AAC to ESPN+?

[RockyMTblue2]

Mike Anthony looks hard at this stinky deal for UConn.

Mike Anthony: Announcement of AAC/ESPN deal leaves door cracked for SNY, and leaves UConn to express disappointment in potential streaming future

"Everyone was so damn careful Wednesday and it got old until UConn used a portion of its statement to express dissatisfaction. Later, Benedict was even clearer, more passionate, saying, “I’m sure it comes as no surprise that we are disappointed that there will be a reduction in linear TV exposure for our men’s and women’s basketball programs, including but not limited to the potential loss of our successful partnership with SNY. While there are many things to celebrate about this new and forward-looking agreement, any potential loss of linear distribution of our men’s and women’s basketball programs would be disappointing for our fans and our student-athletes.”

No, UConn doesn’t sound happy. UConn shouldn’t be happy. The extra $5 million a year the school will take in does not offset what it would lose in SNY, monetary and beyond.

Benedict and those around him in Storrs are in a strange position. It does them no good to butt heads too violently with ESPN. But they must meet fans’ frustration with their own and make clear that they won’t go along willingly while their product is pushed to a place it doesn’t fit or can be hidden.

Thousands of words and statements Wednesday came and went with very few real answers, very little clarity, right down to the lack of financial confirmation, which is strange considering …"

 

[Sven23]

For roughly half the money that the new AAC deal will generate? Thanks but no thanks.

The NBE isn't remotely close to what the old Big East used to be. All the big time women's BB programs are gone...Syracuse, ND, WVU, Louisville and Rutgers What great BB programs are left? The Villanova men maybe, and that's it. DePaul and Marquette are the only two decent women's programs, and they're no better than UCF or USF in the AAC. What kind of media exposure does the NBE get for women's BB?

Also, dropping football is the same as waving a white flag of surrender regarding any hopes of getting a P5 invite when the next round of conference realignment hits in the 2020's.

Reality is UConn is not getting in a P5 for many reasons
1)UConn aren't good in fball.
2)Other G5's would are better not only on the field but have much better marketss..UCF, USF, etc..
---P5's are about on field or if yo suck be in a big market like Rutgers.
3)College fball is not important to New England thus the lack of avid fan base. Even when they lucked up into a major bowl the attendance for UConn was poor at home games and the bowl game attendance was abysmal...Nobody really cared. New Enlgand is more about pro football(Patriots, Giants, Jets) and in regards to collge sports the region cares about bball 1st, and probably hockey 2nd.
4)Fball facilities are not even close to on par to P5's

UConn admin needs to think about waving the white flag before they destroy what they have in bball,while chasing windmills.

The next round of alignment will likely be mostly within the P5's poaching from each other. B10 wanted VA and UNC last time. SEC was lurking around ACC schools. B12 looking at UCF & USF potentially to open a new market, of course only if they get a conf network will it have a big pay off. Uconn is not even close to the top of that list of G5's, that list is UCF, USF, Memphis, Houston, Cincy, etc...

 

[hoopsfan22]

Any equitable deal is always good for some conference members and not so good for others, because let's face it not all schools are equal contributors. This will hurt our team because other than some people in Connecticut, who is going to pay $5/month to watch UConn WCBB? This definitely will reduce casual fan and recruiting exposure. Also how does the school fulfill Geno's contract which has stipulations for his media appearances including SNY? I guess that part just goes away and Geno's base salary goes up with the difference paid by ESPN+ money? Hopefully something gets worked out otherwise we lose the Geno Show, All-Access, and Senior Day coverage.

 

[Sven23]

Any equitable deal is always good for some conference members and not so good for others, because let's face it not all schools are equal contrubutors. This will hurt our team because other than some people in Connecticut, who is going to pay $5/month to watch UConn WCBB? This definitely will reduce casual fan and recruiting exposure. Also how does the school fulfill Geno's contract which has stipulations for his media appearances including SNY? I guess that part just goes away and Geno's base salary goes up with the difference paid by ESPN+ money? Hopefully something gets worked out otherwise we lose the Geno Show, All-Access, and Senior Day coverage.

