TCU Taking Part In Major TV Gamble!

[50's PONY]

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Posted on Sun, Sep. 12, 2004



SPORTS BUSINESS INSIDER
TCU taking part in a major TV gamble
By Jeff Caplan
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The Mountain West Conference will split from ESPN in two years, when its contract expires. In 2006, the league will venture into an uncertain but hopeful television future with an upstart network, College Sports Television.

"I'm not going to tell you this is risk-free," said TCU athletic director Eric Hyman, whose program joins the Mountain West in 2005. "The dollars are fantastic, but there is a gamble."

CSTV, a 17-month-old network that broadcasts college sports 24/7, offered the conference a can't-refuse $82 million over seven years for exclusive multimedia rights to all its sporting events. ESPN said the value of the Mountain West was not worth the price to renew. ESPN caters to its big-money, BCS conference contracts and slots Mountain West football games, along with other non-BCS conferences -- such as TCU's current home, Conference USA -- on weeknights.

Still, Hyman said the exposure TCU received on ESPN and ESPN2, even though some of its football games last season were played Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, has been beneficial.

"To be frank, it's been good for us," Hyman said. "But, you can't take a steady diet of it."

CSTV's deal offers national and regional football broadcasts mostly on Saturdays, with some exceptions on Thursday and Friday nights, plus normal basketball start times. And an industry insider said CSTV and the Mountain West will soon be announcing a new network that is exclusively dedicated to Mountain West sports.

The MWC believes the deal is a good one because more traditional times are fan-friendly and more Mountain West games on television equate to greater exposure.

But -- and this a big but -- exposure to whom?

"The big key is distribution," said Chris Smith, chief strategy officer of The Marketing Arm, a Dallas-based sports and entertainment marketing firm. "Where is CSTV going to get their distribution?"

It's a legitimate concern.

ESPN and ESPN2 are mainstays on basic cable and satellite packages, and both networks are available to about 90 million homes. CSTV, by its estimate, is currently available in about 35 million homes on DirecTV and cable carriers such as Comcast -- which reached a deal with CSTV in August -- Time Warner, Adelphia and Insight.

However, six of the nine Mountain West cities, including Fort Worth, do not have access to CSTV other than on DirecTV. And, just last week, ESPN announced a March 2005 launch date of ESPNU, a competing all-college channel.

Another critical factor is visibility to potential recruits. Every recruit can find ESPN, but how many can locate CSTV? Hyman said CSTV's availability on more cable carriers is integral to its success. Anita Lamont, regional communications director for Charter Communications, Fort Worth's cable carrier, said CSTV and Charter are in ongoing discussions and are "working toward a reasonable agreement."

Yet another hurdle is that CSTV comes at an additional fee as part of a sports package on cable and DirecTV. DirecTV charges $12 a month for what it calls its "Sport Pack."

Even so, Smith says the Mountain West is rolling the dice, with the great risk of underdog CSTV failing to be competitive in a crowded television marketplace.

"It's sad we're moving away from Saturday football. Smaller schools like TCU, with weaker schedules, don't appeal to the major networks, so they have to play on non-traditional days," Smith said. "But, being on ESPN is the better deal."

Jeff Caplan sports business column appears every Sunday.


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Jeff Caplan, (817) 390-7760 [email protected]





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