Conference media deal hypothetical.

[CL82]

Hey, I'm not saying it's a good idea for us, but in many ways we would be the ideal target for Apple to get its feet wet in the college sports arena. We would definitely be less expensive than a football conference, but, would provide more pieces of separate content. Here's the thing though, the only person who's ever going to go on Apple looking for basketball games is someone who knows that their game is on there. So you're going to lose the exposure from fans scrolling through their TV seeing a game and stopping to watch it. I doubt you'd see any ESPN highlights either. It would be a dangerous move, but when that might be hard to turn down by the conference.

Before anyone gets all bent out of shape about the hypothetical, we're in the middle of the dead season. If you don't feel like discussing it, move on to a different thread.

 

[STLPirate12]

There's a reason Apple hasn't revealed its MLS subscription/viewer numbers, though they might in the future now with the Messi boost.

Hard pass.

 

[papacheesy2]

Apple TV is cheaper to subscribe to than a cable package. Sign me up.

 

[Seton75]

What do we expect to make from our next TV deal?

 

[CL82]

What do we expect to make from our next TV deal?

Who knows? For a while people were speculating $8 million which, while not much by football conference money, effectively doubles our existing deal. Recently, some people have suggested that the Pac 12 collapse shows that the broadcast rights market has significantly contracted, but the Pac 12 turned down a $30 million per school per year deal. There's still money out there and I think we offer a ton of quality content at a pretty reasonable price.

 

[Harty9]

I'm still gonna watch my games in person, so take the money. I don't care.

 

[MooneyHall07]

For $15M per school you almost have to take the deal. But it is a risk because there hasn’t been an American sports league that I can think of that has gone to a all streaming model exclusively. The last time I checked, Apple TV+ had around 25-30M paid subscribers, where FS1 just passed ESPN as the most carried sports network in America with 71M subscribers.

I also think that over the air broadcast TV is still a powerful force. Big east games are on Fox routinely. So when Ed Cooley comes back to Providence on a January Saturday, that game is going to be on a streaming platform?

For SHU in particularly, how many times have we appeared on network TV the last 5-6 years alone? Now how much did we appear on CBS the prior 20 years? I guess I would be concerned with sacrificing long term growth of the league with short term monetary gain.

 

[SPK145]

For the year ended 06/30/22, the Big East got $48,700,489 from FOX ($4,427,000 per program), a large increase over the prior 10 years.

 

[statenman]

One of the reasons that the BE has recruited so well is the fact that we are on TV. If we went back in time 10 years ago and went all streaming for 3x more $ ...not only would exposure suck but it would have effected recruiting and on court success.

 

[hallwins]

Hey, I'm not saying it's a good idea for us, but in many ways we would be the ideal target for Apple to get its feet wet in the college sports arena. We would definitely be less expensive than a football conference, but, would provide more pieces of separate content. Here's the thing though, the only person who's ever going to go on Apple looking for basketball games is someone who knows that their game is on there. So you're going to lose the exposure from fans scrolling through their TV seeing a game and stopping to watch it. I doubt you'd see any ESPN highlights either. It would be a dangerous move, but when that might be hard to turn down by the conference.

Before anyone gets all bent out of shape about the hypothetical, we're in the middle of the dead season. If you don't feel like discussing it, move on to a different thread.

Suddenly it is 'we" and "us"
Welcome back. LOL

 

[STLPirate12]

And remember that Apple would be expecting to profit from any deal they give us. Commercial ad value won't be nearly what it is for traditional tv, leaving subscription fees as their likely primary revenue source. At 1M subscribers, they'll need to charge $150/season to break even without even considering overhead and production expenses (let's just say other revenue sources cover them).

Now realistically, MLS (pre-Messi at least) was only estimated at about 700k subscribers (pre-Messi at least) and that includes giving a free subscription to every season ticket holder for every team. That's a league with a much larger following and 3x the teams as the Big East.

We'd probably be looking at a $300-$400+/ year subscription price just to make the math work.

 

[CL82]

Suddenly it is 'we" and "us"
Welcome back. LOL

Lol, I never stopped. I've been through the conference realignment dances enough to know that something will happen at the 11th hour to take us out at the knees.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again conference realignment is one hell of a lot less stressful when you like your conference. In the American everybody was jostling one another to make sure they didn't miss the lifeboats.

 

[CL82]

And remember that Apple would be expecting to profit from any deal they give us. Commercial ad value won't be nearly what it is for traditional tv, leaving subscription fees as their likely primary revenue source. At 1M subscribers, they'll need to charge $150/season to break even without even considering overhead and production expenses (let's just say other revenue sources cover them).

