(09-20-2022 11:51 PM)RUScarlets Wrote: (09-20-2022 10:06 PM)BruceMcF Wrote: (09-20-2022 07:07 PM)RUScarlets Wrote: ... In fact, the PAC10 option would be a lot cheaper for them and provide 4-5 games of content per week.
But it cannot provide the cross-over West Coast / northern CTZ/ETZ interest in the games.
Also, an Amazon Friday Night Football package wouldn't have to be restricted to West Coast home games. While there are schools in Friday Night Lights territory that might be able to insist on being left out of that pool -- at least for their home games -- there may be some schools that would opt in to a certain number of Friday night games if it helped to make for a higher conference payout ... especially if their opt-in was not through to Thanksgiving, but closed out sometime early in November. ...
I've already addressed this earlier, but AMZN would be down to the 3rd or 4th best B1G game of the week. And as you say, UM and OSU at home may be off limits. Even if that's not the case, it typically means those schools are out right off the bat. The real value in adding additional west coast teams the B1G are two games with one as an exclusive late night window either on Friday or Saturday.
A Saturday game or a Thursday game would have to be a late night game. A Friday game does not have to be a late night game, it can be Prime Time.
We may be in the framing on CSNBBS of looking at the advantage of the West Coast teams as being "able to play in the after Prime Time slot", but a 7:30pm kickoff on Thursday night seems like the kind of scheduling that the more valuable schools in the PAC would hope to be moving out of, rather than moving into.
And "Prime Time" type content is what Amazon is aiming for, after all. So when we start from Amazon's perspective, a Prime Time Friday night slot is what they would be looking for.
With no more divisional scheduling, so USC/UCLA can alternate which has 4 Big Ten home games and which has 5, USC/UCLA gives 9 Big Ten home games and 1 P5 OOC home game in the inventory. A rule that schools other than OSU and That School Up North may be called on to host Friday Night in weeks 1-9 once every two years would add 6 more games a year, and only one game to "choose from" in weeks 10-13. 12 games in weeks 1-9 and 4 games in weeks 10-12 is not enough inventory for a Friday Night game.
Quote: Thursday night may also be possible if the NFL kicks off a bit earlier.
But if 80% of the US population is in the ETZ/CTZ, what are the prospective ratings on the night before a workday for a game kicking off at 10:30pm? I don't see how a Thursday late night game slot is generating the revenue increment for Amazon to be paying Big Ten rates for the inventory --
even given Amazon getting a bonus in sales revenue from each additional Prime membership sold.
(And I can put my hand up as being as guilty as the next person of helping drive that -- just today I am getting delivery of a bicycle that is "Prime" and was the cheapest bike of its class because the "cheaper" bikes had either a $60 or $100 delivery fee, and the Prime bike was free delivery.)
Quote: Therefore AMZN needs to bid on two B1G games to make additional expansion out west viable.
In my view, what Amazon "needs" is Prime Time, and one Prime Time slot has already been sold. The only Prime Time slot that could be be made available is a Friday Night prime time game, which needs a minimum of two more West Coast schools in order to provide 9 more "Friday Night Prime Time eligible" Big Ten home games and one more OOC P5 game. That gives 20 West Coast home games ... if some deal could be made to ensure 6 more ETZ/CTZ Friday night games (it doesn't have to be the one I said above), that is two games weekly that might be scheduled on Friday night, for Amazon to choose one.
However, that would also mean that Amazon would need to make a side-payment to the existing partners to pre-empt picks that empty the Friday Night Prime Time available games for the week. If they wanted to buy their way into second in the pick order weekly, that side payment would be even bigger. That side payment would not have to be as big if four West Coast schools were added, so that 10 West Coast Big Ten / OOC P5 home games are being expanded to 30 .. and if Amazon is getting the same or more value, then that is more money available to the Big Ten.
But from outside the negotiating room, it's not clear that that
requires four additional West Coast schools. It could be that the Amazon money minus the slice that goes to the existing partners can more easily pay the freight for two more West Coast schools than a larger share of the Amazon money paying the freight for four more West Coast schools.
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(09-21-2022 12:05 AM)JRsec Wrote: What part of my saying further expansion would be inventory driven more than individual value added did you guys not grasp? Add shares of expanded CFP money and 20, and really 24 (for the added inventory) are within easy reach of reality Frank.
IMV, CFP money doesn't enter into Big Ten expansion plans until the ink is dry, and even then, some of the Big Ten Presidents may need to see it in action first before they add it in without a discount.