(06-18-2019 08:51 AM)RutgersGuy Wrote:  

(06-17-2019 11:46 AM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote:  

(06-12-2019 03:03 PM)RutgersGuy Wrote:  

(06-12-2019 02:51 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  That's why, even though I don't really like the deal, am okay with the fact the ESPN bought the Sun Belt's media rights for 7 years.

They'll definitely push MACtion and FunBelt stuff when they need to fill in G5 talking points instead of CUSA or MWC (if they go NFLN route)

Exactly! Whats gonna be interesting is when the current BE BBall conference TV rights come up will the WWL go after them? They didn't care at first because they didn't think highly of the group but now that they are doing well they have been talking them up as a true power conference. Will they go after a piece and will the BE decide to stay full on the Fox train or sell some to ESPN. Do the C7 have long memories or is it a case of if it makes dollars it makes sense.

The Big East deal with Fox was for 12 years, starting with the 2013-14 season. So they're halfway through. I suppose the Big East will just go for whoever pays them the best. They'll never get the eyeballs on FS1 that they would on an ESPN platform, but maybe exposure and viewership is not as important to the Big East. They seem to get respect if not eyeballs. After all, with the exception of this past season, they've been able to get good seeds (two #1 seeds in the '18 tournament with Villanova and Xavier) and they've rated high in the polls.

People talk about lack of exposure for the Big East but thats just plain wrong. Every single game of that conference is on national TV. Either of Fox or FS1 and fans wherever they live can watch those games. Thats insane for a conference like the Big East to have that. Yes, FS1 doesn't have the pull as ESPN but everyone in the business knows that the two stations ratings aren't comparable and that any conferences ratings would be significantly lower on Fox Sports. They do have insanely good exposure compared to any one else not in the P5 and even better than some of those conferences. I mean for instance a Providence fan can watch every PC game in Seattle. Can a UW fan say the same thing while living in Providence? Not without paying more than the PC fan pays. They have smaller fan bases than the big state schools for sure but their exposure is not limited. Look at the AAC, they just got a new TV deal where most of their content will be on ESPN+. So now you have to pay a monthly subscription for an app to watch most of your games. Thats terrible exposure since you completely limit any casual general sports fan from tuning in on a raining weekend to watch your teams play.

Not every Big East game is on television. 100 are, out of roughly 180. Around 80 are shown on fox (18 on OTA and 60ish on FS1/2). The Big East coverage for other sports is almost nothing.

The AAC will show at least 40 ESPN games for football from 66 available. For basketball ESPN will show at least 65 games and a 10 game deal is expected with CBS. ESPN will also broadcast most conference championships in Olympic sports and at least 13 women's basketball games.

A lot of AAC content will be on ESPN+, but the vast majority of it is non-revenue sports that were carried on ESPN3/school website or not at all.

Also ESPN+ is available world wide so anyone in Hong Kong, Sydney, or Cairo can watch. Which is as likely as a Big East fan in Washington. Fox ratings for the Big East won't be changing, they're a regional, private school conference with diminishing national name recognition. This is probably as good as they get barring a early 1980s type run. It's become the Villlanova and everyone else league.