UConn, The Big East, and FS1

[Luna]

I think it’s going to be a split between Fox, espn and cbs with Fox getting the big east tournament

 

[McLovin]

Huh? I find the broadcast quality on Fox, FS1, and even FS2 to be excellent.

Can you believe the Big 12 plays many games on ESPN+, and the Mighty Big 10 is on Peacock?! Count your blessings!!

It will be interesting to see how much content is relegated to a streaming service in the next contract…

Streaming makes a lot of sense for the networks with the public school power conferences because their fan bases are very large (flagship institutions dominate allegiance of non-affiliated fans, plus large alumni bases).

But I don’t know how many new subscribers ESPN+ would really get from Creighton or Marquette fans, as their fan bases are small in comparison to programs like Wisconsin or Nebraska (which dominate their markets).

I think the Big East is a more valuable property on linear TV than streaming, especially as a lead in game or follow-up game for a good match-up in the ACC, Big 12 or SEC. There are enough ranked teams in the league to have at least 1 ranked team playing most nights (and sometimes a top 25 match-up). You can have a high quality, intriguing match-up on ESPN/2 casuals will tune in for. The Big East schools almost always have a fantastic atmosphere that looks great on TV, plus high quality play and juicy story lines - this year it’s the coaches.

Of course, some games will be relegated to streaming if we end up with ESPN because of the surplus inventory, but I think it would be a mistake for them to put too much on +.

I would be concerned that UConn would end up with a bunch of ESPN+ games over the first couple years of the contract as they try to get our (the largest Big East fanbase, by far) dollars. They did this with Kansas in the Big 12 new media deal, they have played a TON of games on ESPN+ this year.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Basketball is a player marketed sport so.

So explain to me why FOX was marketing Michigan vs Michigan State a few weeks ago like it was 1 versus 2?

 

[McLovin]

So explain to me why FOX was marketing Michigan vs Michigan State a few weeks ago like it was 1 versus 2?

Because they are paying those schools a lot more money for the rights to their content than they are paying UConn or Marquette. So naturally they would want to juice their viewership for that to maximize the return on that investment.

That’s the issue with where the Big East is with TV right now. Even if FOX paid the Big East $10 million per school each year (which they won’t), it would still be way less than what they are paying the B1G. So of course they will continue to prioritize marketing their larger investment over the smaller one, even if #1 UConn vs #4 Marquette is a vastly better match-up than 2 unranked Michigan schools.

And the Michigan game between 2 bad teams out drew the top 5 match-up by 30%

 

[Fishy]

TLDR: ~$7.5 mill/school under the next deal

0% chance

 

[Fishy]

Fox Sports does a terrible job marketing the Big East and in particular have done a horrific job marketing a team that has been #1 in the country for much of the year.

There were multiple times throughout the year they could have put out content about upcoming top-5/10 matchups and seemingly chose not to. They’ve been really bad.

They don’t care - it’s just that simple. They hype Purdue games like they’re the five-time national champs instead of us.

But that’s what happens when you pay $55M for one thing and basically nothing for the other. Our value to Fox is what they pay us. We’re remnant inventory.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Because they are paying those schools a lot more money for the rights to their content than they are paying UConn or Marquette. So naturally they would want to juice their viewership for that to maximize the return on that investment.

That’s the issue with where the Big East is with TV right now. Even if FOX paid the Big East $10 million per school each year (which they won’t), it would still be way less than what they are paying the B1G. So of course they will continue to prioritize marketing their larger investment over the smaller one, even if #1 UConn vs #4 Marquette is a vastly better match-up than 2 unranked Michigan schools.

And the Michigan game between 2 bad teams out drew the top 5 match-up by 30%

1. I am responding to a claim that college basketball is only marketable if there is a big named player. Who does Michigan or MSU have?

2. It outdrew UConn/Marquette because it was on prime time.

3. What inconvenience does it cause for FOX to just put out a few commercials and tweets to advertise a big BE game? Especially when ESPN was essentially doing it for free with Gameday. Feels a bit weird to me.

 

[McLovin]

1. I am responding to a claim that college basketball is only marketable if there is a big named player. Who does Michigan or MSU have?

2. It outdrew UConn/Marquette because it was on prime time.

3. What inconvenience does it cause for FOX to just put out a few commercials and tweets to advertise a big BE game? Especially when ESPN was essentially doing it for free with Gameday. Feels a bit weird to me.

