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MW considers cutting the TV cord

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http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/aztecs/sd-sp-azhoops-20170310-story.html#nt=oft08a-2gp1

The Mountain West already has numerous football and men’s basketball games on Internet-only feeds like ESPN3, CampusInsiders.com and Themwc.com. The idea, if the networks refuse to rescind control over start times, would be to go all digital, which would significantly reduce the rights fees but also eliminate the 8:15 p.m. Thursday night football game or the 12:52 a.m. Eastern time semifinal in the conference tournament.

There are no time slots on the Internet. You just play whenever you want to. And some of that lost money in rights fees, you’d think, would be recouped by increased ticket sales.

The decision: Are you more concerned about the 40,000 in the stadium who buy tickets, or the 250,000 watching on TV for free?

 

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Interesting.  You could charge subscriber fees and generate sponsorship ad revenue. 

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thelawlorfaithful, on 31 Dec 2012 - 04:01 AM, said:One of the rules I live by: never underestimate a man in a dandy looking sweater

 

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I see it as the Mountain West positioning themselves as willing to walk away completely from any deal with anyone going into 2019-20.  This appears to be the first salvo in advance of negotiations.  Crazy how fast its become legit to do this now while ten years ago you had to be on cable tv for legitimacy.

I recall Aresco's comments were something like "hey espn, don't make me go talk to Fox Sports"  and ESPN was like "Great!  Hey ACC we are implementing your conference network fully by 2019-20"

It's time for the PR jockeying to commence full force.  Floating potential conference expansion to get more eyeballs is sure to come next.

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Honestly, SDSU/MWC athletics is the only thing keeping me on Directv. The NFL is dead to me. The Padres are a useless bag of crap. I'd cut the cord in a New York minute.

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“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”

-Richard Feynman

"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."

-P.J. O’Rourke

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4 minutes ago, SDSUfan said:

Honestly, SDSU/MWC athletics is the only thing keeping me on Directv. The NFL is dead to me. The Padres are a useless bag of crap. I'd cut the cord in a New York minute.

Same with me.  If I could stream all the MWC stuff online I would. 

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thelawlorfaithful, on 31 Dec 2012 - 04:01 AM, said:One of the rules I live by: never underestimate a man in a dandy looking sweater

 

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Interesting, if the strategy works the MW will get paid more per televised game(even if overall the deal is worth less), while increasing non-rights income(ticket sales, concessions, merchandise sales) on game days. The net result should be similar earnings with more satisfied and engaged fans. Risky, but as someone who has panned Thompson for years I think I like this approach. 

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What if we could sign a deal with YouTube/Google or Twitter?  We likely wouldn't be bound to the time constraints of ESPN/CBS. 

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thelawlorfaithful, on 31 Dec 2012 - 04:01 AM, said:One of the rules I live by: never underestimate a man in a dandy looking sweater

 

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Guest #1Stunner

The MWC would probably be better served if the conference sold only 1 or 2 football games per week to ESPN or CBS Sports.  This would almost always be a Boise or SDSU home game.  Or maybe a different team hosting a big opponent.

Then the teams in the conference could own all of their own TV rights (not the MWC owning them), and they could sell the broadcast rights themselves to their local TV channels.  They'd get more money, and much better local exposure that way.  Most MWC schools don't have any national interest.....They have local interest.  And the local TV broadcasts could all be simulcast streamed to out of market fans on the MWC Network.

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1 hour ago, SpartanGrad said:

The real argument comes if the MWC can show how it can monetize online viewers. 

We already are starting to.  The MW Digital Network is now making money.  Its taken time to develop and to get enough views for advertisers to pay for ads on our events.  We are now at the point.  We've had 1.1 million views for the winter and fall sports combined which is 35% more than the 834k from last year.  Digital is the trend and we are ahead of the game....much more so than other conferences....no other conference broadcasts as many digital games as we do except the Big 10.

With the TV amount we are getting, there is a lot more to be made for revenue by attendance. 

 

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1 minute ago, #1Stunner said:

The MWC would probably be better served if the conference sold only 1 or 2 football games per week to ESPN or CBS Sports.  This would almost always be a Boise or SDSU home game.  Or maybe a different team hosting a big opponent.

Then the teams in the conference could own all of their own TV rights (not the MWC owning them), and they could sell the broadcast rights themselves to their local TV channels.  They'd get more money, and much better local exposure that way.  Most MWC schools don't have any national interest.....They have local interest.  And the local TV broadcasts could all be simulcast streamed to out of market fans on the MWC Network.

I agree with you in concept, although I disagree that it "would almost always be a Boise or SDSU home game."

 

I also wonder how this might affect a series like CU vs CSU which states that the games have to be televised nationally...

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