re: Rates and total revenue for SECN

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ooks like the Tejas network is a big failure. don't you just hate that?

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It was stupid to single out one school to devote a network to. Nobody but Texas fans care about it and probably only about 10% of them watch it with any regularity.

The SECN has been a roaring success so far. If our basketball programs improve (and the SEC is starting to invest more heavily in those programs so they should) then it will rake in even more money.

In a way we should all be thankful to the failure of the Longhorn Network. Not only did it show ESPN and the SEC what not to do when setting up a network, it also drove Mizzou and the Aggies to the SEC which helped increase our footprint.

For the SWC survivors in particular knowing that our current success is coming at the expense of the Whorns just makes life a little more cheerful.

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To move to the Big 10 or Pac? They won't be accepted with it and they're stuck in the 5th best conference with it.

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So you worry about it then. In the meantime, you have your own network. Given the changing media and conference landscapes -- the likelihood that it will all be different in five years, you wait and see what happens.

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What will be different in 5 years?

Enlighten us.

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Everything. Everything will be different.

I always thought the projections were low, because I understand how crazy SEC fans are about football, and some about basketball, and even baseball games. What other league has as many baseball fans who will sit and watch two teams not their own play a game?

I've watched baseball games not involving Arkansas several times this year, and I know several fanbases have lots of strong fans for all different sports.

We're all going to be rich(er).

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Mexico

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Don't hate, muchacho.

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The SEC Network might not be supported by a per-subscriber fee like today, but instead some sort of subscription model. Either way it will be worth a lot of money in ten years no matter how it's monetized, while the LHN will be worth jack crap. The reason is because the SEC/ESPN is building that SEC Network brand value by putting good content on there. The LHN is a dark basement in comparison.

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The SEC network is a collective, and its going to sell like a collective. If the SEC network became the SEC/ACC network it would be even more valuable -- to a point.

People are cutting the cable because their viewing habits are becoming increasingly specialized. Nobody is as conference centric as the SEC rabble -- look at your Aggies. Loving a decreasing number of football wins because you are in the SEC. That's fantastic for you guys and maybe it is true for Arkansas and the Missippis, but as a Texas and Stanford fan, I don't have the conference loyalty that you guys have.

Certainly from a viewing standpoint, I'd love to get all Stanford and Texas content in a single portal or channel.

The SEC may be a fantastic model long term -- but the sweet spot is going to be different for each person as to whether they want an individual team all the way to a "college football channel".

The content, and the success of the schools and conferences are certainly going to play into it, and that's going to be continually changing.

I have no problem with the idea that the SEC monies coming in will buy a higher than their fair share of football national championships, just like the A&M is confident that better recruiting will alter their concurrent worsening win-loss record, but the proof is in the pudding, and its a bit early to tell.

I think the LHN give Texas more, not less, ability to negotiate in the future, and that's all that really matters.

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You just made this up, we aren't winning less and have beaten 2 big 12 teams in bowls along the way, including the big 12 champion in 2012

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Your record over the last three years is 11-2, 9-4, 8-5.

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Please tell us how

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It's easier to negotiate the more things you have to negotiate with.

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If the SEC network became the SEC/ACC network it would be even more valuable

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Probably not on a per-team basis.

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People are cutting the cable because their viewing habits are becoming increasingly specialized. Nobody is as conference centric as the SEC rabble

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A conference is just a collection of teams. At some level just your set schedule and who you split the money with. People might not care about the conferences, but they will care to watch big matchups. It is the matchups that brings in the crowds, not the brands just by themselves. The ratings last Thanksgiving proved that.

No one wants the college football equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters, no matter how specialized the market becomes.

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I'd love to get all Stanford and Texas content in a single portal or channel.

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At the price of lowering the level of competition that your team is playing on that channel? I bet not.

And there is no way around that, people get butthurt about team-specific distribution. The LHN (or heck BYU and Notre Dame) is proof that if you go that route you will cut off your own access to really compelling matchups.

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The content, and the success of the schools and conferences are certainly going to play into it, and that's going to be continually changing.

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Sure, the conferences might shuffle around in power, but the SEC will NEVER EVER be where the Big 12 is now. Ever.

That is kinda my point. The SEC/B1G model is the best even just for the reason that it allows for healthy and powerful conferences. On paper something like the LHN looks great, until you realize that Texas is getting less than 10% of its revenues from a network that ruined its home schedule. If Texas has a down period, it doesn't take very long for that 15 million a year to not cover the gap left in unsold tickets because the team on the slate is Iowa St instead of UCLA or Nebraska.

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I think the LHN give Texas more, not less, ability to negotiate in the future

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But it doesn't. There isn't a way to spin it that it does.

The LHN locks Texas into that conference and that media agreement for a set term. I have read the contract a few times, and it is clear that it can't really be folded into something else. Heck it even locks in Texas's options after the contract regarding independence. Texas gave up a lot of risk in trade for the flexibility you think the LHN gave Texas.

If the Big 12 goes downhill fast, or ESPN starts to bury the LHN to avoid dealing with it, there is nothing Texas can do. For the next decade the GOR and the LHN contract has Texas locked in place.

After that period Texas will have options, but that is due to the brand and NOT the LHN. In fact the lack of exposure for games on the LHN will probably make the brand less valuable than it was in 2010 before the network launched. That means less leverage.

Texas will be fine, it will always have options. But there is no way to say the LHN is succeeding on its original lofty goals or that it has a real place in the future of college football distribution. All the market trends are going in the opposite direction of the LHN model. It will be a blip in history.