There is a way this could actually help UConn if SNY/UConn can strike the right deal. A deal that allows like now SNY to have access to the same array of games as now, ESPN still gets the pick of the high profile games, ..esentially all the home games vs P5's which ESPN takes currently. SNY produces all the other games home/away. SNY broadcasts them in the SNY region, they are on ESPN+ everywhere else. That same dynamic works for SNY doing All Access, Geno Show, Pre/Post game, etc.. ESPN+ has it available to them whether they air it or not. ESPN+ would be inclined to air Geno Show, but not necessarily the pre/post game SNY does. The benefit for ESPN is they get really good content. ESPN+ content is currently pretty poor in production value & quality. ESPN clearly knows SNY has good content & commentators as Eric Frede has been used on other ESPN broadcasts not involving UConn. He has been far better than the person he was paired with, the lady during the NCAA tourney was horrible. Eric held the broadcast together.

On Geno: The ESPN/AAC deal starts 2020, Geno will only have 1 yr left on his contract...thru 2020-21 season. If he extends things may be altered. UConn also could start doing booster/donation to cover coaxches salaries. Many of the big salaries in college fball/bball are not covered completely by university funds, but by speciifc designated booster donations. Also, when Geno leaves any new coach was never going to get Geno's "media package".

 

[hoopsfan22]

There is a way this could actually help UConn if SNY/UConn can strike the right deal. A deal that allows like now SNY to have access to the same array of games as now, ESPN still gets the pick of the high profile games, ..esentially all the home games vs P5's which ESPN takes currently. SNY produces all the other games home/away. SNY broadcasts them in the SNY region, they are on ESPN+ everywhere else. That same dynamic works for SNY doing All Access, Geno Show, Pre/Post game, etc.. ESPN+ has it available to them whether they air it or not. ESPN+ would be inclined to air Geno Show, but not necessarily the pre/post game SNY does. The benefit for ESPN is they get really good content. ESPN+ content is currently pretty poor in production value & quality. ESPN clearly knows SNY has good content & commentators as Eric Frede has been used on other ESPN broadcasts not involving UConn. He has been far better than the person he was paired with, the lady during the NCAA tourney was horrible. Eric held the broadcast together.

On Geno: The ESPN/AAC deal starts 2020, Geno will only have 1 yr left on his contract...thru 2020-21 season. If he extends things may be altered. UConn also could start doing booster/donation to cover coaxches salaries. Many of the big salaries in college fball/bball are not covered completely by university funds, but by speciifc designated booster donations. Also, when Geno leaves any new coach was never going to get Geno's "media package".

UConn can't do deals. ESPN owns all the rights, and the AAC does the negotiating on behalf of, and for the benefit of, all member institutions. This is probably an awesome home run type deal for East Carolina, but this is just one more dagger into UConn athletics. I'd be surprised if Geno stays beyond this contract. There's simply too much BS and headwinds weighing UConn down now, and it's unlikely to get better or easier.

 

[Patty Bailey]

I think it would be helpful to Uconn administrators to get a real sense of how the Boneyard feels about having to pay $4.99 a month to watch Uconn women's basketball for about 12-15 games. How about a survey question asking all members to indicate whether they would pay to view.

It's not so much the $4.99 as much as the inconvenience. I want to turn my cable channel to ESPN, ESPN2, SNY, whatever. Not hook my computer up to my TV, log into a website, possibly get crummy picture/video or lags because of bandwith. Plus all the extra stuff SNY did - pre/post game, pressers, Geno show, etc. I want SNY.

 

[hoopsfan22]

It's not so much the $4.99 as much as the inconvenience. I want to turn my cable channel to ESPN, ESPN2, SNY, whatever. Not hook my computer up to my TV, log into a website, possibly get crummy picture/video or lags because of bandwith. Plus all the extra stuff SNY did - pre/post game, pressers, Geno show, etc. I want SNY.

Cutting the cord may be the future, but right now it's a sometimes frustrating patchwork of devices, apps, and services as tech companies jockey for a piece of the cable TV pie.

