Quote:Raycom takes new role as ACC Network plans to debut
Ownership of two high-end production trucks along with its longtime relationship with the league and ESPN made it the perfect partner to continue working behind the scenes on broadcasts when the ACC Network launches on Aug. 22.
“We got a very, very good — lucrative — production contract from ESPN,” Raycom CEO Jimmy Rayburn said. “A lot of the games next year will still be produced from top to bottom, but they just won’t have the Raycom name on it.
“Our bread and butter will still be the ACC, just in a different form.”
Not only will Raycom remain in a production role, but it will also continue to serve as the league's digital partner, help develop some programming on the ACC Network and manage the league's rights.
(This post was last modified: 03-11-2019 11:46 AM by orangefan.)
Okay seriously ... the ACC should just buy Raycom's ACC sports assets and bring it in house. It avoids the whole nepotism issue with Swofford. Or at least it brings it in house where there's accounting and a paper trail.
Smart move on ESPN's part.......why reinvent the wheel?
Raycom already knew the ACC inside and out, now they have just become an ESPN sub-contractor to carry on.
(03-11-2019 12:27 PM)XLance Wrote: Smart move on ESPN's part.......why reinvent the wheel?
Raycom already knew the ACC inside and out, now they have just become an ESPN sub-contractor to carry on.
Agreed. Also, rather than add new production capabilities for the additional inventory that ACCN will carry, use Raycom's existing capabilities. The production value of Raycom's coverage is excellent. I'm guessing that the agreement to do use Raycom in this capacity was included in the larger deal for ESPN to buyout Raycom's sublicense for ACC games.
Quote:Raycom takes new role as ACC Network plans to debut
Ownership of two high-end production trucks along with its longtime relationship with the league and ESPN made it the perfect partner to continue working behind the scenes on broadcasts when the ACC Network launches on Aug. 22.
“We got a very, very good — lucrative — production contract from ESPN,” Raycom CEO Jimmy Rayburn said. “A lot of the games next year will still be produced from top to bottom, but they just won’t have the Raycom name on it.
“Our bread and butter will still be the ACC, just in a different form.”
Not only will Raycom remain in a production role, but it will also continue to serve as the league's digital partner, help develop some programming on the ACC Network and manage the league's rights.
Of freaking course. Should have known it. Just can't cut the cord.
To be fair, this doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with nepotism or old boys network continuing. The truth is, the ACC set aside those games for Raycom and the ACC/ESPN needed them back. If Raycom basically took this contract instead of a lump sum buyout, or in part, then it's possible that short term this is better cash flow wise for the ACC than buying them out.
However, I'd prefer they were just bought out and put behind us. What this means is that the ACC is STILL living with it's stupid decision to set aside rights for Raycom as charity.
Whatever ESPN is now paying Raycom for production, it's clearly more than they'd be paying to produce it themselves. If it wasn't, then Raycom would have a similar sub-production deals with the SEC Network, PAC Nets, BTN, etc. They don't, because it's artificial. And the ACC is STILL living with it.
The question is what's the cost? I don't know...is what ESPN pays Raycom 10% more than the cost to produce it themselves? 20% more? 40% more? We know it's definitely more than the cost to do it themselves, or other networks would use this model.
Whatever the % is, that's money the ACC isn't getting. Because make no mistake, ESPN isn't eating that, it's coming out of the profits the ACC would see.
Let's hope it's minor, 10% on those games they produce, and at least it saved a huge cash outlay to buy them out. But make no mistake, the new contract is absorbing and continuing the pay cut they built in to protect Raycom in 2013. We just don't know how much that is...we'll never know probably.
But it's maddening that the ACC has is insistent on living with that albatross in perpetuity. Was really pleased that for better or worse we were getting out from under it, but of course no such luck.
Quote:Raycom takes new role as ACC Network plans to debut
Ownership of two high-end production trucks along with its longtime relationship with the league and ESPN made it the perfect partner to continue working behind the scenes on broadcasts when the ACC Network launches on Aug. 22.
“We got a very, very good — lucrative — production contract from ESPN,” Raycom CEO Jimmy Rayburn said. “A lot of the games next year will still be produced from top to bottom, but they just won’t have the Raycom name on it.
“Our bread and butter will still be the ACC, just in a different form.”