I agree with everything you said here. I was just explaining why they marketed it like crazy (irrespective of what your was was in response to, I was just answering your question).

 

[Hurleyman216]

The Big East needs to be in direct talks with streaming services and UConn should be helping lead this effort. Streaming is in the process of undergoing a huge consolidation because there is too much content, but most of it is of little value. The one thing that still drives subscriptions is live sports. Get on the phone with Google (YouTube TV), Netflix, Fubo, Apple, etc and start kicking the tires. You’ve already seen Apple TV get in on soccer games, Amazon getting involved with the NFL.

If the Big East can’t come up with a decent contract (over $10 M/year) we need to be going down the path that Freescooter mentioned of getting a larger percentage of revenue share from the BE. Then go shop our Tier 2/Tier 3 rights similar to what they’ve been doing with SNY and HBO.

 

[freescooter]

The verbal diarrhea that flows out of you could power the entire country.

And your the biggest NEWBIE fanboy on here? Are you even a UConn fan or just a NEWBIE fan? Honestly. Seton Hall’s fan base stretches from Orange NJ all the way to West Orange. Providence goes from Warwick to Woonsocket and a few towns in Southeastern Mass. The only ones with national recognition are UConn and Villanova. The rest are has beens or never weres.

What do YOU think the NEWBIE tv rights would be without UConn? With us they might get $7 or so.

 

[freescooter]

1. I am responding to a claim that college basketball is only marketable if there is a big named player. Who does Michigan or MSU have?

2. It outdrew UConn/Marquette because it was on prime time.

3. What inconvenience does it cause for FOX to just put out a few commercials and tweets to advertise a big BE game? Especially when ESPN was essentially doing it for free with Gameday. Feels a bit weird to me.

It is marketable if there a big name TEAMS. Players help, but you can market Seton Hall-Butler all day long. They will lose the ratings battle against Michigan-Michigan State all day long. The casual basketball fan in Buffalo knows them. Household names. The same fan couldn’t tell you what league Seton Hall is in. NEWBIE fans are loyal. I’ll give you that. But the problem is there aren’t that many of them relative to the other major conferences.

 

[JB75]

Fox Sports does a terrible job marketing the Big East and in particular have done a horrific job marketing a team that has been #1 in the country for much of the year.

There were multiple times throughout the year they could have put out content about upcoming top-5/10 matchups and seemingly chose not to. They’ve been really bad.

And to add to it uconn will play at noon Thursday in the BET and 5:30 pm Friday. Awful time slots. Wouldn’t u want to showcase your best highest rated teams in Primetime ? Dumb

 

[auror]

So explain to me why FOX was marketing Michigan vs Michigan State a few weeks ago like it was 1 versus 2?

Because that was the 8pm Fox Primetime Game of the Week. They're really trying to make the 8pm Fox game a big deal.

When we played Nova both times and this week with Providence we were the Fox 8pm Primetime Game of the Week and they heavily hyped and marketed us. They've been inserting that random UConn/Hurley practice segment into the halftime shows of all the other games this week, including MWC and other conferences. I've also seen a ton of commercials for us/those 3 games.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

1. I am responding to a claim that college basketball is only marketable if there is a big named player. Who does Michigan or MSU have?

2. It outdrew UConn/Marquette because it was on prime time.

3. What inconvenience does it cause for FOX to just put out a few commercials and tweets to advertise a big BE game? Especially when ESPN was essentially doing it for free with Gameday. Feels a bit weird to me.

Not college basketball. Basketball in general. It’s an educational, marketing fact that it’s a player driven market rather than team driven like football.

The factors that McLovin talked about are also very true though.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Not college basketball. Basketball in general. It’s an educational, marketing fact that it’s a player driven market rather than team driven like football.

The factors that McLovin talked about are also very true though.

I’m not disagreeing with you. I just meant that Michigan and MSU are way behind UConn and Marquette in terms of NBA caliber talent and yet FOX couldn’t even be bothered to hype up BE teams, or players, for that matter.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I’m not disagreeing with you. I just meant that Michigan and MSU are way behind UConn and Marquette in terms of NBA caliber talent and yet FOX couldn’t even be bothered to hype up BE teams, or players, for that matter.

