• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts, upgrade to remove ads and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your BigSkyFans.com experience today!

Root Sports Buys Big Sky TV Broadcast Rights

Stumbled across the MSU/Sac basketball game last night being shown on Comcast Sports California last night, 24 hours after the game had been played.

It was an Allttitude Sports production. Nicely done and great to see the Hornets on TV. Do not recall ever seeing a Sac State basketball game on TV before.

And great to actually see the players. The Big Sky TV from Hornet Gym is blurry and the one camera that goes back and forth from the rafters of Hornet Gym is the only view of the game for years and years now.
Would be nice to see more camera angles.
 
When I was stationed in San Diego several years ago (i.e. the Abatemarco era), I saw a Sac @ UCLA hoops game at Hooters.

Needless to say, that game was quite painful to watch.
 
Super Hornet said:
When I was stationed in San Diego several years ago (i.e. the Abatemarco era), I saw a Sac @ UCLA hoops game at Hooters.

Needless to say, that game was quite painful to watch.

Jenkins was the coach in that game, not Abatemarco :ohno:
 
At least that 30 point loss was to a UCLA team that went to the final four and had five future NBA'ers! Not UM like last night....
 
The TV lineup of Root televised games:
Date Game Time (Mountain)
Sept. 22 Northern Arizona at Montana 1:30 p.m.
Sept. 29 Montana State at Southern Utah 1:30 p.m.
Sept. 29 Montana at Eastern Washington 5 p.m.
Oct. 6 Montana at Northern Colorado 1:30 p.m.
Oct. 6 Montana State at UC Davis 5 p.m.
Oct. 13 Eastern Washington at Montana State 1:30 p.m.
Oct. 20 Montana at North Dakota 1:30 p.m.
Oct. 27 Idaho State at Montana 1:30 p.m.
Nov. 3 Montana at Weber State 1:30 p.m.
Nov. 3 Montana State at Sacramento State 5 p.m.
Nov. 10 Portland State at Montana State 1:30 p.m.
Nov. 17 Montana State at Montana 1:30 p.m.
http://www.bigskyconf.com/news/2012/4/10/FB_0410125627.aspx

No shocker it’s built around the Montana’s. FWIW some UM fans are bitching about not being able to see every game on TV so that alone makes this TV deal beneficial to all. SHA, you will still get to see almost every Hornet game in that well known and highly anticipated shitty BSTV feed and production. As expected no CA FCS matchups were selected as Root doesn’t have a regional channel so it will be up to Wanless to hammer out a deal with Comcast or anyone else to get some games on TV. It shouldn’t be hard to sell the Causeway Classic and the Sac-SLO Showdown to a regional network. Maybe Wanless overachieves and gets a couple other games televised as well.

I expect to see 5 Hornet games on TV:
  • @ New Mexico State – As pathetic as the WAC is, ESPN is still obligated to televise that bottom tier product. At a minimum this game will be on ESPN 3. I think this is a Thursday night game so it might be on ESPN or ESPN 2.
    @ Colorado – Pac12 has a solid TV deal so this should be on TV somewhere.
    vs Montana State – Root Sports
    vs Cal Poly – I don’t have a hard time seeing this on a regional network.
    @ the farm extension – the past 3 or so Causeways have been on a regional Comcast channel. This one will be no different.
Everything else will still be available online for free via BSTV.
 
Hornut said:
Looks like the rest of the BSC got a rotten root deal.
How so? The Montana’s TV revenue is distributed throughout the conference via the Root Sports TV contract whereas in the past the Montana’s pocketed every penny made off of their own local TV deals. This is a boon for every BSC member at the expense of the Montana's. This deal makes the socialist leftists in this country very proud.
 
SDHornet said:
Hornut said:
Looks like the rest of the BSC got a rotten root deal.
How so? The Montana’s TV revenue is distributed throughout the conference via the Root Sports TV contract whereas in the past the Montana’s pocketed every penny made off of their own local TV deals. This is a boon for every BSC member at the expense of the Montana's. This deal makes the socialist leftists in this country very proud.


In the past it was actually a 60/35/5 split. 60% to the home team. 35% to the away team. 5 % to the league.
 
noquestion said:
In the past it was actually a 60/35/5 split. 60% to the home team. 35% to the away team. 5 % to the league.
Interesting. Per Wanless’ quotes, he made it sound like it cost the BSC money to have games televised. I am curious as to what the revenue split is under the new TV deal.
 
bigsacstatehornetfan said:
Every game should be on ESPN3
All non-Root televised games will be available to stream on the internet for free via BigSkyTV. This is comparable to ESPN3 wrt content accessibility.
 
While I'm not exactly thrilled with this broadcast schedule, I'm not outraged by it, either.

The one thing I can't figure out is how a D-II Sac State seemed to be on KCRA all the time back in the '80s, but a D-I Hornet squad (one on the up-tick, no less) struggles to find an outlet. It makes no sense.

