Excellent video interview embedded in the article, too, with Bryan Fischer interviewing Bob Thompson.

https://www.extrapointsmb.com/big-ten-es...questions/

(08-15-2022 04:34 PM)BeatWestern! Wrote:  Excellent video interview embedded in the article, too, with Bryan Fischer interviewing Bob Thompson.

https://www.extrapointsmb.com/big-ten-es...questions/

Thank you for sharing. I agree it is an excellent article and video.

However, I would like to point out one statement from the article that is inaccurate:

"The ESPN family of networks typically carries around 80 basketball games a year"

During the 2021-22 basketball season, ESPN Networks only carried 30 men's basketball games (including 6 on ESPNU). None of these games included Big Ten tournament games which were not covered by ESPN. For comparison, other networks are # of Big Ten basketball games:

Fox: 10
CBS: 10 (plus an additional 3 BTT games)
FS1: 29
BTN: 121 (plus an additional 10 BTT games)
BTN+ 37 (all non-conference)

https://bigten.org/documents/2021/10/5//...df?id=7292

The additions of USC and UCLA will add an additional ~35 games so the total number of games that need a new home is ~65. Yes, that is a large number but it is manageable, especially if NBC/Peacock get into college basketball.

One item I was hoping for in the new deal is that the BTN+ games would go to another streaming home (e.g. ESPN+, Amazon, Peacock, etc.). There is a lot of content on BTN+ (men's BB is only the tip of the iceberg) but the BTN+ platform is subpar with it being expensive and not user-friendly with some streaming platforms. There is an opportunity to better monetize this content and make it more fan friendly with another platform. Alas, I am concerned that the Big Ten will increase the content on BTN+. We will hopefully find out this week.

Good article I feel like reinvesting the money for the 1st 3 /5 years would be the best path forward. Build out your rainy day fund, pay down debt, and reinvest in facilities/ infrastructure for for your AD.. Would love to see some additional $$ invested from the conference and their partners in a streaming app for better quality and user experience. While I only use for lax season, the current app stinks compared to others.

As for the last sentence of the 3rd question, does add a sport mean a specific school using the increased $$ add a program or 2? Or is that saying the B1G invests in sponsoring a sport( example: now sponsors M/W water polo)

(08-16-2022 12:24 PM)woollymammoth41 Wrote:  Good article I feel like reinvesting the money for the 1st 3 /5 years would be the best path forward. Build out your rainy day fund, pay down debt, and reinvest in facilities/ infrastructure for for your AD.. Would love to see some additional $$ invested from the conference and their partners in a streaming app for better quality and user experience. While I only use for lax season, the current app stinks compared to others.

As for the last sentence of the 3rd question, does add a sport mean a specific school using the increased $$ add a program or 2? Or is that saying the B1G invests in sponsoring a sport( example: now sponsors M/W water polo)

It likely won't be men's volleyball. Even with the SoCal pair, the B1G doesn't have enough members to sponsor it. They will only have four with Penn State and Ohio State.

(08-15-2022 05:31 PM)MadisonHawk Wrote:  

(08-15-2022 04:34 PM)BeatWestern! Wrote:  Excellent video interview embedded in the article, too, with Bryan Fischer interviewing Bob Thompson.

https://www.extrapointsmb.com/big-ten-es...questions/

Thank you for sharing. I agree it is an excellent article and video.

However, I would like to point out one statement from the article that is inaccurate:

"The ESPN family of networks typically carries around 80 basketball games a year"

During the 2021-22 basketball season, ESPN Networks only carried 30 men's basketball games (including 6 on ESPNU). None of these games included Big Ten tournament games which were not covered by ESPN. For comparison, other networks are # of Big Ten basketball games:

Fox: 10
CBS: 10 (plus an additional 3 BTT games)
FS1: 29
BTN: 121 (plus an additional 10 BTT games)
BTN+ 37 (all non-conference)

https://bigten.org/documents/2021/10/5//...df?id=7292

The additions of USC and UCLA will add an additional ~35 games so the total number of games that need a new home is ~65. Yes, that is a large number but it is manageable, especially if NBC/Peacock get into college basketball.