 

[Sven23]

UConn can't do deals. ESPN owns all the rights, and the AAC does the negotiating on behalf of, and for the benefit of, all member institutions. This is probably an awesome home run type deal for East Carolina, but this is just one more dagger into UConn athletics. I'd be surprised if Geno stays beyond this contract. There's simply too much BS and headwinds weighing UConn down now, and it's unlikely to get better or easier.

Not quite true. SNY/UConn partnership continued when ESPN got AAC rights when BE split. UConn had aside deal in the old BE CTV before SNY though BE had deals rghts deals with ESPN.

The ESPN+ part is not rreally a "home run" for any AAC school, Being stuck behind an additonal pay wall means few people will watch. The production quality of ESPN" is poor. I don't imagine many people subscribing to ESPN+ b/c of AAC non revenue sport content, which means it will not make sense to invest in raising the production quality.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

We'll go to the Big East, but you have to promise to pay UConn $3 million per year to make up the difference in revenue between the AAC and Big East. Deal?

as it stands now:
big least team, tv + mediarights = around $5/$6 million per until 2025.
UConn=+/- $7m (up to possibly $9m with extras) + $6m mediarights = $13-$15m to 2032.
soooo, big least nonsense requires $7-$10m per just to be the same, currently expected deal.

 

[UConnNick]

Reality is UConn is not getting in a P5 for many reasons
1)UConn aren't good in fball.
2)Other G5's would are better not only on the field but have much better marketss..UCF, USF, etc..
---P5's are about on field or if yo suck be in a big market like Rutgers.
3)College fball is not important to New England thus the lack of avid fan base. Even when they lucked up into a major bowl the attendance for UConn was poor at home games and the bowl game attendance was abysmal...Nobody really cared. New Enlgand is more about pro football(Patriots, Giants, Jets) and in regards to collge sports the region cares about bball 1st, and probably hockey 2nd.
4)Fball facilities are not even close to on par to P5's

UConn admin needs to think about waving the white flag before they destroy what they have in bball,while chasing windmills.

The next round of alignment will likely be mostly within the P5's poaching from each other. B10 wanted VA and UNC last time. SEC was lurking around ACC schools. B12 looking at UCF & USF potentially to open a new market, of course only if they get a conf network will it have a big pay off. Uconn is not even close to the top of that list of G5's, that list is UCF, USF, Memphis, Houston, Cincy, etc...

Most of this post is so wrong I don't even know where to begin. Football attendance when we were routinely making it to bowl games was near sellout on average. The Fiesta Bowl was well attended by Husky fans. It's estimated that 15,000 UCONN fans made the trip. They bought tickets on the secondary market so it doesn't show up in ticket sales through the school. I have personally attended most of our bowl games. We had good crowds at all of them. New England isn't a big time market for college football, but if you win enough the fans will show up. We've already demonstrated that in the past.

As for markets, we sit in between Boston and NYC, two of the biggest media markets in the country. SNY values us over any other college sports they cover. The local Hartford/New Haven market is 33rd in the country. Fairfield Co. is considered part of the metro NYC market. Our media market is fine and compares favorably with any other AAC school. In states like Florida and Texas, our AAC teams are in media markets dominated by P5 schools. I've lived in both states. UCF and USF are dwarfed by the Florida Gators in their own local markets. In Houston and Dallas, UT, A&M, TCU, Baylor and TX Tech all have huge followings, far surpassing the fanbases of the AAC schools. Temple is dwarfed by Penn State in its market. Memphis is perhaps our closest competition from a media market standpoint, but Memphis vs. a big chunk of the Northeast corridor is a win for us. UCONN has no local media market competition like almost all the other AAC schools do.

The biggest reason to seek P5 inclusion is the possibility that those schools will eventually decide to break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body, so they get to keep an even bigger slice of the money pie. If that happens and we're still in a mid major league, we get to go back to playing Vermont, U Hartford and Boston U, instead of South Carolina, Baylor and Louisville.

Football can be fixed because there is still time to do it before the first of the P5 media rights deals come up for renewal. UCONN will support a winning program. We already have and will again.

