ACC votes to add Stanford, Cal, SMU: Conference presidents approve expansion to 18 schools

[Kolumbo]

I live in CT and I can never watch UConn Football on TV. F all the media companies.

 

[SU1968]

Why would Houston or San Antonio cable carry the ACCN ?

SMU may have rich alums, but it’s a small FBS private school (7000 undergrads).
Total enrolled of 12k is 119th out of 133.

Notre Dame has 8571 undergrads (2022) and has rich alumni. What's your point?

 

[Vowelguy]

Notre Dame has 8571 undergrads (2022) and has rich alumni. What's your point?

If you don’t already know the difference between ND and any other university, I can’t help you.

 

[Vowelguy]

Carriage contracts are not local...Comcast, nationwide, has the signed carriage agreement with ESPN.

Now, since the ACC is not in Washington State...they do not automatically carry the ACCN. They do have access through the Digital Preferred Comcast package.

But all in-footprint state Comcast subscribers will automatically have and pay in-footprint fees for, the ACCN.

Houston, Atlanta, Amarillo, San Antonio, Rising Star, Sacramento, Truckee, etc...they will have the channel.

And that was why the ACC picked up SMU...Texas is now in-footprint...And Cal-Stan...California now in footprint.

I don’t know why Comcast El Paso wants to charge its customers an extra $1 every month for a channel none of them want. With cord cutting as it is, one would think cable companies would want to limit high-carriage networks as much as possible, unless they generate a lot of subscribers.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Carriage contracts are not local...Comcast, nationwide, has the signed carriage agreement with ESPN.

Now, since the ACC is not in Washington State...they do not automatically carry the ACCN. They do have access through the Digital Preferred Comcast package.

But all in-footprint state Comcast subscribers will automatically have and pay in-footprint fees for, the ACCN.

Houston, Atlanta, Amarillo, San Antonio, Rising Star, Sacramento, Truckee, etc...they will have the channel.

And that was why the ACC picked up SMU...Texas is now in-footprint...And Cal-Stan...California now in footprint.

I don't believe that's true. I just checked the Optimum line-up on Long Island, part of an ACC state, and its Core package (220 channels) includes ESPN and ESPN2 but the ACC Network is optional. I might see accepting a "must carry" provision if the school is a flagship state universty, but only a fool would accept it for a league that has a number of schools that are far from a dominant representative of their home states. Arguably only NC and Virginia meet that standard in the ACC. I suspect the contracts say "must offer", not "must carry."

 

[billybud]

ESPN having the statewide carriage clause was one of the arguments in favor of the ACC adding Stanford, Cal, and SMU. The new additions would mean every cable subscriber in California and Texas would now be paying the “in-conference” rate for ACC Network.

According to former Fox Pesident and BTN founder, Bob Thompson, ESPN's putting Charter into the dark for a week during negotiations was to ensure statewide carriage vs piecemeal....Charter provides cable in San Antonio, Austin, and Los Angeles.

 

[JeepCSC]

Went investigating. The price increase is automatic for in-state vs out-of-state, but the carrier can decide whether to carry it when the contracts are due. So any carrier in California and Texas that already has the ACCN will now be paying the increased rate.

 

[king conn]

Went investigating. The price increase is automatic for in-state vs out-of-state, but the carrier can decide whether to carry it when the contracts are due. So any carrier in California and Texas that already has the ACCN will now be paying the increased rate.

I would assume most if not all carriers in Texas do not carry the ACCN because why would they

So if BSPN will not be making any money by adding SMU, why did they approve their addition?

 

[kibblesnbits]

ESPN having the statewide carriage clause was one of the arguments in favor of the ACC adding Stanford, Cal, and SMU. The new additions would mean every cable subscriber in California and Texas would now be paying the “in-conference” rate for ACC Network.

According to former Fox Pesident and BTN founder, Bob Thompson, ESPN's putting Charter into the dark for a week during negotiations was to ensure statewide carriage vs piecemeal....Charter provides cable in San Antonio, Austin, and Los Angeles.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Yes, but what does statewide carriage mean? Does it mean that ACCN has to be treated like ESPN/ESPN2 (in all base packages other than the stripped entry points that primarily offer the equivalent of over the air coverage) or can it be in a sports add-on? I just checked the Spectrum (Charter) offerings in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, TX (zip 78213) and none of the general digital packages include ACCN. Of course they include the SEC Network (UT and T A&M are overwhelmingly the most popular in the state), but you have to buy the Sports Add-on pack to get the ACC. It's actually a bargain at $7 per month as it also includes the MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA networks, but I'll still bet less than 1/2 of subscribers take it. Not everyone is a big sports fan like the Boneyarders and cable companies have pretty much reached the limit on saddling all of their customers with Disney/ESPN's rates. I see that my Spectrum package no longer includes Disney's Freeform channel (orginally The Family Channel) so Disney accepted some cuts in the deal. Spectrum was about 20% of Freeform's viewers. Did they risk alienating more subscribers and accept offering cuts so they could force the ACCN on more people that don't want it?

 

[billybud]

The ACC does not currently have a Texas or California team....that comes into play next year.

 

[SoFla Steve]

Interesting reading from the Syracuse board . .