One item I was hoping for in the new deal is that the BTN+ games would go to another streaming home (e.g. ESPN+, Amazon, Peacock, etc.). There is a lot of content on BTN+ (men's BB is only the tip of the iceberg) but the BTN+ platform is subpar with it being expensive and not user-friendly with some streaming platforms. There is an opportunity to better monetize this content and make it more fan friendly with another platform. Alas, I am concerned that the Big Ten will increase the content on BTN+. We will hopefully find out this week.

I didn't blink at the idea that ESPN aired 80 men's basketball games a year. I find it hard to believe that they only broadcast 30. That's fewer than two games a week over 3 channels.

(08-16-2022 01:26 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(08-15-2022 05:31 PM)MadisonHawk Wrote:  

(08-15-2022 04:34 PM)BeatWestern! Wrote:  Excellent video interview embedded in the article, too, with Bryan Fischer interviewing Bob Thompson.

https://www.extrapointsmb.com/big-ten-es...questions/

Thank you for sharing. I agree it is an excellent article and video.

However, I would like to point out one statement from the article that is inaccurate:

"The ESPN family of networks typically carries around 80 basketball games a year"

During the 2021-22 basketball season, ESPN Networks only carried 30 men's basketball games (including 6 on ESPNU). None of these games included Big Ten tournament games which were not covered by ESPN. For comparison, other networks are # of Big Ten basketball games:

Fox: 10
CBS: 10 (plus an additional 3 BTT games)
FS1: 29
BTN: 121 (plus an additional 10 BTT games)
BTN+ 37 (all non-conference)

https://bigten.org/documents/2021/10/5//...df?id=7292

The additions of USC and UCLA will add an additional ~35 games so the total number of games that need a new home is ~65. Yes, that is a large number but it is manageable, especially if NBC/Peacock get into college basketball.

One item I was hoping for in the new deal is that the BTN+ games would go to another streaming home (e.g. ESPN+, Amazon, Peacock, etc.). There is a lot of content on BTN+ (men's BB is only the tip of the iceberg) but the BTN+ platform is subpar with it being expensive and not user-friendly with some streaming platforms. There is an opportunity to better monetize this content and make it more fan friendly with another platform. Alas, I am concerned that the Big Ten will increase the content on BTN+. We will hopefully find out this week.

I didn't blink at the idea that ESPN aired 80 men's basketball games a year. I find it hard to believe that they only broadcast 30. That's fewer than two games a week over 3 channels.

I'm with you. ESPN has Big Monday in a regular season schedule of at least 12 weeks. They also do College Gameday, which is another game on their main channel each week. So with those, you already have about 24 games just on ESPN Monday Night and Saturday. Are they really saying there were only 6 more broadcasts of college games across all ESPN networks meaning ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU (not sure if ESPN+ counts or not). That just really doesn't track.

(08-16-2022 01:34 PM)Sicembear11 Wrote:  

(08-16-2022 01:26 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(08-15-2022 05:31 PM)MadisonHawk Wrote:  

(08-15-2022 04:34 PM)BeatWestern! Wrote:  Excellent video interview embedded in the article, too, with Bryan Fischer interviewing Bob Thompson.

https://www.extrapointsmb.com/big-ten-es...questions/

Thank you for sharing. I agree it is an excellent article and video.

However, I would like to point out one statement from the article that is inaccurate:

"The ESPN family of networks typically carries around 80 basketball games a year"

During the 2021-22 basketball season, ESPN Networks only carried 30 men's basketball games (including 6 on ESPNU). None of these games included Big Ten tournament games which were not covered by ESPN. For comparison, other networks are # of Big Ten basketball games:

Fox: 10
CBS: 10 (plus an additional 3 BTT games)
FS1: 29
BTN: 121 (plus an additional 10 BTT games)
BTN+ 37 (all non-conference)

https://bigten.org/documents/2021/10/5//...df?id=7292

The additions of USC and UCLA will add an additional ~35 games so the total number of games that need a new home is ~65. Yes, that is a large number but it is manageable, especially if NBC/Peacock get into college basketball.

