If you pay attention to the sports television industry, some stories are worth digging into. Going below the surface turns up revelations you might not initially expect.
You might be aware, for instance, that with the financial troubles of Diamond Sports Group and its Bally Sports properties, some professional sports teams are pursuing new television arrangements with local TV stations. The Phoenix Suns (I live in Phoenix and am close to this story) sought an arrangement with a local TV station. The deal has been held up in the courts, but it is going to go through eventually in some form. Going from a dedicated sports network to a local television station might seem like a demotion on the surface, if viewed through the prism that a sports network’s on-air talent provide a more professional and in-depth presentation than a local station.
However, there’s one very obvious, very big advantage of the move to a local TV station (in Phoenix, the station is a CBS affiliate with another independent affiliate attached).
Visibility, flowing from much wider distribution and access.
If you have a television in Phoenix, you can access the local TV station. You don’t have to pay for it. This is over-the-air TV, the exact opposite of premium streaming or premium cable. Instead of going to high-end outlets which are more exclusive and cost more, the Suns and other teams are going to over-the-air television anyone can watch. That’s actually good. The whole city will be able to watch the Suns.
Something similar is happening in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which recently struck a deal with The CW Network. The channel which has lots of syndicated reruns will start carrying live ACC football and basketball games. It might seem like a downgrade for the ACC’s TV package. It might seem minor-league, small-fry, not ready for prime time. Yet, given that a lot of ACC fans have had problem finding their favorite team’s games in recent years — lots of ACC fans have been frustrated by the inability to watch their teams on basic cable — the move to The CW contains one obvious and enormous advantage.
From the ACC press release on its deal with The CW:
“The CW Network, LLC is one of America’s major broadcast networks and reaches 100% of US television households.”
Boom. You can’t do any better in terms of access than 100 percent. Everyone in the ACC footprint can now find ACC sports on an over-the-air channel, an outlet people don’t have to pay extra for. They don’t have to buy a streaming subscription to Paramount, or Peacock, or any of that stuff.
These deals with low-end outlets feel like minor-league ventures until you realize that everyone can find the game on The CW.
Now translate all of this to the Pac-12. People will laugh at the Pac-12 if it strikes a deal with The CW or Ion Television or one of these other hubs for syndicated reruns of NCIS or Law and Order. However, for a Pac-12 fan base which has been driven insane by the Pac-12 Network and the general inability to watch a significant portion of Pac-12 games over the years, having games on a free, over-the-air network actually sounds really, really good.
Don’t be surprised if the new Pac-12 media rights deal contains an arrangement with one of these over-the-air networks. Don’t laugh at the deal, either — especially if it fetches a competitive price point.
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