Topic: BREAKING NEWS: C-USA announcing deals with ESPN and CSTV

[WVdave]

Details coming later on C-USA and their new agreement with CSTV after completion of their conference call at 2 pm (est).   Included below is ESPN's release on its new agreement with C-USA.

For Immediate Release                                                                                                

January 11, 2005

 

ESPN AND CONFERENCE USA REACH MULTI-YEAR AGREEMENT FOR FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL

 

Premier Matchups On ESPN and ESPN2; New Football Championship Plus Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships Included; Content Across ESPN Entities

 

ESPN, Inc. and Conference USA have entered into a six-year agreement for the league's premier football and men’s and women’s basketball games, including regular-season action, the new football championship and the men’s and women’s basketball championships, it was announced by John Wildhack, ESPN senior vice president, programming, and Britton Banowsky, Conference USA Commissioner. The wide-ranging, multi-media pact -- which will begin with the 2005-06 season and continue through 2010-11 -- will replace and extend the existing eight-year agreement that began in 2001-02.

 

Highlights of the agreement follow:

·         Football: coverage of the new conference championship game (debuts in 2005), plus first selection for ESPN and/or ESPN2 of 10 regular-season football games annually -- highlighted by weeknight telecasts on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays and games on Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekends;

·         Men’s Basketball: first selection for ESPN and/or ESPN2 of six men’s basketball games annually, plus the addition of the conference championship to ESPN’s Championship Week;

·         Women’s Basketball: first selection for ESPN and/or ESPN2 of three women’s basketball games annually, plus the conference championship;

·         Other ESPN Outlets: coverage of Conference USA across ESPN’s other platforms, including ESPN Mobile (wireless), ESPN Interactive, ESPN 360 (formerly ESPN Broadband), ESPN.com, ESPN Pay-Per-View, ESPN Video-on-Demand, ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, ESPN Deportes and more.

 

“With this agreement, fans will continue to enjoy the very best Conference USA action on the ESPN networks including the exciting, new football championship,” Wildhack said. “We look forward to advancing our strong association with our friends at the conference level as well as the member schools by using the array of ESPN entities to deliver Conference USA related content to college sports enthusiasts wherever they are.”

 

Banowsky added, “We have always valued our long-standing relationship with ESPN and are thrilled that it will continue. Our product, which includes a showcase of our football and basketball programs and our inaugural football championship game, will appeal to ESPN's national audience.”

 

 

CONFERENCE USA
Conference USA (C-USA) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this season. The league's membership will realign on July 1, 2005 with the addition of six schools: Marshall, Rice, SMU, Tulsa, UCF and UTEP. These six join current members East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulane and UAB. Conference USA, a NCAA Division I-A Conference based in Irving, Texas, will have a 12-school membership in 2005 sponsoring championships in 19 sports. C-USA offers nine sports for men (baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis and indoor and outdoor track and field) and 10 for women (basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and volleyball).

[WallyHerd]

As far as FB is concerned this doesn't appear to be much different than the MAC's agreement with ESPN.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday games will continue to be the norm.

[Marco]

hopefully $$$$$$ will be the difference.

what did you expect, we all knew it's weekday games for the most part for nonBCS on espn......the big boys are owning the weekends and alot of thursdays.

[Blade]

CSTV.  That is where we'll get some Saturday exposure.  I think it was a major coup that CUSA was able to cut two deals.  ESPN usually asks for exclusive rights.

[GreenSteve]

I'd wait for all of the details to come in before declaring anything a major coup.

For instance, Do we know what counts as an exposure? Do we know what games CSTV is picking up? We don't know any dollar details. What does this mean for the Thundering Herd Network?

Waaaaay to early IMHO.

GS.

[GreenSteve]

That is where we'll get some Saturday exposure.

Some is probably the operable word.

GS.

[Mako]

It will be interesting to see how many cable systems CSTV can get on as part of the basic cable package.  My uneducated guess is that the launch of CSTV is a major reason why ESPN is launching ESPNU.  Beyond that, I agree with GS that we need to see all the details.