One item I was hoping for in the new deal is that the BTN+ games would go to another streaming home (e.g. ESPN+, Amazon, Peacock, etc.). There is a lot of content on BTN+ (men's BB is only the tip of the iceberg) but the BTN+ platform is subpar with it being expensive and not user-friendly with some streaming platforms. There is an opportunity to better monetize this content and make it more fan friendly with another platform. Alas, I am concerned that the Big Ten will increase the content on BTN+. We will hopefully find out this week.

I didn't blink at the idea that ESPN aired 80 men's basketball games a year. I find it hard to believe that they only broadcast 30. That's fewer than two games a week over 3 channels.

I'm with you. ESPN has Big Monday in a regular season schedule of at least 12 weeks. They also do College Gameday, which is another game on their main channel each week. So with those, you already have about 24 games just on ESPN Monday Night and Saturday. Are they really saying there were only 6 more broadcasts of college games across all ESPN networks meaning ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU (not sure if ESPN+ counts or not). That just really doesn't track.

Here is a link to the Big Ten basketball television schedule from last year (copied from the original response) so you can count the games. ESPN does not cover B1G on Mondays: only Tuesdays, Thursdays and the occasional weekend.

https://bigten.org/documents/2021/10/5//...df?id=7292

(08-16-2022 08:29 PM)MadisonHawk Wrote:  

(08-16-2022 01:34 PM)Sicembear11 Wrote:  

(08-16-2022 01:26 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(08-15-2022 05:31 PM)MadisonHawk Wrote:  

(08-15-2022 04:34 PM)BeatWestern! Wrote:  Excellent video interview embedded in the article, too, with Bryan Fischer interviewing Bob Thompson.

https://www.extrapointsmb.com/big-ten-es...questions/

Thank you for sharing. I agree it is an excellent article and video.

However, I would like to point out one statement from the article that is inaccurate:

"The ESPN family of networks typically carries around 80 basketball games a year"

During the 2021-22 basketball season, ESPN Networks only carried 30 men's basketball games (including 6 on ESPNU). None of these games included Big Ten tournament games which were not covered by ESPN. For comparison, other networks are # of Big Ten basketball games:

Fox: 10
CBS: 10 (plus an additional 3 BTT games)
FS1: 29
BTN: 121 (plus an additional 10 BTT games)
BTN+ 37 (all non-conference)

https://bigten.org/documents/2021/10/5//...df?id=7292

The additions of USC and UCLA will add an additional ~35 games so the total number of games that need a new home is ~65. Yes, that is a large number but it is manageable, especially if NBC/Peacock get into college basketball.

One item I was hoping for in the new deal is that the BTN+ games would go to another streaming home (e.g. ESPN+, Amazon, Peacock, etc.). There is a lot of content on BTN+ (men's BB is only the tip of the iceberg) but the BTN+ platform is subpar with it being expensive and not user-friendly with some streaming platforms. There is an opportunity to better monetize this content and make it more fan friendly with another platform. Alas, I am concerned that the Big Ten will increase the content on BTN+. We will hopefully find out this week.

I didn't blink at the idea that ESPN aired 80 men's basketball games a year. I find it hard to believe that they only broadcast 30. That's fewer than two games a week over 3 channels.

I'm with you. ESPN has Big Monday in a regular season schedule of at least 12 weeks. They also do College Gameday, which is another game on their main channel each week. So with those, you already have about 24 games just on ESPN Monday Night and Saturday. Are they really saying there were only 6 more broadcasts of college games across all ESPN networks meaning ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU (not sure if ESPN+ counts or not). That just really doesn't track.

Here is a link to the Big Ten basketball television schedule from last year (copied from the original response) so you can count the games. ESPN does not cover B1G on Mondays: only Tuesdays, Thursdays and the occasional weekend.

https://bigten.org/documents/2021/10/5//...df?id=7292

Yes - there were definitely a lot fewer Big Ten basketball games on the ESPN networks in the current TV package. Essentially 2 to 3 games per week during the conference season and then a smattering of non-conference games. Granted, the schedule in the link didn’t include the ACC-Big Ten Challenge for some reason, so that’s 7 Big Ten home games on ESPN networks right there that need to be added. Each of the main non-conference exempt tournaments along with events like the Champions Classic and Jimmy V Classic also typically included at least one Big Ten school, so there were a lot of ESPN basketball broadcasts that included a Big Ten team but weren’t under the Big Ten TV contract.

