Thoughts on the BYU, Cash and Religion

Access is huge though. Versus offers BYU what for an exclusive? Re-broadcast rights are huge as well. BYU lost them with the current deal and it was a HUGE deal when it happened. That is secondary revenue, or can be used to package sales with initial advertisers. Why would Texas launch its own network when it could just offer to Versus? because you make more with your own network, that's why.

Versus will be willing to pay big, and would probably be willing to share rebroadcast rights. They would be willing to use BYU-TV's cameras (like ESPN used to). Versus wants to make a splash, BYU is probably the biggest name they can get, seems like a match to me.



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I don't really care what station broadcasts the games, as long as BYU is allowed to broadcast all of their games to a REAL national audience and can control the rebroadcast rights, internet streaming and the many other media outlets related to their athletic teams.



One more thought on the fan base - BYU not only has a loyal fan base, but they also have loyal "I hate BYU" following. People like to watch BYU lose to anyone - fine with me as long as their watching!

I think we can all agree that this is the time for Tom Holmoe to step up and earn his salary. We just got left out of everything. He needs to do something big to make up for this.

allcoug I for one am with you!!



BYU's fan base is huge. It's bigger then a lot of people even realize. There is the church members first of all. And I realize that not every member is a BYU fan, I get that. But more and more members are becoming BYU fans due to the fact that a larger and larger number of BYU students come from out of state. Also the firesides Bronco puts on in every city the team goes to is creating more and more Mormon BYU fans. There are also fans that aren't members at all. They just grew up watching BYU's pass happy offense in the 80's and loved it.



2 stories relating to the power of BYU:



A few years ago I heard Tom Holmoe on KSL tell a story about being on the sideline at UCLA. He was talking with UCLA's AD and the AD remarked on how well BYU travels to away games. The UCLA AD was impressed by the level of dedication that BYU fans have. Tom Holmoe responded by pointing to the sea of blue and saying basically(and I am paraphrasing) "These aren't our people, these are your people. These are people that live in your backyard, not ours."



My old home teacher works for BYU Athletics. He was at the table when ESPN was negotiating with the MWC for a new TV deal. This is the negotiations that eventually led to the creation of the MTN network. ESPN presented an offer and the MWC said that it was far too small for the entire conference. ESPN's response was essentially this "We want BYU. We are making this deal with the MWC to get BYU. If it weren't for BYU this deal would be significantly smaller."



Now you can take those 2 stories and decide for yourself if BYU has the power and fan base to do whatever it wishes.

I would love for BYU to have it's own sports network so I can have easy access to anything BYU sports related. I will agree that BYU is the biggest draw in the MWC and ESPN may have said what they said, but when it came right down to the take it or leave it proposition the MWC gave ESPN they had no problem walking away.



The thing nobody seems to understand with this is where is all this money going to come from? It isn't magically going to appear. It isn't 'if you build it they will come" situations. How much money should we expect BYU to get? $2 million? $5 Million? I know the last number is what people are expecting Texas to get out of their own TV network but remember they have more people watching in one state than the church has members in N America.



You also have to consider the expenses to run your TV network, that would run into millions anually, so unless they have numbers that prove BYU could generate tens of millions in TV revenues yearly it won't happen.

If you don't think most church members are BYU fans, travel around a little bit. Talk to the members wherever you go. BYU is a big deal to church members everywhere. Outside Utah, there is no division between U and Y fans. They are all Y fans, even if they are also fans of their home team. That's how it is with me and a lot of people I know. I grew up in the shadow of the smurf turf, going to their games and marching in half time shows at Bronco Stadium. I began my college education there and loved the BSU institute, but BSU is a distant second in my loyalty, and has been sinse I was a teenager. I have found that to be the case with church members everywhere. People want to watch BYU games, and do so in real time. I don't know what the revenue potential is, but the audience is certainly there.