CougarCorner

If the MWC were to expand in order to get an autobid that would be great!

But our tv contract is still a HUGE problem. Since we would be changing the conference, could we dissolve the conference altogether to form a new one where the slate is clean to get a new tv contract. Is this even possible? would we have to get a new commissioner? If so, that may be an added benefit!

thoughts?

FragOut wrote:If the MWC were to expand in order to get an autobid that would be great!

But our tv contract is still a HUGE problem. Since we would be changing the conference, could we dissolve the conference altogether to form a new one where the slate is clean to get a new tv contract. Is this even possible? would we have to get a new commissioner? If so, that may be an added benefit!

thoughts?

The TV contract is not going away any time soon, at least not without a bunch of money changing hands. CBS was smart, and when they penned the mtn deal, each of the individual schools had to sign on as well. Even if the MWC disappears, BYU is still under contract with the mtn.

We don't need to unsign a TV deal, and we don't need ESPN's devil money. We need expansion, growth, and improvement of the Mtn. I'm tired of the lame mantra that "if it wasn't on ESPN it didn't happen." We need to become a conference that attracts sponsors, advertisers, and a national following.

CAFB_04-12 wrote:We don't need to unsign a TV deal, and we don't need ESPN's devil money. We need expansion, growth, and improvement of the Mtn. I'm tired of the lame mantra that "if it wasn't on ESPN it didn't happen." We need to become a conference that attracts sponsors, advertisers, and a national following.

I agree, I don't think ESPN is the answer, but I don't agree with the way the MTN is being run either.

Until BYUtv is able to broadcast the games, I won't be too happy with the MTN setup.

I didn't realize that each school signed the tv contract, I thought it was just the conference. So I guess that little idea is out the window.

I love the MWC and am excited to see that it has grown into a more nationally respected conference. but we need more people to recognize it for the strong conference that it is becoming and that won't happen with the MTN unless the MTN improves drammatically.

FragOut wrote:I didn't realize that each school signed the tv contract, I thought it was just the conference. So I guess that little idea is out the window.

I love the MWC and am excited to see that it has grown into a more nationally respected conference. but we need more people to recognize it for the strong conference that it is becoming and that won't happen with the MTN unless the MTN improves drammatically.

I believe the MWC would be much further behind if we had stayed with ESPN. Going out on our own and going with the MTN has had a lot of growing pains, but it is not what is holding us back at all. If anything we're significantly closer to a BCS qualifying conference than if we had stayed with ESPN.

So as the MWC continues to succeed in gaining national respect, people need to be able to watch the games to even further recognition of the conference. From my perspective this will be done in 1 of 2 ways:

1. as the MTN further gains national respect by continually being invited to BCS games and winning, demand for the MTN will increase and cable providers will pay the current asking price of the MTN in order to offer the channel. This would be great, both increasing recognition of the teams while increasing the the teams' payout for the next contract with the MTN. However, regardless of how well the MWC performs there is no guarantee that demand for the MTN will increase so if we wait for option #1 the current situation may never change.

2. the alternative is that the MTN lowers their price for cable providers to pick up the channel with the condition that the cable providers offer the channel with the regular packages. This would be great for increasing recognition for the teams but would most likely decrease the amount of money the teams get for their tv deal (the teams would have to agree to alter the contract to receive less money in order to garner more recognition).

declocoug wrote:

CAFB_04-12 wrote:We don't need to unsign a TV deal, and we don't need ESPN's devil money. We need expansion, growth, and improvement of the Mtn. I'm tired of the lame mantra that "if it wasn't on ESPN it didn't happen." We need to become a conference that attracts sponsors, advertisers, and a national following.

I agree, I don't think ESPN is the answer, but I don't agree with the way the MTN is being run either.

Until BYUtv is able to broadcast the games, I won't be too happy with the MTN setup.

My guess is that BYU-TV doesn't have the money to purchase broadcast rights to the BYU games on the Mtn, nor do I believe that the Mtn would sell those rights. I don't think BYU-TV can do much by way of advertising (tax status and all). BYU-TV is on nearly every lowest-level cable TV/satellite tier because it is essentially free for cable providers to pick it up (subsidized by the LDS Church and "viewers like you" I presume). Heck, you could go out and purchase a C-band satellite and get the geo-coords off the BYU-TV website, point the antenna into the sky and get BYU-TV for free. Or you could just go to www.byu.tv...

I do think viewership would improve if the Mtn charged less for the channel (a'la Versus) and got it into lower cable TV tiers. But I don't think they have the capital (or demand for their programming) to do that right now. My guess is that the profit margin isn't very high right now. Makes you wonder how in the world the home shopping network is on basic cable everywhere.

Where BYU failed, I think, is failing to lobby for a BYU-TV simulcast clause with the football games. But then, the success of the Mtn outside Utah and the MWC footprint is probably directly related to the number of BYU fans outside the MWC footprint that need the Mtn to get BYU football games. If every Joe-Mormon BYU fan could just watch BYU-TV for the games then nobody would shell out $120/month for DirecTV or the top tier of digital cable for the channel and the Mtn would have no demand outside Utah and perhaps California and Nevada.

So I guess it wasn't so much a failure as a fact of doing business.