So, even without as many Big Ten-controlled basketball games on the ESPN networks anymore, it still feels like there are a ton of Big Ten games on in the non-conference slate in November and December because Big Ten schools are involved in so many tournaments and events shown on ESPN.

(08-16-2022 08:29 PM)MadisonHawk Wrote:  

(08-16-2022 01:34 PM)Sicembear11 Wrote:  

(08-16-2022 01:26 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(08-15-2022 05:31 PM)MadisonHawk Wrote:  

(08-15-2022 04:34 PM)BeatWestern! Wrote:  Excellent video interview embedded in the article, too, with Bryan Fischer interviewing Bob Thompson.

https://www.extrapointsmb.com/big-ten-es...questions/

Thank you for sharing. I agree it is an excellent article and video.

However, I would like to point out one statement from the article that is inaccurate:

"The ESPN family of networks typically carries around 80 basketball games a year"

During the 2021-22 basketball season, ESPN Networks only carried 30 men's basketball games (including 6 on ESPNU). None of these games included Big Ten tournament games which were not covered by ESPN. For comparison, other networks are # of Big Ten basketball games:

Fox: 10
CBS: 10 (plus an additional 3 BTT games)
FS1: 29
BTN: 121 (plus an additional 10 BTT games)
BTN+ 37 (all non-conference)

https://bigten.org/documents/2021/10/5//...df?id=7292

The additions of USC and UCLA will add an additional ~35 games so the total number of games that need a new home is ~65. Yes, that is a large number but it is manageable, especially if NBC/Peacock get into college basketball.

One item I was hoping for in the new deal is that the BTN+ games would go to another streaming home (e.g. ESPN+, Amazon, Peacock, etc.). There is a lot of content on BTN+ (men's BB is only the tip of the iceberg) but the BTN+ platform is subpar with it being expensive and not user-friendly with some streaming platforms. There is an opportunity to better monetize this content and make it more fan friendly with another platform. Alas, I am concerned that the Big Ten will increase the content on BTN+. We will hopefully find out this week.

I didn't blink at the idea that ESPN aired 80 men's basketball games a year. I find it hard to believe that they only broadcast 30. That's fewer than two games a week over 3 channels.

I'm with you. ESPN has Big Monday in a regular season schedule of at least 12 weeks. They also do College Gameday, which is another game on their main channel each week. So with those, you already have about 24 games just on ESPN Monday Night and Saturday. Are they really saying there were only 6 more broadcasts of college games across all ESPN networks meaning ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU (not sure if ESPN+ counts or not). That just really doesn't track.

Here is a link to the Big Ten basketball television schedule from last year (copied from the original response) so you can count the games. ESPN does not cover B1G on Mondays: only Tuesdays, Thursdays and the occasional weekend.

https://bigten.org/documents/2021/10/5//...df?id=7292

The article didn't say ESPN airs 80 B1G games a year. It said college basketball games. ESPN broadcasts lots of games for other conferences.

ESPN does 20 BB games a wk, close to 400 a yr

Resurrecting this thread to talk about Matt's question on how the new deal affects B1G men's basketball:

What does this mean for college basketball?

Make no mistake about it, Big Ten football inventory is what is driving the bus for these media rights deals. But those aren't the only broadcasts that have value. ESPN, Fox, and CBS currently carry Big Ten men's basketball games. The ESPN family of networks typically carries around 80 basketball games a year, including the highly popular Big Ten/ACC Challenge. [sic, ESPN covers 30 B1G men's BB games plus ACC challenge] the Big Ten women's basketball, volleyball, and softball games are occasionally carried on linear networks as well.

That's a lot of inventory, inventory that isn't likely to be completely swallowed up by Fox since they don't have the sports inventory space that ESPN does. Will CBS increase the number of games they cover, likely on weekends? Will more basketball inventory get moved to Peacock or other streaming services? Could Fox even sublicense some of the inventory to ESPN?

