative cash flow situation any easier.....

DShoe needs to come over here and post some MUther

MUther Wrote:From DShoe, our local ESPN exec:

Quote: wow.....you guys are almost as good at putting a positive spin on this as the CSTV folks.

just a note, the CSTV deal with Comcast only ALLOWS the local (individual) systems to add CSTV if they choose to do INDIVIDUAL deals with them, it is NOT a system-wide agreement and guarantees CSTV no homes........will some Comcast systems add them? sure....will all or nearly all, not likely for some time to come...........go to their website and try to find out just where they are avaible other than the Direct TV "sports pack"'s 2 million homes.

Will CSTV make it? who knows, but spending this kind of money won't make a negative cash flow situation any easier.....

That's exactly why C-USA should stick with ESPN. We need all the exposure we can get.

I agree with the original poster. I'd like to see us work out a deal with CSTV (or somebody) to broadcast a C-USA Game of the Week on Saturdays. That doesn't mean I want to move away from ESPN (yet), just broaden our horizons a bit.

I'd love for CSTV and FSN to both become incredibly successful - better options for everyone (especially C-USA) and competition for ESPN, which has become way too arrogant and controlling for their own good. And ours.

What I would like to see is CUSA having deals with both ESPN/ABC and CSTV. Sheesh, even the SEC doesn't deal exclusively with the mouse. The SEC has deals with Jefferson Pilot Sports (http://www.jpsports.com) which is shown on CBS, some NBC Stations, and at least one cable station (can't remember the name), ESPN, and CBS. ESPN/ABC (aka the evil Mouse) favor the Big Ten and the Pac 10 for the most part. Any competiton that network gets is music to my ears!!! I do hope CSTV does well. We might have to look into putting more than just our "SEC swim meet of the week" on there in the future. This is also something the Big 12 and the Big East might want to explore also. I know for a fact ESPN/ABC is screwing them over!!!

If we can get an attractive offer for a single game of the week for Saturday afternoon from, say, Fox, then I am in favor of it, although it will reduce any contract we get from ESPN. Alternatively, it might result in our getting 3-4 Saturday games per year from ESPN or ESPN2 to keep us off of other networks. It would be nice to break into the Saturday lineup on one of these two cable networks.

It has to be one of these two, however, because they are national in scope and free to all cable subscribers. CSTV is not a realistic option for exposure.