re: SEC Network: Friend or Foe

Homework assignment for the uninformed - a lot of questions can be answered by reading through the SEC Network FAQ available on their website.

quote:

---

Now suppose TAMU vs UT goes from being a national game to one on SEC TV (and say Uconn vs Duke gets that spot now on ESPN or ESPN2) then the SEC just got shut out of national recruiting exposure.

---

From reading this, I take it that it is your opinion the network will be a massive failure or you don't understand what they are doing. The concept is not relegated to only the SEC states. In fact, ESPN's stated goal is a national network that has as many subscribers as ESPNU. ESPN2 is in 97.7m homes. ESPNU is in 74.5m (65.19% of households with television). It's a difference but it's not particularly major like you are suggesting.

The cable providers that have signed on have all placed it in the basic/basic+ tier so far meaning it will be national. The only difference is how much the cable companies will pay per subscriber by state.

Edit: update for '13 numbers

quote:

---

Overall once the network hits more SEC games (of every type of sport) will be broadcasted than ever before. That is huge.

---

They announced soccer and volleyball numbers earlier today:

· 40 Women’s Volleyball games on SEC Network
· 25 Women’s Soccer games on SEC Network
· 10 Women’s Volleyball games on ESPNU
· 5 Women’s Soccer games on ESPNU

The current ESPN inventory is not necessarily being reduced. The games that weren't making the Family already will just be moved to SECN.

I think a lot of my concern is that content Gators normally had on TV is going to be put online.

If I went through and broke it down by sport UF gets a lot of TV time in Florida. Volleyball alone had 10 games on TV. It will be interesting to see how they divide time amongst the schools.

As with any deal with the devil, the devil is in the detail. We would hope that the Slive suit brigade would be up to the task of making sure the Conference's interests are covered and insured down to the last detail, so do you trust the Slive suits? The old man doesn't miss many tricks.

While I have nothing against CSS or any other of the small regional carriers, let's face it, one thing ESPN knows how to do right is produce and broadcast a college sports event, they have the experience here and as long as they apply the same kind of effort and quality standards they have put into their own channels, we can expect some good work in technical coverage. Better than you would get from some small network or a do it yourself production that is common for some schools events.

Some here seem to forget that ESPN still has the rights to pick up an event and put it on their prime networks, so it's not like even IF there are some areas of the country that don't have SECN, the major events will somehow now get less coverage, nope not gonna happen and you can be sure the suits have already thought of this and probably a few thousand other things.

Another misconception seems to go something like now you are paying more for something you weren't paying for in the past, this just doesn't really even make any sense when you stop to think about it. You have always been paying for what you watch one way or the other, carriers are constantly working and reworking deals for distribution rights, you may be paying for 20 food channels that you might watch all the time or never watch, either way you are still paying for them. Until pure ala carte ppv becomes a reality, this will not change, the only real difference now is that you will just have one station to check first for your SEC events, and if the SECN promo's are to be believed , in almost every case there will be more coverage now, not less.

Well I'm from Mo. so for me, seeing is believing, but one reason we are now in the SEC is because we expect things like this network deal to get put together the right way, **fingers crossed**, *(in Slive we trust)*..

quote:

---

If I went through and broke it down by sport UF gets a lot of TV time in Florida. Volleyball alone had 10 games on TV.

---

ok and now there are going to be a minimum of 50 SEC volleyball matches on TV.

as long as UF stays good they will easily end up w/at least 10 matches on TV and probably more due to conference matchups.

on top of that if they arent on TV you'll be able to stream it.

how is that depriving you of content?

quote:

---

Inside the SEC they wanted 3.00 and they will probably settle around 1.00 (in line with the BTN)

---

SBD quoted it at $1.30

quote:

---

Outside is the big ???? They wanted 1.00 or more

---

again SBD quoted it at $0.25

It sounds like you are just fearing monsters under the bed tbh. The prices are quite reasonable and most providers will likely get it done prior to the season. As of today, the SECN would have about 20m subscribers already. Honestly most of the concerns in this thread are more due to misunderstanding than actual problems.

quote:

---

50 / 13 = 3.8 (roughly 4 games per team on average)
Say the good teams get double, average get 4, and weaker ones get 2. 8 < 10

---

Those numbers don't work. You aren't taking into account that two teams are broadcast at the same time.

quote:

---

as long as UF stays good they will easily end up w/at least 10 matches on TV and probably more.

---

I just saw that UF announced that there will be 10 games on SECN/ESPNU so that actually works out. Only 5 soccer games which is down a few from normal, but that's fine. As long as we get close to the same airtime we had on Sun then it is ok. We will see what happens in other sports, I just don't want to see content normally on TV get pushed online.

quote:

---

Those numbers don't work. You aren't taking into account that two teams are broadcast at the same time.

---

You are not taking into account non conference games.

Take Kentucky volleyball. Sure they will broadcast some SEC but UK plays UL every year and betting that will count as 1 for UK. They also usually schedule a B1G school and a PAC school and those may get broadcast as well. UK usually sponsors a tournament as well which also may get a broadcast. I was simplifying it but that was my thinking. If it is non conference, it probably counts against that 50.