Not only will Raycom remain in a production role, but it will also continue to serve as the league's digital partner, help develop some programming on the ACC Network and manage the league's rights.
Of freaking course. Should have known it. Just can't cut the cord.
To be fair, this doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with nepotism or old boys network continuing. The truth is, the ACC set aside those games for Raycom and the ACC/ESPN needed them back. If Raycom basically took this contract instead of a lump sum buyout, or in part, then it's possible that short term this is better cash flow wise for the ACC than buying them out.
However, I'd prefer they were just bought out and put behind us. What this means is that the ACC is STILL living with it's stupid decision to set aside rights for Raycom as charity.
Whatever ESPN is now paying Raycom for production, it's clearly more than they'd be paying to produce it themselves. If it wasn't, then Raycom would have a similar sub-production deals with the SEC Network, PAC Nets, BTN, etc. They don't, because it's artificial. And the ACC is STILL living with it.
The question is what's the cost? I don't know...is what ESPN pays Raycom 10% more than the cost to produce it themselves? 20% more? 40% more? We know it's definitely more than the cost to do it themselves, or other networks would use this model.
Whatever the % is, that's money the ACC isn't getting. Because make no mistake, ESPN isn't eating that, it's coming out of the profits the ACC would see.
Let's hope it's minor, 10% on those games they produce, and at least it saved a huge cash outlay to buy them out. But make no mistake, the new contract is absorbing and continuing the pay cut they built in to protect Raycom in 2013. We just don't know how much that is...we'll never know probably.
But it's maddening that the ACC has is insistent on living with that albatross in perpetuity. Was really pleased that for better or worse we were getting out from under it, but of course no such luck.
Paying more?
Sub-contracting eliminates all of the benefit costs from ESPN and requires no capital outlay. Pretty smart business move on ESPN's part.
I wonder if Raycom's talent will move with the contract, too. I would like to see Durham, Gminski, Bonner and Brando on the ACCN broadcast team.
(03-11-2019 12:23 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: Okay seriously ... the ACC should just buy Raycom's ACC sports assets and bring it in house. It avoids the whole nepotism issue with Swofford. Or at least it brings it in house where there's accounting and a paper trail.
With those fingers in the pie as overhead on a 50/50 profit split payout to the ACC it simply means less for all of you.
Damn! I never knew that any major conference was this incestuous with its business relations.
Loose translation of "lucrative for Raycom" means the ACCN will "Just Mean Less" for the schools.
Quote:Raycom takes new role as ACC Network plans to debut
Ownership of two high-end production trucks along with its longtime relationship with the league and ESPN made it the perfect partner to continue working behind the scenes on broadcasts when the ACC Network launches on Aug. 22.
“We got a very, very good — lucrative — production contract from ESPN,” Raycom CEO Jimmy Rayburn said. “A lot of the games next year will still be produced from top to bottom, but they just won’t have the Raycom name on it.
“Our bread and butter will still be the ACC, just in a different form.”
Not only will Raycom remain in a production role, but it will also continue to serve as the league's digital partner, help develop some programming on the ACC Network and manage the league's rights.
Of freaking course. Should have known it. Just can't cut the cord.
To be fair, this doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with nepotism or old boys network continuing. The truth is, the ACC set aside those games for Raycom and the ACC/ESPN needed them back. If Raycom basically took this contract instead of a lump sum buyout, or in part, then it's possible that short term this is better cash flow wise for the ACC than buying them out.
However, I'd prefer they were just bought out and put behind us. What this means is that the ACC is STILL living with it's stupid decision to set aside rights for Raycom as charity.
Whatever ESPN is now paying Raycom for production, it's clearly more than they'd be paying to produce it themselves. If it wasn't, then Raycom would have a similar sub-production deals with the SEC Network, PAC Nets, BTN, etc. They don't, because it's artificial. And the ACC is STILL living with it.
The question is what's the cost? I don't know...is what ESPN pays Raycom 10% more than the cost to produce it themselves? 20% more? 40% more? We know it's definitely more than the cost to do it themselves, or other networks would use this model.
Whatever the % is, that's money the ACC isn't getting. Because make no mistake, ESPN isn't eating that, it's coming out of the profits the ACC would see.