[WVdave]

Here's a few of the details from the call announcing C-USA's new broadcasting contracts with ESPN and CSTV:

FROM ESPN:

The majority of the football games will be mid-week, but an occassional Saturday game hasn't been ruled out and there will be 'wildcard' slots in November, where the best C-USA matchups can be selected during the season.  ESPN officials seem to imply that if a C-USA game already scheduled to be played on a Saturday was selected as a 'wildcard' game, it would stay on Saturday and not be moved for a mid-week broadcast.

The teams and the date and times for the Labor Day and Thanksgiving C-USA games are TBA.

The first C-USA championship game will be on a Saturday or Friday night.

ESPN has the right to select any C-USA football game they want and there is no guarantee that every league team has to appear as part of this new agreement.

FROM CSTV:

While ESPN has the first choice of C-USA football games for its ten slots, the remaining games will fall to CSTV, who will air them on a national and regional basis.  CSTV expects to broadcast around 15 C-USA football games nationally this fall and claim they will be agressively marketing a C-USA syndicated package for many of the other games.

CSTV didn't rule out the possibility of putting together Saturday MWC/C-USA football doubleheaders beginning in 2006 after the Mountain West's current deal with ESPN expires after this season.  

ESPN's new deal with C-USA only extends to football and basketball, so CSTV will the primary outlet for C-USA baseball.  

CSTV officials also commented that as part of this agreement, no C-USA product will be appearing on the new ESPN-U network after this deal kicks in with football in the fall.  

CSTV now controls the satellite radio rights for C-USA.  

CSTV's agreement covers the same period as the new ESPN contract with C-USA and will expire in the spring of 2011.  

POSTSCRIPT:

All of the details on the new C-USA agreement with ESPN and CSTV are now available at:  http://conferenceusa.com/sports/news/release.asp?RELEASE_ID=7576

Here's the new info on CSTV and C-USA:

CSTV FACT SHEET

EVENTS DISTRIBUTED:
· The new partnership provides CSTV with exclusive rights to regular season Conference USA football and regular season and post-season men’s and women’s basketball, as well as exclusive rights for all other regular season, post-season and championship Conference USA sports: baseball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field for men, and cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and volleyball for women.

· Regular Season package of Football Games

· Regular Season package of Men’s Basketball Games

· Regular Season package of Women’s Basketball Games

· Championship Games in Volleyball, Baseball, Softball, Women’s Soccer and Men’s Soccer

· Early round coverage of the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments

· Coverage of all 19 regular season Olympic sports events, including significant coverage of C-USA women’s sports

· Comprehensive coverage in CSTV’s news, scores and highlights programming as well as coaches shows, original series and documentary style programs

· Educational, distance learning and cultural programming from C-USA Member Institutions

· The agreement includes conference-related media and marketing rights, including television, national over-the-air and satellite radio, video-on-demand, Internet, broadband, wireless and exclusive corporate sponsorship and rights.

· CSTV’s CSTV Online business unit produces the www.CollegeSports.com Web site. The agreement will provide the rights for CS.com to produce the official site of the Conference USA and the individual member websites with exclusive rights to all video and audio streaming. CSTV Online currently produces the official athletic sites Houston, Memphis, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB and UCF.

[HerdInChicago]

"CSTV now controls the satellite radio rights for C-USA."

Does this mean Marshall football will be on Sirius or XM?

"CSTV expects to broadcast around 15 C-USA football games nationally this fall and claim they will be agressively marketing a C-USA syndicated package for many of the other games."

Does this mean most/all MU football games will be on satellite tv (i.e. Ku band satellite)?  Also, what impact will this have on WSAZ televising games and ISP promoting games.

Mike...Go Herd!!!

[HerdInChicago]

In partial response to my own question, it appears that CSTV has a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio to broadcast some college football.  Hopefully, Marshall football games will be on Sirius.  In addition to CSTV and other sports, Sirius has all NFL games.

Did anyone have Sirius this past football season?  If so, what was your impression of the college football coverage?

Mike...Go Herd!!!

[HERDUSA]

Is this all that surprising , this is CUSA not the MAC, as well as another of the many reasons for making the move as we have to CUSA.

On the other hand its fantastic to see that the deal was worked out and will be in effect at just the right time.

