Maybe but I doubt many other conferences will see its schools making $16 million more per year.
BIG TEN NETWORK being dropped by Comcast in May
- Thread starter rhoho
- Start date
Maybe but I doubt many other conferences will see its schools making $16 million more per year.
There was an article posted a few years back that tried to determine fan base size for the the FBS schools. I did some manipulation of the numbers in that article and posted it some time ago, but in essence, here's what is shows for fanbase size of each conference.
Big Ten: 18,940,000
SEC: 16,671,000
ACC: 12,579,000
Big 12: 8,354,000
Pac-12: 7,741,000
I believe this shows why a conference network works for the Big Ten and SEC, doesn't work for the Pac-12, likely wouldn't work well for the Big 12, and why it has been a difficult launch for the ACC. If you want a successful network, you need a critical mass of people to watch it, and/or some kind of potential viewer leverage to force it on to the provider's networks. The best TV model for each conference is not necessarily a "one size fits all" deal like a linear network.
Comcast just told the Big Ten that they no longer have the leverage to force it on the entirety of Comcast for the current price. One way or the other, the revenue is going down.
Big Ten: 18,940,000
SEC: 16,671,000
ACC: 12,579,000
Big 12: 8,354,000
Pac-12: 7,741,000
I believe this shows why a conference network works for the Big Ten and SEC, doesn't work for the Pac-12, likely wouldn't work well for the Big 12, and why it has been a difficult launch for the ACC. If you want a successful network, you need a critical mass of people to watch it, and/or some kind of potential viewer leverage to force it on to the provider's networks. The best TV model for each conference is not necessarily a "one size fits all" deal like a linear network.
Comcast just told the Big Ten that they no longer have the leverage to force it on the entirety of Comcast for the current price. One way or the other, the revenue is going down.
Interesting. This also enters in to why I chuckle when I hear people say "It's not going to matter whether we're in a big market when cord-cutting and watching games on Amazon, Twitter, etc.".
You still have to have fans and the more you have, the more of a premium you'll be paid for access to those fans, whether they live in a big market or not and regardless of the delivery service. And it's why Texas and Oklahoma will call the shots 4-5 years from now. They have the fans that everyone wants and will have a lot of options.
Don't think peoplee are saying with cord cutting you don't need fan base numbers. People are arguing that the media market size doesn't matter, and instead fanbase size IS what matters. For example, with cord cutting, having Rutgers doesn't help because you "get the NY market." Same goes for people talking about B12 expansion.
Rutgers is crappy; Maryland isn't. It had 61 years of ACC big-time experience before joining the B1G in 2014, and since then the Terps have won numerous conference titles (the Knights haven't won any) and under Cedar Rapids' own Brenda Frese (a former ISU assistant) are its dominant force in women's basketball. I personally would've made Syracuse the 14th member in an eastern swing, but that wasn't my call.