 

[Sven23]

Most of this post is so wrong I don't even know where to begin. Football attendance when we were routinely making it to bowl games was near sellout on average. The Fiesta Bowl was well attended by Husky fans. It's estimated that 15,000 UCONN fans made the trip. They bought tickets on the secondary market so it doesn't show up in ticket sales through the school. I have personally attended most of our bowl games. We had good crowds at all of them. New England isn't a big time market for college football, but if you win enough the fans will show up. We've already demonstrated that in the past.

As for markets, we sit in between Boston and NYC, two of the biggest media markets in the country. SNY values us over any other college sports they cover. The local Hartford/New Haven market is 33rd in the country. Fairfield Co. is considered part of the metro NYC market. Our media market is fine and compares favorably with any other AAC school. In states like Florida and Texas, our AAC teams are in media markets dominated by P5 schools. I've lived in both states. UCF and USF are dwarfed by the Florida Gators in their own local markets. In Houston and Dallas, UT, A&M, TCU, Baylor and TX Tech all have huge followings, far surpassing the fanbases of the AAC schools. Temple is dwarfed by Penn State in its market. Memphis is perhaps our closest competition from a media market standpoint, but Memphis vs. a big chunk of the Northeast corridor is a win for us. UCONN has no local media market competition like almost all the other AAC schools do.

The biggest reason to seek P5 inclusion is the possibility that those schools will eventually decide to break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body, so they get to keep an even bigger slice of the money pie. If that happens and we're still in a mid major league, we get to go back to playing Vermont, U Hartford and Boston U, instead of South Carolina, Baylor and Louisville.

Football can be fixed because there is still time to do it before the first of the P5 media rights deals come up for renewal. UCONN will support a winning program. We already have and will again.

1)UConn lost 1.8M on their 1 big bowl- Fiesta Bowl
Report: UConn lost $1.8 million at Fiesta Bowl

2)UConn sold out 3 out of 6 games in 2011, Btw, 40K capacity is not on the level of what P5's want

3)UConn is not part of Boston or NYC market. In between 2 markets means nothing b/c they aren't included. Btw, the only conf that made sense was ACC and even in your wrong notion the ACC already has Boston market.

4)UConn's Market compared favorable to the AAC schools that aren't at the top of the list in the to be invited to P5's.. The shcools most likely are UCF-Orlando #18, Houston #8, USF-Tampa 11th. FYI, these schools also are in states with much larger populations..ie...potential cable suscribers which are wanted to jam the conf network into cable packages. USF & UCF are ripe for B12.

5)The schools already keep the cash cow in college sports which is fball. You clearly don't understand that. The NCAA gets virtually nothing from NCAA fball..it was like 10M in the last released report.. The conf like B10 and SEC are distributing 600-700M annually to schools...B10 --51M per school.

The next alignment will be largely a shuffling within P5's. The B10 wants ACC schoools...VA & UNC top of the list. SEC wants 2 ACC schools...Vtech, FSU mentioned often. If by some very off chance UConn gets invited to a P5 it would be a plucked dry ACC that had been ravaged by SEC & B10. The ACC is likely going to be the BE, the one that is fed upon by B10, SEC and even possibly B12.

 

[JavaMan]

UConn Not Happy About New AAC/ESPN Deal

The Story: Athletic director Dave Benedict has spoken, and UConn isn’t happy with the new deal that the AAC signed with ESPN that will put many games, including women’s basketball, on the pay service ESPN+.

THE DETAILS: The AAC announced its 12-year deal with ESPNthat would put as many as 1,000 AAC games on ESPN+ eventually. The majority of UConn men’s basketball and football games are likely to be on the pay service and there is a real chance that UConn won’t have a local home, such as the women enjoyed with SNY. ESPN’s linear networks (the ones you can get on your cable system) will still feature plenty of AAC games but a lot of them will be shifted to ESPN+, a streaming service that charges $5 a month.

UCONN NOT HAPPY: The school released a statement that took the AAC to task over the potential loss of the SNY partnership and the fact the games will be headed to a streaming service. The school said the obvious in the statement: While the deal is good for the conference, there are components for the deal that are specifically bad for UConn.