HERDUSA

[Thunders]

I thought the CUSA championship was supposed to be on ABC or something.  Wasn't there a deal where if they had it they would put it on ABC?

[HerdZone]

I have Sirius but paid no attention to the College broadcasts because Marshall wasn't there. Although I didn't pay any attention to it, here is their list of games and how its handled.

 http://www.siriusbackstage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15755&sid=31aa4b403f6f07067d9dcfc8bca50c5b

This is how they do the NFL also, only the NFL does both teams. This is a Sirius message board and really infomative.

[W0lfman]

Is this deal better than what the Mt West conference struck for their tv rights?  Just curious because if I'm not mistaken they got 80 mil or something like that for their CSTV contract.   Another question is how does this effect the CUSA bball championship game, will it still be televised by CBS?

[From Ashes to Glory]

C-USA's TV deal altered

ESPN won't televise as much league hoops

By Phil Stukenborg
Contact
January 12, 2005

A reconfigured Conference USA will operate under a restructured television package beginning in the fall of 2005, with men's basketball seeing a significant reduction in games carried by ESPN or ESPN2, and football's exposure remaining relatively unchanged.

C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky announced Tuesday the league had reached six-year agreements with ESPN and College Sports Television Networks to carry C-USA athletic events through the 2010-11 season.

Under the agreement, ESPN will carry 10 regular-season football games on ESPN or ESPN2, in addition to the C-USA championship game, which debuts in 2005.

ESPN and ESPN2 carried 14 games in 2004. Only games where the C-USA school is the home team apply.

Men's basketball saw its ESPN coverage dip dramatically. Instead of the 30 games on ESPN and ESPN2 this season, the number will drop to seven (six regular-season games, C-USA championship game) per season starting in 2005-06.

Three women's basketball games and the C-USA women's basketball final are part of the ESPN package.

Of the 30 men's basketball games being carried this season on ESPN or ESPN2, Memphis has seven appearances, not including away games against non-conference opponents.

The league loses traditional basketball powers Louisville and Cincinnati, in addition to perennial C-USA contender Marquette next season. Louisville, Cincinnati and Marquette depart for the Big East.

Beginning in 2005-06, C-USA will consist of 12 institutions that participate in football and men's and women's basketball. Memphis will be joined by East Carolina, Houston, Marshall, Rice, SMU, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, UCF and UTEP.

The transition will make the league -- known since its inception in 1995 as one of the nation's stronger basketball conferences -- more attractive as a football league.

"When we sat down with Britton, where we saw the greatest value was in the football component (of the C-USA contract)," said John Wildhack, ESPN senior vice president of programming. "Five of the 12 members played in bowl games this season.

"With basketball, while there's some reduction, we still want to be a partner."

Wildhack said the football package will, as it has in the past, include games on nontraditional days. He said the inaugural title game could be played on a Friday.

Banowsky said while he understands some league schools oppose playing on Fridays because of conflicts with prep football, the conference must keep that option open.

"We have an opportunity to take a (C-USA) game to a national audience in an unopposed (television) window," he said.

While ESPN and ESPN2 will carry 10 regular-season football games, CSTV expects to have access to a regular-season package of about 60 games.

"We'll have an aggressive regional distribution," said Chris Bevilacqua, a CSTV spokesman. "And we'll have 15 national games per year on CSTV."

CSTV, which launched in April 2003, is a multi-media company that consists of the first 24-hour college sports television network. The network, which has agreements with distributors that serve more than 65 million households nationwide, is available in six C-USA markets, including Memphis on Time Warner Digital channel 651. CSTV is expected to be available on cable in all league markets by August.

CSTV also includes the first 24-hour college sports radio network (SIRIUS College Sports Radio) and the leading college sports online network (CollegeSports.com).

Banowsky called the CSTV component of the long-term agreements a significant part of the new deal. The CSTV partnership will include a regular-season package of football, men's and women's basketball, championship games in volleyball, baseball, softball, women's and men's soccer and early round coverage of the men's and women's basketball tournaments.

-- Phil Stukenborg: 529-2543

[DJdaHERDfan]

it's better than nothing. :)

It also gives CUSA some time to grow into a better deal down the road.