Let me take another run at the ESPN-Big East deal. Frank the Tank, did a much better job than I did (and in less words) in partially explaining my displeasure at the deal. I have annoyance at how many of those “guaranteed” games will be weekday program fillers, while the news coverage has focused on the total number of games or the big jump for basketball. Let’s face it, though, the basketball side of the Big East is not a concern or really an issue as far as health, publicity and strength.
My main ire, though, is over the future distribution channel controls. The broadband and cellular offerings and content. Those will stay with ESPN. Understand, very clearly, the allure of having one’s own channel is not simply as some conference vanity project. By sticking with ESPN regional, Pitt has remained without control over the distribution and content of its own games. That means the Big East schools and the conference will not be able to offer streaming of the video of the games through their own sites. That will remain with ESPN and they will reap the money from it. Not to mention any other digital packaging that develops or evolves. Conferences with their own channels and control of their distribution will make more money.
For the Big 11, they can still offer games on the ESPN Gameplan or on a local station if they aren’t showing it on their channel or any of the Mouse stations. They have the control over it ultimately. They produced it. They own the production.
The Big Ten Channel will be available to satellite and cable distributors nationwide and will be available through the Internet, i-Pods, cell phones and other technologies, the league said.
That will be the same for all of the conferences that go to their own channel. They won’t be seen any less. They won’t get promoted by ESPN any less. They will however be bringing in more money in the long term as the technology keeps developing.
This is why all professional sports teams are now creating their own channel. They aren’t necessarily going to make any more money at first than if they had stayed contracted with the regional Fox Sports channel. After all, they have to now pay salaries and get ad revenue and all that fun stuff. It’s that they have full vertical control of the product — right down to distribution formats. It’s about long-term revenue creation.
The Big East loves to tout how it was the first to recognize the importance of cable and the dealings with ESPN. Unfortunately that is some 20+ years ago since the last time they were forward thinking about the media distribution. Now, they don’t look forward only react to the immediate situation.