:ohno:
 
Maybe I'm just crazy, (actually, probably am), but can anyone else see this new package splitting this conference apart in the future? While its nice to get some nice potential television revenue, the focus on the Montana schools could potentially turn many schools off (thinking mainly Calif schools). It could be damaging to recruiting, create leass regional interest (from fans and potential sponsors) and most damaging of all give the Montanas an unequal/lopsided share of power within the conference. To me this has turned the Big Sky into the Big Montana featuring the western 11.

I can see the Cali 3 and other southwestern schools (or some variation there of) splitting off and creating our own conference in the not to distant future depending on how this deal works out.
 
SDHornet said:
noquestion said:
In the past it was actually a 60/35/5 split. 60% to the home team. 35% to the away team. 5 % to the league.
Interesting. Per Wanless’ quotes, he made it sound like it cost the BSC money to have games televised. I am curious as to what the revenue split is under the new TV deal.

The Alititude deal probably cost money (60/35/5 split). I don't think that money was given out from KPAX televising UM and Max Media televising MSU games to the rest of the conference.
 
SJHornet said:
Maybe I'm just crazy, (actually, probably am), but can anyone else see this new package splitting this conference apart in the future? While its nice to get some nice potential television revenue, the focus on the Montana schools could potentially turn many schools off (thinking mainly Calif schools). It could be damaging to recruiting, create leass regional interest (from fans and potential sponsors) and most damaging of all give the Montanas an unequal/lopsided share of power within the conference. To me this has turned the Big Sky into the Big Montana featuring the western 11.

I can see the Cali 3 and other southwestern schools (or some variation there of) splitting off and creating our own conference in the not to distant future depending on how this deal works out.
This conference was already skewed in the Montana’s favor pre-TV deal; I don’t necessarily see how this increases that any more. If the monetary split is heavily skewed towards the Montana’s then yes I would agree, but I don’t think this deal will negatively impact the conference as a whole wrt revenue. There aren’t any options out there for schools looking to leave. The WAC is a defection or two away from football death and there isn’t any financial incentive to join the WAC anyways. The only other option is if some BWC members reinstate football and that conference moves to sponsor FCS football but that is extremely unlikely to happen.

I fail to see how a TV deal that distributes TV revenue from a limited number of televised games (games that anyone outside of the matchups previously would have received no revenue for) and still allows schools to sell the remaining games to regional/local networks (revenue not shared outside of the matchup) will cause a split in membership.

This current deal seems like the best of both worlds. The recent consolidation of the Pac12 product to ESPN and Fox, the WAC stuck with whatever leftover air spots that are open on ESPN, the MWC stuck with its horrid Mountain network contract and there should be plenty of opportunity to work with regional/local networks looking to fill air time with sporting events on a Saturday afternoon/evening. Wanless just needs to get off his ass and put his salesman cap on and try and sell some Hornet games to a regional/local network, I think it can be done.
 
SJH in his infinite wisdom might be right. It very well looks like I’ll be eating my words. I got this response from Wanless earlier today when I emailed him some questions about the Root schedule and TV deal:

SDHornet,
We just received the schedule as well and have not had a chance to visit with the league about it. The biggest change is we are moving from having to pay for the broadcasts. Root Sports is now paying the BSC for the right fees to the games. Since the Montana schools had previous been the only ones with a TV package they will receive the majority of the dollars, but each school is saving $10,000 immediately by not having to pay for the broadcasts like we did in the past. Sacramento State continues to look for opportunities to get our football team on the air, but it is a tough sell right now. We will broadcast the Causeway Classic for sure. Thanks for your continued interest.

Dr. Wanless

I think this was a prepared response (or someone else had questions and he copied and pasted a previous response) as I received a reply in less than 5 minutes.

Initially I was OK with the TV deal even with the Montanan centric schedule (seriously who honestly didn’t expect that to happen) but what worries me is wtf does “they will receive the majority of the dollars” equate to?
 
They receive the majority of the dollars roughly translates to: if your schools name doesn't have the word Montana in it, you're screwed. I had a feeling the Montana centric nature of this deal had a catch in it. But despite them receiving a larger share of the pot my real concern lies in the recruiting aspect. The spotlight is now firmly planted on the Griz and Cats which will give them an unfair edge in coverage and scouting. Its almost similar to the Longhorn Network fiasco.

Imagine you have a HS football stud in Northern California. Perhaps not good enough to be a regular starter in the FBS ranks, but will be an all-star at our level and decides the FCS is for him. Sac, Poly and Montana offer him a full ride. All three are competitive but Montana pulls out its golden Goose: "son, you'll be nationally televised nearly every week". Despite the competitiveness of both Cali schools and being close to home, how can he pass up the possibility of being exposed to scouts and coaches damn near every week? He'll only get on the network once or maybe twice if he is lucky at State or Poly.

Idk. Maybe this was the only way Fullerton could get the Montana twins from not jumping ship to the FBS last round of expansion. To me, maybe we'd have been better off if they had packed their bags and wallowed in
the cellar playing the "big boys".
 
On a side TV note...

I was watching the replay of the Week 2 Oregon State / #8 Wisconsin game on ESPN U last night and I got a kick out of how many times we were mentioned. Urban Meyer made a couple comments about Oregon State standing tall during the first quarter after Sacramento State had their way with them the week before. It was nice, lol... Helped me forget the rest of the year!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top