Based on public reports (for some reason the B1G never put out coverage comparison charts), the new television rights for MBB are as follows:

Holder.........Current.....2023......2024-29

Fox / FS1.....38-40.........45...........45
ESPN/2/U.......30.............0............0
CBS...............10............11..........15
BTN..............120..........126........126
Peacock............0............32..........47

Excluduing the B1G/ACC challenge, ESPN covered approximately 30 college BB games. Add in the an additional 35 games for USC and UCLA starting in 2024, that is approximately 65 additional games. The vast majority (47) are going to Peacock, including 32 conference games. The remaining ~18 games are going to Fox/FS1 (5-7), CBS (5) and BTN (6). Presumably BTN+ will continue to carry a couple of non-conference games for each school also.

The net result is a material decrease in exposure for men's BB as Peacock (which currently does not televise any college BB) will have 20% (32/160) of the B1G's conference basketball games and two tournament games. I was hoping that NBC OTA would get involved and more games would go to Fox and CBS. Yes, as a BB fan I will subscribe to Peacock to get the games but overall this is a step backwards for B1G men's BB.

Wow - that's a ton of games on BTN & Peacock. The casual viewer will have trouble finding Big 10 basketball outside of the Fox & CBS games. This provides opportunity for other conferences. Maybe ESPN will try to get the Big East back to fill in for the missing Big 10 games.

I’ve said that the worst part of the Big Ten leaving ESPN isn’t about football because the exposure for B1G football games is going to be massive. Where it’s going to be felt is basketball.

I mean - I get why they did it this way. Regular season college basketball has turned into a commodity with smaller but passionate audiences, so it’s more akin to trying to monetize soccer in the US than football. The way to monetize college basketball 10-15 years ago was a conference network. The way to seemingly do it now is with a heavy streaming component. That sucks for me personally since Illini basketball is a quite a bit more entertaining than Illini football, but it is what it is in the name of seeking maximum revenue. Hence, the football component of the Big Ten package is very old school and actually a throwback (like an NFL OTA TV deal from the 1970s) while the basketball component is very new school (where streaming is more important).

(08-21-2022 09:54 AM)Section 200 Wrote:  Wow - that's a ton of games on BTN & Peacock. The casual viewer will have trouble finding Big 10 basketball outside of the Fox & CBS games. This provides opportunity for other conferences. Maybe ESPN will try to get the Big East back to fill in for the missing Big 10 games.

There really isn't a casual viewer of basketball anymore. The majority wait until March 1 to focus on it.

(08-21-2022 09:54 AM)Section 200 Wrote:  Wow - that's a ton of games on BTN & Peacock. The casual viewer will have trouble finding Big 10 basketball outside of the Fox & CBS games. This provides opportunity for other conferences. Maybe ESPN will try to get the Big East back to fill in for the missing Big 10 games.

I'm actually kind of fearful of this. My UConn Huskies play every single game on linear television. I have no interest to go diving into streaming for college basketball. If ESPN gets a portion of the Big East deal and any of UConn's games go on ESPN+, I'm not going to be happy. Also, we currently get about 7 regular season games a year on either big FOX or CBS. I don't want that to change.

(08-21-2022 10:17 AM)shizzle787 Wrote:  

(08-21-2022 09:54 AM)Section 200 Wrote:  Wow - that's a ton of games on BTN & Peacock. The casual viewer will have trouble finding Big 10 basketball outside of the Fox & CBS games. This provides opportunity for other conferences. Maybe ESPN will try to get the Big East back to fill in for the missing Big 10 games.

I'm actually kind of fearful of this. My UConn Huskies play every single game on linear television. I have no interest to go diving into streaming for college basketball. If ESPN gets a portion of the Big East deal and any of UConn's games go on ESPN+, I'm not going to be happy. Also, we currently get about 7 regular season games a year on either big FOX or CBS. I don't want that to change.

For better or worse, those days are gone. An underrated aspect of the Big Ten is that they have consistently been the most-watched basketball conference, too. This isn’t a case of them having filler content. Yet, it’s clear that if you want to extract maximum value from college basketball, a national linear TV deal alone isn’t sufficient. The Big 12 already has a lot of ESPN+ exclusive basketball games and that was a deal made when they still had UT and OU.