Now realistically, MLS (pre-Messi at least) was only estimated at about 700k subscribers (pre-Messi at least) and that includes giving a free subscription to every season ticket holder for every team. That's a league with a much larger following and 3x the teams as the Big East.

We'd probably be looking at a $300-$400+/ year subscription price just to make the math work.

I mean if you gave me a quality subscription opportunity, with good production standards and decent on air talent that allowed me to watch every UConn game and I all are home baseball and soccer games etc. that would easily be worth 20 to 25 a month to me. Now, if I also get that same content for other big east schools, so much the better, though it, obviously, matters less to me than UConn content.

 

[williaza01]

I can see us back with ESPN. Another interesting thing with full streaming of how many of the NBE schools have an older fan base that does not enjoy the streaming experience

I think ESPN will know we prefer them and go in lower than any streamer and the conference hopefully does a good job of negotiating it to be close enough to go to ESPN

Than the problem will be how much NBE content is put on ESPN + lol

 

[NYShoreGuy]

I can see us back with ESPN. Another interesting thing with full streaming of how many of the NBE schools have an older fan base that does not enjoy the streaming experience

I think ESPN will know we prefer them and go in lower than any streamer and the conference hopefully does a good job of negotiating it to be close enough to go to ESPN

Than the problem will be how much NBE content is put on ESPN + lol

ESPN doesnt have the room

 

[SPK145]

ESPN doesnt have the room

I think they do after losing the Big10.

 

[TheHall87]

ESPN doesnt have the room

In a streaming world, there is always room. ESPN is certainly looking for affordable content, which the Big East would provide. How many games would be shown on linear TV? That's a different story but I'd imagine between ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and the occasional game on ESPN News, they could find room to air plenty of content alongside their existing obligations.

With that said, $15 million per school annually is a pipe dream. I think anything much above $10 million is bidding against yourself.

 

[MooneyHall07]

ESPN doesnt have the room

Nor do they have the money. Can’t see them offering a big money deal when Iger has openly floated selling off part of ESPN if not an outright sale of ESPN and ABC

 

[CL82]

In a streaming world, there is always room. ESPN is certainly looking for affordable content, which the Big East would provide. How many games would be shown on linear TV? That's a different story but I'd imagine between ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and the occasional game on ESPN News, they could find room to air plenty of content alongside their existing obligations.

With that said, $15 million per school annually is a pipe dream. I think anything much above $10 million is bidding against yourself.

I think 10 million is high for linear. The purpose of saying 15 million was so that and all streaming offer would be dramatically higher than a linear deal.

 

[68Pirate]

Nor do they have the money. Can’t see them offering a big money deal when Iger has openly floated selling off part of ESPN if not an outright sale of ESPN and ABC

Apple TV is rumored to be an interested buyer of Disney parts which may include ABC and/or ESPN

 

[TheHall87]

Nor do they have the money. Can’t see them offering a big money deal when Iger has openly floated selling off part of ESPN if not an outright sale of ESPN and ABC

Disney's cable division, which ESPN largely drives, turned a $3 billion profit in the first half of the fiscal year.

They have plenty of money. Plus, the BE would be a small potatoes deal for them.

But it's true that Disney recognizes the current business model will have to change as they will no longer be able to rely on making $800 million-plus annually from cable subscriptions forever.

 

[williaza01]

ESPN doesnt have the room

Sure they do

 

[cams555]

ESPN sucks, I hope they stay with FOX. They had a great thing and then the bubble burst. I don't get how you can screw up something so simple as reporting on sports but some how they created bias.

There is something wrong when on Sports Center you are showing highlights of 2 ESPN schools over ranked schools that are broadcast on other networks.

If they don't have worthy content I would rather see them go back to showing lumber jack competitions over watching three shows of guys arguing over the same thing and it probably doesn't even matter.

Does anybody like when Scott Van Pelt hosts alone? To me its unbearable to watch.

I also love that Fox took the NBA on NBC music and brought it back. Round ball rock is classic and gets me hyped every time I hear it.

It would be cool to see a Big East Channel where they have content other then basketball games, but I think you really need football to pull that off. With online streaming maybe they can bring more shows or consistency to shows like Inside the Big East. I DVR it but usually its after the fact and old news by the time I get to see it.


Another thing I like about Fox is that if an NFL game isnt played for that time slot they are now putting on Big East games. I remember last year seeing that the numbers were high for that game considering that the NFL was in season. My guess is that out of habit you are getting people switching between Fox and CBS and if the game is good the audience my stick with the basketball game.

 

[Strapp93]

I'm still gonna watch my games in person, so take the money. I don't care.

You go to every away game? If so that's impressive...