Feb 29 2008
DirecTV Deal: What does it really mean?
There was much joy and rejoicing in the streets of Provo (and across the world surely) when San Diego State’s Athletic Director stole Craig “The Hair” Thompson’s thunder and announced the signing of a deal with DirecTV to nationally distribute the Mtn. For the first time, people as far away are the Mid-west and Texas will be able to see what appears to be football games from the 1970’s.
This is the best thing to happen to the Mtn. since they fired the annoying girlĀ in theĀ studio?
Oh..she’s still there? Nevermind.
The real good news is that BYU fans across the country will get to see every single game BYU plays this season.
There’s an equal coverage agreement, so CSU and UNLV have to get shown as often as BYU? My bad.
At least we will get to see parts of Media Days in late July and coverage of spring practice to get our juices flowing?
The deal only says Sept. 1st at the latest? Blast.
Top-flight recruits will get to see MWC and come flocking to our schools, increasing the talent level and national respect given to the conference.
“Last year I asked Bronco Mendenhall if he ever had a recruit bring up the TV deal. He said never,” said Jay Drew, recruiting expert from the SLTrib when I asked him. “I asked if a recruit ever talked about conference affiliation. He said the only recruits that do that are the ones in California or Hawaii, and they always ask how the MWC compares with the Pac-10. He said he has never had a kid from Utah talk ask about the conference (maybe because they are already familiar with the MWC).” Darn.
Don’t get me wrong folks, I am excited. I won’t have to drive 1/2 hour on Saturdays to watch the game even though I have dish at home. We will probably be on TV more than the WAC. We will be better than the WAC (nothing to do with the deal, but still true). I can now catch a game in any state and not have to build my travel schedule around game day, but I probably will anyways.
But this isn’t the end of Mtn.’s woes. Distribution will likely be sorted out by football season so anyone on earth who wants to watch a BYU football game will have the ability to do so. However, getting a bad product to more people doesn’t make the product any better, just makes it more available.
If the thousands (dozens?) of callers that bombarded the DirecTV and Dish call-centers in third-world countries can now refocus their collective convincing power on the Mtn., maybe we can get camera shots that include the football game, announcers who have been around football before, commercial breaks that end before the game is started again, not using one player’s picture for multiple players (though I am sure most players wish they looked like Bryan Kehl), and post-game shows that include something other than attempting to get Coach Mendenhall to smile.
It’s a step in the right direction, but we aren’t there quite yet.
15 Responses to “DirecTV Deal: What does it really mean?”
Don’t forget to ask for HD when you contact the mhl. regarding the quality of the broadcast.
Hopefully the money coming in from the Direct deal will help the mtn improve their product. But even if they do, why do I have the feeling we’ll still be the best team that most people never see? I think winnng viewers on the new channel is going to be a long-term challenge.
The answer, once again, will be to keep winning games.
Cruiser, good point. Just because it is available doesn’t mean people will watch it. If BYU wants to increase exposure (and the MWC in general) they HAVE to win OOC games. If BYU can stay ranked through the whole year it will be the best thing to happen to the Mtn.
IMO, the big lingering issue for BYU is the ability to broadcast the games that the mhl./CSTV/Versus don’t pick up. That’s not really an issue for football as much as basketball, but BYU has got to snag the rights to those games and beam them out on BYU-TV. The football program is getting some of the best talent it has ever had in spite of the TV deal, so that’s not much of a concern (different story for other MWC schools–see: Colorado State). The main issue is taking care of the BYU fans throughout the nation that want to see their teams. BYU fans getting the shaft because Wyoming vs. Air Force has to be shown to balance out the coverage of conference teams is baloney. Pfeh!
With all due respect, the problems you mention are pretty empty arguments.
Bad sideline reporting/commetating? Did you watch the LV Bowl in 2006?? Hint: think Brent Musberger Action Figure.
Equal coverage? I don’t quite know what you are saying here. BYU fans will be able to see every single football game BYU plays no matter where they live in the country. The Moutain West Conference is the only conference in the country that can say that (not taking ESPN Gameplan into account). Every conference home game will be televised nationally now that DirecTV has signed on.
Football Media Days? Those are televised by CSTV–not The mtn.
Recruiting? The TV situation can’t be used against us anymore. In fact, the reality of being the only league guaranteed national coverage without requiring a Gameplan-like subscription is a BIG deal.
Are there even more improvements that have to be made? Definitely. HD, Online Webcasts, etc. are still coming. DirecTV signing up is the just the first verse of the fight song. “Rise and Shout” might not be here yet, but it is definitely coming.
Jared,
The game commentary is actually pretty good (if not good, at least its not horrible.) The lady I am referring to is the one that “moderates” the discussion at halftime. Yikes.
Recruiting: We are agreeing on this one. Its not a big deal, which was actually a surprise to me.
Improvements, in my opinion, are the quality of the broadcast, production, replays, etc. When CSTV used the Mtn. feed for the Utah game my brother-in-law (huge BYU fan who had never seen the Mtn. because he lives in California) turns to me and said, “Why don’t they ever show what down it is? Why don’t they show how many yard to the first down?”
Pre-Sept 1 coverage. I was being a bit sarcastic on this point, but how many fans would love to see all the MWC basketball games in the coming weeks? BYU has had to work on loopholes to get games against top teams aired and has had a couple not aired at all.
