FX officially announces TV deal w/CUSA, Big XII, Pac12

[skyscraper]

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_displa ... 9d9f70cfb0

This has been mentioned before, when CUSA inked it's new TV deal a few months ago. But a few more details were announced today. The slate of what games will air will be announced at a later date.

Big-time college football is coming to FX this fall, as the network has agreed to carry a slate of at least 13 Big 12, Conference USA and Pac-12 games.

The package of Saturday NCAA football games will be culled from existing rights deals between Fox Sports and the three conferences. FX games are expected to air in the late afternoon and prime time windows.

All told, Fox Sports will broadcast nearly 200 games across the Fox broadcast network and its regional sports networks, as well as on Fox College Sports and FX.

While FX had a 10-year history of hosting high-profile sports franchises, carrying college football in the late ‘90s, Major League Baseball in 2001 and Nascar action between 2001 and 2006, the network hasn’t aired a live contest in five years.

Looking at the bigger picture, the move to make FX a destination for college football signals Fox Sports’ desire to put the heat on rival rights holders ESPN/ABC Sports and NBC Universal. Not only did Fox wrest the rights to Conference USA games from Bristol in January, but it also nailed down a deal to carry the inaugural Pac-12 championship game on Dec. 3, 2011.

All games on FX will be produced by Fox Sports. Plans for shoulder programming (pre- and post-game shows) are in the works.

[skyscraper]

From Broadcasting & Cable, more specifics on match-ups:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/articl ... otball.php

Fox Sports will produce the game broadcasts. It plans to announce the first three games on the schedule in June. Remaining games will be picked six to 12 days before they air to ensure exciting matchups for FX.

The network has not yet determined which sportscasters will announce the games and is developing plans for programming to surround the games, including pre- and post-game shows.

A Big 12 and Pac-12 game of the week will continue to air on Fox Sports Net, but FX is likely to get the best games. Other college football games will appear on Fox's regional sports networks. In all, Fox will televise more than 170 college football games on its networks.

[PonyPlayer4]

Just my first reaction to this, but I have a feeling no one will turn to watch a game on FX. FX is so far away from a sports channel that the casual fan would never flip to it to watch a game. Even if it is at noon, more people will watch the CUSA championship game on ESPN2 than will on FX.

[PonyKai]

Just my first reaction to this, but I have a feeling no one will turn to watch a game on FX. FX is so far away from a sports channel that the casual fan would never flip to it to watch a game. Even if it is at noon, more people will watch the CUSA championship game on ESPN2 than will on FX.

FX is a hell of a lot easier to find than The Mountain or OLN or half the channels in the 600's for DirecTV. I can find anything I want easily because I have problems with the amount of baseball and college football I watch. But for your casual fan, FX is much easier to find or stumble across.

[PoconoPony]

FX is really fighting to get into the college market. The have the MSN website sports page, they are Scout recruiting service, they have the NFL so it should be a natural and easy transition to get deeply involved in college football. I believe the FX channels are already well enough recognized for sports that they will be a natural channel for football fans to check out in the course of surfing or checking out games.

[Mexmustang]

They used to say that about Fox news--just wait....

[One Trick Pony]

Nice I have that station wonder what'll happen to cbssports

[RE Tycoon]

I'm interested to see how this plays out. I documented my apprehension about the move away from ESPN when the Fox Sports deal was originally announced, so I won't rehash it, but suffice to say I still think this is a bad move for CUSA.

One encouraging note in the second article is that they seem to signal that the PAC and Big 12 marquee games will be shifted to FX (except for the legacy and so-called "Game of the week"). This leads me to believe that CUSA will be left to the RSNs unless we have a great matchup that "warrants" FX. However, I think it would be better to be on the Fox RSNs IF they carry the games nationally. As PonyPlayer4 mentioned in this thread, FX is not known as a sports network and the casual fan (and bars) won't gravitate there, whereas casual sports fan always breeze by the Fox Sports RSNs to see what is on, and bars always have the RSN games on the TV's.

I still think they will regionalize CUSA games on the RSNs (example: UCF v SMU only on FSSW and SUN or whatever they call the network in Florida) which will reduce CUSA national exposure. I hope CUSA was a smart negotiator and was guaranteed national coverage across the RSNs.

[EastStang]

First, we'll also be on FCS (also in the 600s on DirecTV) and still have some games on CBSC. I suspect that we'll see more games than before.

[mathman]

Here is an article form a Hawaii' paper concerning the new TV contracts. Conference USA is getting three times as much money as before according to this.

But in the wake of Conference USA's new, richer TV deal, a lot of conferences are looking for more lucrative paydays.

Sports Business Journal reported the Big 12 is close to a cable agreement with Fox that will triple the $20 million it gets annually. And Conference USA has negotiated a pending $43 million deal with Fox that would more than triple its rights fees.

Here is the whole article. The WAC is getting whacked.]
http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/sp ... known.html

[PonyPlayer4]

I hope that money is put to good use. With the NFL lockout looming, I wonder if it would provide opportunities for college games to take over sundays as well.

[RE Tycoon]

That SEC money is unreal.