Now, it could go either way for the Big East. Unlike the P5 conferences, the Big East’s primary product is basketball, so they may need to value linear TV exposure for basketball more compared to the other leagues. On the other hand, they’re at a financial disadvantage compared to the P5 leagues that can easily fund top tier basketball operations with all of their football cash. So, the Big East can’t take that much of a financial haircut, either. Most likely, it’s going to be a mix of linear TV and streaming - that’s how all of these deals are working now.

(08-21-2022 10:11 AM)Scoochpooch1 Wrote:  

(08-21-2022 09:54 AM)Section 200 Wrote:  Wow - that's a ton of games on BTN & Peacock. The casual viewer will have trouble finding Big 10 basketball outside of the Fox & CBS games. This provides opportunity for other conferences. Maybe ESPN will try to get the Big East back to fill in for the missing Big 10 games.

There really isn't a casual viewer of basketball anymore. The majority wait until March 1 to focus on it.

I disagree - the game ratings are lower since there are so many games & games every day of the week, but there are tons of casual viewers. Tons of folks watch on ESPN & app plus the over the air channels. Diehards will find the games on any channel but the casual viewer will not.

(08-21-2022 10:11 AM)Scoochpooch1 Wrote:  

(08-21-2022 09:54 AM)Section 200 Wrote:  Wow - that's a ton of games on BTN & Peacock. The casual viewer will have trouble finding Big 10 basketball outside of the Fox & CBS games. This provides opportunity for other conferences. Maybe ESPN will try to get the Big East back to fill in for the missing Big 10 games.

There really isn't a casual viewer of basketball anymore. The majority wait until March 1 to focus on it.

It's ironic, because there's so much more on these days, but I definitely do not watch regular season college hoops anywhere near as much as I did say 30 years ago.

Back then, I watched as much as I could. Now, I watch very little.

I think it is because IMO college basketball has lost its regional character. Back in the day, if North Carolina and Michigan and UCLA had great teams, you'd watch them each play all year, building up the anticipation for a possible NCAA tournament clash.

But these days, with the plethora of early season tournaments and the pressure to build your SOS, it seems like just about everyone plays everyone before the tournament. And within the conference, only about 1/5 games was on your TV, so you watched.

I liked the old days, when the old (IIRC) Jimmy V power conference formula for making the tourney prevailed - go 9-1 vs OOC cupcakes, go 10-10 in your tough conference, go 1-1 in the conference tournament, and voila, there are your 20 wins and you make the Big Dance.

Then, worry about how you match up against the powers from the Big 10 or Big 12 or Big East that you've followed in the papers the previous three months.

Sometimes, IMO, less is more in terms of building interest in the season.

I think it’s because you pretty much know you are in the tourney if you have a good program. Regular season is basically preseason exhibition games

(08-21-2022 10:17 AM)shizzle787 Wrote:  

(08-21-2022 09:54 AM)Section 200 Wrote:  Wow - that's a ton of games on BTN & Peacock. The casual viewer will have trouble finding Big 10 basketball outside of the Fox & CBS games. This provides opportunity for other conferences. Maybe ESPN will try to get the Big East back to fill in for the missing Big 10 games.

I'm actually kind of fearful of this. My UConn Huskies play every single game on linear television. I have no interest to go diving into streaming for college basketball. If ESPN gets a portion of the Big East deal and any of UConn's games go on ESPN+, I'm not going to be happy. Also, we currently get about 7 regular season games a year on either big FOX or CBS. I don't want that to change.

I actually think the Big East will be fine. The relationship between Fox and the Big East has been good for both sides. The exposure and production quality by Fox has been strong and the Big East has largely produced on the court, even with some of its historic programs (e.g. Georgetown, St. John's) having prolonged down stretches.

The current television deal has three years remaining and I would anticipate that both sides would want to renew it. It is positive that the Fox is not getting a significant increase in MBB in the new B1G television deal so Fox cannot really lose the Big East. There could be opportunities for cross-promotion between B1G and Big East basketball on Fox which really has not happened, especially because the conferences have overlapping geographic footprint. Also, since Fox does not have a streaming platform, they are less likely than others (i.e. ESPN) to ask for a streaming package.

Finally, as Section 200 mentioned, I do not know the terms of the sublicense of Big East games from Fox to CBS Sports Network, but it would be great for the Big East if those games went to ESPN.