Let's hope it's minor, 10% on those games they produce, and at least it saved a huge cash outlay to buy them out. But make no mistake, the new contract is absorbing and continuing the pay cut they built in to protect Raycom in 2013. We just don't know how much that is...we'll never know probably.
But it's maddening that the ACC has is insistent on living with that albatross in perpetuity. Was really pleased that for better or worse we were getting out from under it, but of course no such luck.
Paying more?
Sub-contracting eliminates all of the benefit costs from ESPN and requires no capital outlay. Pretty smart business move on ESPN's part.
I wonder if Raycom's talent will move with the contract, too. I would like to see Durham, Gminski, Bonner and Brando on the ACCN broadcast team.
Sorry, that's absurd. If that was true, then why doesn't Raycom have deals to subcontract production with the three other conference networks? Or ESPN in general.
Hint, if you're looking around the room trying to find the stupid one, it's you.
It's the same reason that the ACC was the only one "selling" rights to Raycom...because it doesn't make business sense. Their business model for years (and still will be) entirely dependent on the ACC's largesse. It's the equivalent of the ACC still paying for full-service gas, and pretending it makes business sense.
The ACC is subsidizing Raycom, in every sense. Money that could be going to schools is offsetting the higher cost of employing Raycom. The only questions is how much. And joy, it still keeps going in perpetuity. Again, IF THIS MADE BUSINESS SENSE, OTHER ENTITIES WOULD BE DOING IT.
If the claim is that this set aside is a better financial move than a buyout, that may be true, but that is ONLY because of the stupidity of subsidizing them in the last contract. The best that can be said is that maybe it optimizes a bad mistake, but it by no means corrects it in any way.
Now, if you want to say that it's WORTH everyone taking a haircut to continuing to subsidize a private business because of some sort of emotional resonance (which doesn't even make ANY sense anymore with the branding going away), but you won't sell that nonsense to anyone outside tobacco road or anyone younger than 40.
Frankly, it deserves to be ridiculed by anyone. And believe me, some of us will never let people forget that through 2036 the ACC is still subsidizing Raycom.
I don't care as much about the business details as to why we are doing this, I just want to be completely divorced from Raycom. I agree with Lou here. Why are we continuing to subsidize this sh!tshow?
Just remember this thread when we get soft peddled performance figures for the ACCN.
Just remember this thread once a year when conference distributions make the news headlines and again the ACC 8 figures a year a school behind its back yard competition (SEC/B1G). But hey, we'll have the Pac-12 to keep us company or to jeer at, which helps a ton since the ACC almost never plays them.
(03-11-2019 09:08 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: Just remember this thread when we get soft peddled performance figures for the ACCN.
Just remember this thread once a year when conference distributions make the news headlines and again the ACC 8 figures a year a school behind its back yard competition (SEC/B1G). But hey, we'll have the Pac-12 to keep us company or to jeer at, which helps a ton since the ACC almost never plays them.
Aha... the REAL reason for the Holiday Bowl tie-in! GTS, you're a genius!
lol, Jefferson Pilot Sports lives again!!! That made my night!! After a crappy night at work, it’s nice to know that JP Sports is never out of style, lol!!! Hey XLance, since you like JP so much, want me to send you a link to the JP Sports SEC games??? That way you can have more of what you love.
(This post was last modified: 03-12-2019 04:55 AM by DawgNBama.)
(03-12-2019 04:50 AM)DawgNBama Wrote: lol, Jefferson Pilot Sports lives again!!! That made my night!! After a crappy night at work, it’s nice to know that JP Sports is never out of style, lol!!! Hey XLance, since you like JP so much, want me to send you a link to the JP Sports SEC games??? That way you can have more of what you love.
CHAPEL HILL — First, C.D. Chesley captured our imaginations in 1957 by sending ACC basketball into living rooms along Tobacco Road for the first time, then we spent Saturday afternoons sailing with the Pilot, Thacker and Packer as the league established itself as the best in the nation.
From there, an upstart group from Charlotte took the reins, giving ACC basketball an unprecedented primetime platform for the first time and helping to begin what would become a revolution in the high-stakes world of college sports television.
For the past 37 years, Raycom Sports has become as much a part of the fabric of North Carolina’s culture as Cheerwine and "The Andy Griffith Show," the familiar voices of Dan Bonner and Tim Brando offering a warm soundtrack on a cold winter evening.
