DirecTV, 14 days and counting, will you make it in time?

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I'm surrounded by non directv folks

Getting my discounts this week were well worth it regardless if they get the channel or not

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For SEC football, it’s been “go big or go home”…as evidenced by winning seven of the last eight national championships.


On Friday, the conference’s new network also scored a large carriage deal that may open the floodgates for similar deals with America’s biggest cable providers.


The SEC Network landed a long-term carriage deal with Comcast, the country’s biggest distributor. The network will air starting August 14 on Comcast’s expanded basic tier within SEC territory and digital basic outside of it. The Comcast deal pushes SEC Network’s distribution footprint to 46 million homes, including carriage on AT&T, Cox and Dish Network.


In an excellent example of price discrimination, sources say the channel’s rate card is at $1.40 per subscriber per month within the SEC’s 11-state footprint and $0.25 per month outside of it. Nothing like knowing your demographics. The more rabid and passionate the fan base, the greater their demand inelasticity and thus willingness to pay.


Though the goal of the net is to reach 75 million homes upon launch, this goal is likely attainable given that there is a high likelihood that deals will be established with DirecTV and Time Warner Cable within the next month. ( Update: Deal reached between SEC Network and TWC).


What’s interesting to note with this news is the sheer importance of how the size and intensity of consumer demand for your product can impact carriage and fees. For example, DirecTV carries the Big Ten Network (the poster child for successful start-up collegiate sports networks), but not the Pac-12 Network. Furthermore, The Longhorn Network (for the University of Texas) has had carriage issues from its inception.


What to draw from this? First, the intensity of demand for Big Ten and SEC football could be rooted in the fact that their respective fan bases are simply much more passionate towards their teams, which is partially rooted in greater historical success and fan avidity. Cold weather Big Ten schools have fans who are football-crazy, and SEC schools are often located in areas with an absence of pro sports. Pac-12 schools are often in cities with many other recreational pursuits that dampen fan avidity levels relative to the other 2 conferences.



Second, The Longhorn Network likely had an inflated sense of self, has its much harder to secure carriage deals if there is only one school driving the brand. But conference-specific networks have a greater shot at attracting more eyeballs because numerous teams and brands are represented. And at the end of the day, the eyeballs you can attract is what moves ad rates and marketing revenues.

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Patrick is an Economics Professor at the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster University in St Louis, MO, and the Founder/Director of Sportsimpacts. Follow him on Twitter.

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so you don't care about seeing the Vols play UK?

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AT&T is loving all of this, they win either way at this point.

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