MORE

 

[ShmiCO]

For the past 5 years, I've watched 90% of UConn wbb games (including in-conf games) on one or another of the ESPN channels. (I'm in Colorado so SNY isn't an option for me.) Going forward, for any game where the only option is ESPN+, I simply won't watch. I tried out ESPN+ and the service quality was bad.

No idea if I'm representative of the "casual" UConn fan, but that's my perspective.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[CL82]

ESPN+ is giving "more exposure"?

Do you believe that the AAC deal has all AAC games on ESPN+? If so you really should take more time to become knowledgeable about it before you post.

 

[Bill In Georgia]

Years ago years ago.. Harriet (CPTV) and I talked about a all UConn Network...The idea never got off the ground, but now its a fact of life...if you want to follow a couple of teams it's going to cost you 5 to 8 dollars, and a full package at 50 some dollars a month...
CPTV pays UConn 1.2 million, but the ACC teams will get 7 million...
Having just network TV and no internet (as a good portion of the country still has) you have no idea what Women's Basketball is.....and with the Cable Companies patting each others back they charge what they want to and "Cherry Pick their drop zones..." Out in the woods in Georgia I paying $200.00 for the TV service....
If I were UConn I'd be sitting on APPLE's door step with there new entry into streaming...
Remember every HS school coach in the country studies Geno's every move and self teaches his success...thus they fight to get coverage...and will pay.
What's this TV basketball world coming to..??

 

[Blakeon18]

Matt Buckler...TV writer for the Journal Inquirer...says in the Thursday JI.....that ESPN exec Burke Magnus and UConn are expected to negotiate continued coverage of UConn sports with SNY.

Hope he is right.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Matt Buckler...TV writer for the Journal Inquirer...says in the Thursday JI.....that ESPN exec Burke Magnus and UConn are expected to negotiate continued coverage of UConn sports with SNY.

Hope he is right.

I don't see why they can't just keep doing things the way they do now. Everyone seems happy with the current arrangement, and I understand that ESPN wants control of the content because they just ponied up a bunch of cash to a mid-major conference, but if we're being honest, that money isn't because of women's basketball.

 

[Artifact]

This money grab may be a result of the State being in such a money bind. It not only involves basketball but it may also involve travelling the roads ?

 

[Cornell Lt]

I'm going to chime in here from central New York state,

1) I have SNY via DirecTV and I can stream it on computer via my satellite subscription. The past couple years SNY via the web (NBCSN) has sucked. Constantly freezing and other small glitches made it almost impossible to watch.

2) I've had ESPN+ since it's inception when the IVY league switched all digital content to ESPN+. The video quality and stability is much better than SNY streaming. I subscribe to ESPN+ because I'm a sports fan, not just a UConn WBB fan. I can watch NCAA lacrosse, hockey,baseball,basketball or pretty much any other sport out there. Typically the ESPN+ broadcasts use the home teams radio broadcast for the audio of the production.

3) For $4.99 a month ESPN+ is a steal for the amount of content you get access to.

 

[j66kicker]

This money grab may be a result of the State being in such a money bind. It not only involves basketball but it may also involve travelling the roads ?

The deal is with the AAC conference, not the State of Connecticut.

 

[j66kicker]

Matt Buckler...TV writer for the Journal Inquirer...says in the Thursday JI.....that ESPN exec Burke Magnus and UConn are expected to negotiate continued coverage of UConn sports with SNY.

Hope he is right.

That makes the most sense for ESPN. I expect we won't notice much difference, except possibly on how we view it/stream it/pay for it.

ESPN needs others to cover/produce the events. ESPN isn't going to hire their own crews to broadcast every AAC game in every sport. Even if this was possible, which it isn't, it makes no economic sense at all.

 

[mudcat]

Sny won't be part of the Uconn picture much longer. Uconn has taken the extra 4 million a year, at the expense of free access to a lot of Uconn women's games. While Sny was part of many cable packages, fans got to see the games without added expense. Now it will take $4.99 per month and you need Apple TV, or Roku or a Firestick to watch these games Sny used to broadcast. How do you like them apples?

Well, since I have no cable package and only get my local stations by antennae and everything else is streamed over Roku, this is a net plus for me (I already have ESPN+).