Yeah that goes back to what McLovin said. Plus that’s a very long standing rivalry.

For things like UNC Duke, UM MSU and UM OSU it doesn’t really matter where they are. Itd be the same for us and Syracuse if we still played.

 

[nomar]

It is marketable if there a big name TEAMS. Players help, but you can market Seton Hall-Butler all day long. They will lose the ratings battle against Michigan-Michigan State all day long. The casual basketball fan in Buffalo knows them. Household names. The same fan couldn’t tell you what league Seton Hall is in. NEWBIE fans are loyal. I’ll give you that. But the problem is there aren’t that many of them relative to the other major conferences.

Jesus you’re a Johnny One Note.

I will say it’s shocking to see you show your face here while UConn’s winning. It’s very off brand. I guess you just got tired of standing outside in the cold watching the rest of us have fun.

 

[HooperScooper]

The verbal diarrhea that flows out of you could power the entire country.

I look back fondly on the 6 month period after winning the national championship when he was no where to be found on here.

 

[Scottobot]

I absolutely love FS1. I live out in California and I have been able to watch every UConn game for the past 2 years. I love that every FS1 game is available nationally. It keeps fans who have migrated away from New England engaged in UConn sports. I think with other option the broadcasts would only be available in Northeast.

 

[businesslawyer]

I want a guaranteed larger percentage. We are the big dog. We bring viewers. Nobody is watching Butler-Seton Hall on a Wednesday on FS1. Without UConn this is not Watch tv. We deserve a larger piece of the pie every year. Even if we have an off year. Still draw Moore viewers than DePaul.

We do deserve it. But exactly who is going to listen to us “demand” it when the whole world knows we have no other options, and if we did have an acceptable option we’d take it?

God, it’s so damn easy to write like a tough guy on the internet.

 

[UCann]

I absolutely love FS1. I live out in California and I have been able to watch every UConn game for the past 2 years. I love that every FS1 game is available nationally. It keeps fans who have migrated away from New England engaged in UConn sports. I think with other option the broadcasts would only be available in Northeast.

I live in CA too but don’t think it’d be any trouble watching the games if they were on ESPN or a streaming service. Nowadays it doesn’t matter where you live.

I think the best thing would be if we end up with some combination of ESPN and CBS/Streaming. Fox has shown they don’t care about us. Even if we’re on ESPN and they don’t care as much at least they have to talk about us and there’s more coverage on their shows which have more reach than Fox. This in turn means more national discussion about UConn which has clearly been lacking this year. I think Gameday coming to UConn may have been an indication of interest. Let’s hope so

 

[Huskyforlife]

It's funny people keep talking themselves into some latent extreme value we must have. The television networks have made it clear they don't value us, and we don't have the type of clout that demands uneven revenue shares, please be serious.

 

[Scottobot]

I live in CA too but don’t think it’d be any trouble watching the games if they were on ESPN or a streaming service. Nowadays it doesn’t matter where you live.

I think the best thing would be if we end up with some combination of ESPN and CBS/Streaming. Fox has shown they don’t care about us. Even if we’re on ESPN and they don’t care as much at least they have to talk about us and there’s more coverage on their shows which have more reach than Fox. This in turn means more national discussion about UConn which has clearly been lacking this year. I think Gameday coming to UConn may have been an indication of interest. Let’s hope so

Some games are on ESPN. ESPN never show more than 7-8 games of any team per year. 2000-2014 I watched 5-6 games a year on ESPN each year and it sucked. They showed 0 of the early season games against patsys.

 

[cellocgg]

I want a guaranteed larger percentage. We are the big dog. We bring viewers. Nobody is watching Butler-Seton Hall on a Wednesday on FS1. Without UConn this is not Watch tv. We deserve a larger piece of the pie every year. Even if we have an off year. Still draw Moore viewers than DePaul.

More like we deserve to carry our own weight in the P5, not act as a carrier for the other schools to leech off of and artificially boost their own value

 

[JMick]

Huh? I find the broadcast quality on Fox, FS1, and even FS2 to be excellent.

Can you believe the Big 12 plays many games on ESPN+, and the Mighty Big 10 is on Peacock?! Count your blessings!!

Fox is awful. 720p with bad upscaling and micro stutters on a broadcast (they should honestly be embarrassed about this). FS1 on cable always looks better. The app is also 10x better than regular fox.