Independent and Big East Hoops

 

[Vowelguy]

Yes, but what does statewide carriage mean? Does it mean that ACCN has to be treated like ESPN/ESPN2 (in all base packages other than the stripped entry points that primarily offer the equivalent of over the air coverage) or can it be in a sports add-on? I just checked the Spectrum (Charter) offerings in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, TX (zip 78213) and none of the general digital packages include ACCN. Of course they include the SEC Network (UT and T A&M are overwhelmingly the most popular in the state), but you have to buy the Sports Add-on pack to get the ACC. It's actually a bargain at $7 per month as it also includes the MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA networks, but I'll still bet less than 1/2 of subscribers take it. Not everyone is a big sports fan like the Boneyarders and cable companies have pretty much reached the limit on saddling all of their customers with Disney/ESPN's rates. I see that my Spectrum package no longer includes Disney's Freeform channel (orginally The Family Channel) so Disney accepted some cuts in the deal. Spectrum was about 20% of Freeform's viewers. Did they risk alienating more subscribers and accept offering cuts so they could force the ACCN on more people that don't want it?

I would be surprised if a sports add on get more than 10% of subscribers.

 

[upstater]

Interesting reading from the Syracuse board . .

Independent and Big East Hoops

The biggest take from such threads is that any school that is currently right now trying to build facilities without knowing if it's going to get a big bundle of cash 10 yrs out is permanently putting its university at great risk. WV has already mismanaged things. U. Cal Berkeley is also in a sad state when it comes to debt on facilities. Oklahoma St got itself into this trouble a decade ago but was finally bailed out with oil money.

If the money goes, the university has no means to address $200m in debt on facilities. No one should be building at this point unless they are the goliaths of the sport.

 

[kibblesnbits]

The ACC does not currently have a Texas or California team....that comes into play next year.

So next year cable companies are going to announce to all their customers in Texas that we are moving the ACCN from an optional add-on to the basic packages (and forcing them to pay for it) because SMU is now in the league? Cable companies are desperately trying to keep down costs and hold onto subscribers. ESPN used to have complete leverage in negotiations with cable companies (just as cable companies had complete leverage over consumers) but those days have passed. Negotiating a deal that forces even more ESPN product into the "everyone must pay" category would be incredibly stupid since they know very few customers will be interested in the additional content.

 

[Inyatkin]

Interesting reading from the Syracuse board . .

Independent and Big East Hoops

Why do they keep talking about American football like they all live in Liverpool or something? I kept thinking they meant the AAC

 

[billybud]

John Skipper..ex ESPN President on adding Stanford to the ACC...

“The ACC Network has contracts with all the distributors that pay an in-conference fee and pay an out-of-conference fee based on state,” Skipper said. “And that is not negotiable. That is enforceable. And suddenly all of those subscribers—it’s a declining universe—there’s still 15 million subscribers in that footprint, give or take, and they would suddenly be paying a couple of bucks a year for the ACC Network.”

I'll take the Horse's Mouth...

 

[king conn]

John Skipper..ex ESPN President on adding Stanford to the ACC...



I'll take the Horse's Mouth...

That's if they carry the ACC network!

It doesn't say they have to!

 

[ramses 2.0]

That's if they carry the ACC network!

It doesn't say they have to!

I'm pretty sure that all carriage deals include the main ESPN channels along with the ACCN & SECN. Now what tier they are on is a whole different matter

 

[upstater]

John Skipper..ex ESPN President on adding Stanford to the ACC...



I'll take the Horse's Mouth...

How long are these contracts?

If I'm Texas cable, I'd bankrupt those distributors in my state.

I talked with Spectrum recently about cheap ala carte cable deals that they used to do (pick any 15 channels).

The salesman was remarkably open with the fact that not only were they not offering that, but deep discounts were also no longer available on the regular packages. I asked why not, and they said they were slowly deemphasizing their cable TV packages in favor of other services.

This is starting to remind me of the times when phone companies upcharged customers for basic land lines, and when you called to inquire, it was hard prying even a word about it to customer service.

Try threatening people who want you to leave with threats to leave.

 

[king conn]

I'm pretty sure that all carriage deals include the main ESPN channels along with the ACCN & SECN. Now what tier they are on is a whole different matter

If they are not on the basic tear then they cannot charge everyone. That's where they make their money

 

[ramses 2.0]

If they are not on the basic tear then they cannot charge everyone. That's where they make their money

Everyone on whatever tier the network appears on

 

[king conn]

Everyone on whatever tier the network appears on

Which is way less people and money for espn than if it was on basic

 

[ramses 2.0]

Which is way less people and money for espn than if it was on basic

Yeah I understand that, all I'm saying that whatever tier each cable company & ESPN agreed to pay the extra fee. Now it doesn't matter to me since I ditched cable/sat years ago & currently use Google Fiber/YouTube TV

 

[upstater]

Yeah I understand that, all I'm saying that whatever tier each cable company & ESPN agreed to pay the extra fee. Now it doesn't matter to me since I ditched cable/sat years ago & currently use Google Fiber/YouTube TV

But how long are these contracts with the distributors? At the first expiration, the cable companies are going to say NO.