This week, schoolteachers across the Old North State will wheel televisions into their classrooms for the last time to watch a Raycom broadcast of the ACC Tournament as the conference prepares to launch the ACC Network in partnership with ESPN, ending 37 years of syndication on local television networks throughout the league’s geographic region.
“For a lot of long-time ACC fans, that connection between Raycom and the ACC is almost ingrained,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said. “The length of that relationship and partnership is sort of unheard of, really, in sports television.
"It’s a tremendous credit to the partnership over the years — and it truly has been a partnership — and a tribute to that company and its growth, its ability to adjust to the times."
CHARLOTTE
The pilot still sails, quietly, behind the scenes.
Before the first game of the ACC tournament in Charlotte, the Raycom television crew will listen, over their headsets, to the old “Sail with the Pilot” jingle of the Pilot Life insurance company that once sponsored the ubiquitous syndicated broadcasts of ACC basketball.
In the production truck, and at the broadcast position, and behind the cameras, and everywhere else, they’ll sing along:
Sail with the Pilot at the wheel/On a ship sturdy from its mast to its keel
He guides through storm and wave/insures you while you save
That jingle has been off the air for years, but for the ACC it represents something bigger than life insurance. It’s a link to C.D. Chesley’s groundbreaking Saturday ACC broadcasts on local affiliates, WRAL in Raleigh, WBTV in Charlotte, WFMY in Greensboro. It’s a callback to Jefferson-Pilot, which partnered with Raycom to take over that package in 1982, becoming Lincoln Financial and then Raycom Sports and then the so-called ACC Network, the in-name-only precursor to the actual network ESPN will launch in August.
The common thread over the past 37 years has been Raycom, the Charlotte production company which became as much a part of the ACC as the ACC itself.
(This post was last modified: 03-12-2019 05:32 AM by XLance.)
(03-11-2019 04:15 PM)JRsec Wrote: With those fingers in the pie as overhead on a 50/50 profit split payout to the ACC it simply means less for all of you.
Loose translation of "lucrative for Raycom" means the ACCN will "Just Mean Less" for the schools.
Exactly. Somebody's North Carolina buddies at Raycom get a slice of the profits, rather than it going to the conference and schools.
(03-12-2019 04:50 AM)DawgNBama Wrote: lol, Jefferson Pilot Sports lives again!!! That made my night!! After a crappy night at work, it’s nice to know that JP Sports is never out of style, lol!!! Hey XLance, since you like JP so much, want me to send you a link to the JP Sports SEC games??? That way you can have more of what you love.
I don't understand this attitude. While the ACC hopes to make a good deal more money off the ACC Network, it's made a ton of money over the decades off syndication. I don't think people understand. The alternative to JP Sports syndication in most cases was no TV. Who do you think would have televised Miami-Pitt basketball games?
So ESPN is contracting two of Raycom’s production trucks and people are throwing fits? That’s rich.
Do any of you actually know how on-site production works? The two trucks are only going to be able to cover two separate events at one time. ESPN would essentially have to hire more crew, buy high end production trucks and equipment, or cut production in other areas to accommodate ACC games without this.
I come to the ACC board for all my conspiracies! Bring on Bonner, Brano, and G Man!!
(03-12-2019 08:14 AM)esayem Wrote: So ESPN is contracting two of Raycom’s production trucks and people are throwing fits? That’s rich.
Do any of you actually know how on-site production works? The two trucks are only going to be able to cover two separate events at one time. ESPN would essentially have to hire more crew, buy high end production trucks and equipment, or cut production in other areas to accommodate ACC games without this.
I come to the ACC board for all my conspiracies! Bring on Bonner, Brano, and G Man!!
People are pissed because it's a "very, very lucrative" deal for Raycom, in their own words.
Why is the ACC giving Raycom a very lucrative contract, when no other network is? It's a giveaway, pure and simple, probably as a result of the giveaway in the last deal.
If ESPN found it more profitable to subcontract to Raycom, they'd do it with their other networks, but they don't.
There's no other way to spin this or deny reality, the only pro position you can take is that you love Raycom because of nostalgia, and you're glad the ACC is keeping their business alive for a few people for old times sake.
![[Image: no-escape-signs-p830-14131_zoom.jpg]](http://www.keysigns.co.uk/images/no-escape-signs-p830-14131_zoom.jpg)
