[NU Sports] Rose Bowl

[Roy Lamberton]

The ESPN "Family of Networks" is trying very hard to get most of college
sports on to cable.

The battle is between the big cable operators - Comcast and Time Warner -
and "the Mouse"/Disney/ABC. 

The Cable guys want a sports tier that costs extra and includes all of the
minor sports channels - ESPNU, ESPN News, NFL, Big 10, etc. Here in Comcast
land we pay 9.95 a month for all of the sports stuff, about 10 channels, and
since we're big Oriole fans, see that as a decent price bump for getting
everything in HD PLUS the Big 10 channel lineup.

The Mouse wants all of their channels on the basic tier with the HD channels
occupying additional space.

I know that the version of the Little League World Series that I work on
draws slightly over 200,000 households for the final game broadcast on
ESPN2. This year we are webcasting the rest of the games so we'll see how
pay per view over the web works but the headlong dash to put the "boutique"
games on cable continues.

Some people involved in broadcasting sports see each game having a smaller,
but select audience. Their marketing and advertising campaigns mirror this,
which is why you see the same kinds of commercials on just about every game
on cable.

I'm sure the thinking in Bristol is that each bowl only draws viewers who
are alumni, with a core audience very similar to the demographic of those
sitting in the stands at the game. I wouldn't be surprised if they had
research that proved that. That audience, in the minds of the Gurus of
Bristol, is what cable was designed to reach, with the over the air channels
reserved for true Mass Media events (like Political speeches and
coronations, etc.)

At some point, all of the major Div I conferences will have their own cable
networks, and I will bet that eventually, cable systems in states away from
those conferences will find a way to not "waste" the bandwidth on various
college sports networks that draw very small numbers.

Personally, I think that webcasting in some form, is the future for most
college sports, but it's going to evolve into a smaller production/pay per
view type of service. Not that I'm ahead of the curve, but I am investing a
fair amount of money in a system to webcast baseball and softball to a world
wide audience this summer.

I'll let you know how it works out.

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate & Unix Guru.
Computer Applications & Support Associates
-------------------- Also ----------------------
Commissioner Delaware American Legion Baseball
Retired Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician [R]
Northwestern University - Sp 1974 - 
Chi Phi: Pi74, KD68
Publisher Emeritus: Purple Reign (Fox Sports)
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Linhardt wrote:

I don't understand the push to cable.  NO program does as well ratings-wise
on cable as it does on the 4 networks.  Is ABC making a big sacrifice
because it wants to show Heidi on New Years Day, but can't because of that
dang Rose Bowl?  Please explain the logic behind this madness.