Drew
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Mountain West considers cutting cord in next TV deal
Fans across the Mountain West are grumbling more and more about the league's late-night games.
Attendance at those games is declining, and administrators are beginning to question whether the $1.1 million a year most are receiving from the league's broadcast partners — CBS-Sports Network and ESPN — are worth the additional exposure.
The conference might even cut the cord entirely, going the way of millions of millennials and others who are dropping their cable and satellite TV packages in favor of digital alternatives, when its current contracts expire after the 2019-2020 school year. Five of the largest pay-TV providers in the country lost a combined 527,000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year alone, Reuters reported Friday.
Craig Thompson, the Mountain West's commissioner since its start in 1999-2000, said the conference could have just as much reach with a digital-only package as it has with its current mix of partners. But he's not sure a digital-only option could replace the revenue conference schools currently receive from their 10-year deals worth $116 million.
So Thompson and the athletic directors of the MW's 12 football-playing schools are taking a closer look at all the options before agreeing to any new media rights deals. CBS-Sports Network and ESPN, he said, have offered to extend the current deals under the same financial terms, but the MW is in no rush to renew. Those discussions won't take place for another 18 months or so, he said, giving the conference time to better understand and explore the options.
"The real key there is going to be monetization," Thompson said Wednesday at the MW's football media days. "We need the revenue."
Coaches like playing games on national television, even if it is networks with limited viewership, such as CBS-Sports Network and ESPNU. It helps spread their brand.
But they also like the wide reach of the digital broadcasts, allowing recruits and their families to tune in from anywhere in the country at any time on whatever Internet-connected device they have available.
Fans across the Mountain West are grumbling more and more about the league's late-night games.
Attendance at those games is declining, and administrators are beginning to question whether the $1.1 million a year most are receiving from the league's broadcast partners — CBS-Sports Network and ESPN — are worth the additional exposure.
The conference might even cut the cord entirely, going the way of millions of millennials and others who are dropping their cable and satellite TV packages in favor of digital alternatives, when its current contracts expire after the 2019-2020 school year. Five of the largest pay-TV providers in the country lost a combined 527,000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year alone, Reuters reported Friday.
Craig Thompson, the Mountain West's commissioner since its start in 1999-2000, said the conference could have just as much reach with a digital-only package as it has with its current mix of partners. But he's not sure a digital-only option could replace the revenue conference schools currently receive from their 10-year deals worth $116 million.
So Thompson and the athletic directors of the MW's 12 football-playing schools are taking a closer look at all the options before agreeing to any new media rights deals. CBS-Sports Network and ESPN, he said, have offered to extend the current deals under the same financial terms, but the MW is in no rush to renew. Those discussions won't take place for another 18 months or so, he said, giving the conference time to better understand and explore the options.
"The real key there is going to be monetization," Thompson said Wednesday at the MW's football media days. "We need the revenue."
Coaches like playing games on national television, even if it is networks with limited viewership, such as CBS-Sports Network and ESPNU. It helps spread their brand.
But they also like the wide reach of the digital broadcasts, allowing recruits and their families to tune in from anywhere in the country at any time on whatever Internet-connected device they have available.
