Jeffrey Martin of USA Today reports that Pac 12 Commissioner Larry Scott has a big vision for this new enterprise.
Martin writes:
Some projections have the Pac-12 Networks, along with a 12-year, $3 billion deal with Fox and ESPN, providing roughly $30 million a school annually after a recent period in which some Pac-12 schools received slightly more than a quarter of that and their athletics programs became heavily dependent on university general funds.
“My mandate was, how do you take this storied conference with all of this success but is undervalued, under-leveraged from an exposure standpoint, as well as a revenue standpoint, and help kind of turn it around, build an enterprise that stays true to the values of the conference?” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott says. “How do we blow this thing out?”
Answering his own question, Scott said during the conference’s recent football media day event in Los Angeles, “The idea is Pac-12 content, anywhere, anytime, by any device.”
Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star notes how big it will be for the conference to finally have a spot for its games.
It hasn’t always been easy to find the Pac-12 on TV, but that won’t be the case anymore. Regionalization of football games is a thing of the past. Not only will the Pac-12 Network show 35 games, but a new $3 billion, 12-year contract with ESPN and Fox will have those networks showing 44 more games nationally.
UCLA’s first football game on the Pac-12 Network will be Sept. 15 against visiting Houston and USC’s will be Sept. 22 at home against California.
Every men’s basketball game will also air either on Fox, ESPN or the Pac-12 Networks and there will be much more coverage of women’s basketball and other men’s and women’s sports that have ignored by television.
Stevenson said 350 events will be shown on all seven networks. In addition, 50 more events per school will be shown regionally.
“Last year, I think across the conference there were might have been five or six football games that weren’t televised, but probably 70 basketball games weren’t even on television last year,” Stevenson said. “Thirteen of USC’s basketball games weren’t on television.”
*******
Yahoo has had more than 2 billion page views during the Olympics, according to Eric Fisher of Street and Smith’s Sports Business Daily. Fisher writes:
Three days after NBCOlympics.com said it has surpassed 1.1 billion online page views for the London Olympics to date, Yahoo said Thursday that it has surpassed 2 billion page views for its Olympic coverage through Monday across computer, mobile and tablet platforms. The Yahoo total, the result of internal metrics, is more than its total coverage of the Vancouver and Beijing Olympics combined.
Yahoo also said it has reached more than 80 million unique visitors globally for its coverage from London.
*******
Big Lead has an interview with Washington Nationals play-by-play man Charlie Stowes. After years of calling games for losing teams, he finally has a winner.
Stowes said:
Unfortunately, lots of practice with this one with some bad clubs in the NBA, an expansion baseball team in Tampa Bay, an expansion-like team moved from Montreal to Washington. But you always approach a game fresh and in your mind, feel like the game you are broadcasting is the “Game of the Day.” When a team isn’t playing well, trying to entertain with your partner on air can be important to keep an audience. If you can get people to listen when your broadcasting a bad club and like you, they’ll love you when they win.