Josh hit on another point I left out of the story. For games they don’t want to pick up (doesn’t apply as much to BYU football since they fight over it) they need to release the rights for the school to broadcast.
HD is a must, CSTV finally got on that path. Also with the extra bling that the channel is getting they better use that to upgrade their quality of broadcast. I remember one game during the first year where they were talking about the next game and it was San Diego State vs. someone, but the type had San Siego State. What is that junior high tv production.
Also Jared thank you for posting those counter arguments about CSTV hosting media day and the other points.
it seems to me that on this site that a lot of the commentors and some of the posts bash The Mtn. some valid and mostly non valid, as in the comments above about complaints over the start of the coverage, the equal rights to broadcast games, etc… Everyone should be happy that the Mtn. is now available everywhere.
The MWC TV is truly national, especially if you have DirecTv because Versus and CSTV are on the basic plans, and hopefully The Mtn. will be on a similar tier as the Big 10 Network
The quality of the programming definitely needs to improve but so does the amount of coverage. We need to get more games on CSTV and Versus so that every single game in football and Basketball can be shown on TV. Also, if we have an entire channel devoted to a conference with only 9 teams there should be a great opportunity to broadcast really interesting things that fans would love. Throughout the entire year we could have spotlights of potential recruits and the best HS players in each state in the conference. Signing day should be 12 straight hours of coverage breaking down every single player in the conference. This year, they had one 1 hour long segment air the day after signing day and covered each team for about 5 minutes followed by a 5 minute recap. There is just so much that could be shown with a station that has so much time to cover only 9 teams. It is really pathetic that they can’t think outside the box a little more. Maybe it was just a money issue and increased revenue from satellite deals will help that.
Chodilicus I agree that more games should be on CSTV and Versus, because honestly the MWC has better games to offer then the C-USA, Navy, and I-AA games that CSTV shows a lot. Also, I feel Versus should have a game of the week featuring the MWC in basketball and have something similar for football with one game a week either on the Tursday night of Saturday to increase coverage. Also, you are totally right for recruiting on The Mtn, they could spend multiple hours covering recruiting. One thing that might be interesting for more live events would be to show live high school events from teams that fall in the conference areas.
Plus show more live events from minor sports such as more volleyball, soccer, water polo, swimming, baseball, lacross, and other olympic sports to fill out live coverage or at worst taped delayed coverage that is from live events.
Also for what teams get to be on what station should be similar to what the Big 10 does, which is gives ABC first choice one week, ESPN second pick, and the Big 10 network gets 3rd pick, and sometimes Big 10 gets the 2nd choice and their is a rotation. This model would ensure the best games are on Versus or CSTV, there would be a cap of how many times a team can be on Versus or CSTV, but give those channels the best matchups and then for a few games out of the year The Mtn. can get the best choice for football.
IMO, in watching games on the MTN (which I’ve had for over a year) compared to standard ESPN isn’t very different. Mistakes occur at a slightly higher rate, but that should improve as the production teams gain experience.
In fact, the fact that the announcers are more familiar with the teams improves the commentary, IMO. Still, if I have to hear “for whatever reason” from scar-lip one more time, I might just throw something through my TV…
BTW, the improvements from the first year of production to last year were substantial. If improvements continue at that rate (unlikely, I know…there’s just not as much to fix), quality should be very good by end of 2008.
FWIW, the most annoying person I’ve had the misfortune of watching on the Mtn isn’t Natalie Vickers (I think that’s the gal you hate so). It’s the old basketball dude that comes up with all the LAME nicknames for the players. Ugh, I hate that guy.
One of the reasons the MTN. was bleeding dollars, was the equal time provision for the bottom feeders.
The basketball blackouts make no sense when there are only four men’s games
cont’d.
per saturday. It especiall;y doesn’t make sense when you look at the repeats that Versus and CSTV show.
BYU still needs to own its own rights. BYU deserves primetime exposure. The MTN has never measured up to the old Blue and White network let alone the professional standards viewers are accustomed to on the networks and ESPN.
BYU could afford to stay in the Mountain WEst and go its own way on TV–then the MTN and the conference would make all kinds of concessions.
Peter,
I know who you are talking about now–Natalie Vickers–and yeah, I feel like I am trying to talk to my wife about sports when I hear her talk.
They have been playing with their score/quarter/TOs/down/distance graphic each of the first two years. IMO, it needs to be finalized where those key elements are always displayed without taking up too much screen space like it did the first year with that ugly banner at the top.
And totally agree on the rights issue. The equal coverage clause was put in to keep BYU from getting the lion’s share of coverage. The Big 12’s TV deal does the exact opposite and teams get their payout based on the number of TV appearances they make. That’s why you hear grumblings from teams like Missouri who are upset with their “have-not” designation.
There is already enought Cougar envy in the MWC, but the TV partners need to realize that Cougar fans are not going to watch any game they put out there involving MWC teams. It’s not like The mtn. is losing viewers if the BYU game is picked up by BYU-TV. Those Cougar fans would be intently listening to Greg Wrubell’s call and catch The Mountain Cap highlights of the other games that night.
Spaz:
Is it the same guy who used to call Araujo “Captain A” back in the SportsWest days? That guy was awesome. Or not.
I totally forgot about the “Captain A” thing! I wanted to slap that guy…