MU/Panther
12-23-2012, 11:51 AM
A week ago, the feeling among the schools was that they'd be happy with $2 million per year from television. Multiple sources have indicated the $3 million per school figure is looking like a more accurate number. Who will pony up?
The lead suitor right now is Fox, which is starting its own national sports cable network that's expected to be on the air this fall. The glut of inventory means that it will inevitably be split between multiple networks, but Fox has been most aggressive so far.
There would be some symmetry to Fox using Catholic 7 basketball as a bedrock of its newly founded sports network. Some other upstart cable television network did that with Big East basketball in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It seemed to be a pretty good formula for ESPN.
The other leading candidate would be NBC/Comcast, which made a huge bid for the Pac-12 that ultimately ended up forging an unlikely alliance between Fox and ESPN. NBC/Comcast is certainly interested, as they been a persistent factor in the race for Big East programming before things began to fall apart in that league.
Could Fox buy it all and sell some off to other places? That seems feasible. Could there be a multi-network deal? That's highly possible as well.
What would surprise people is that ESPN's fingerprints were nowhere to be found on this Catholic 7 breakaway. The chances of them bidding for it -- especially with the potential eye-popping price tag -- are minimal. Could ESPN end up with some inventory? Sure. It could end up with a share if the Catholic 7 want to maintain a tie to ESPN. (There's certainly some nostalgia from ESPN for Villanova, St. John's and Georgetown). But for now, the chances of ESPN as the primary carrier of this league are slim. They're already overloaded with regular-season basketball that gets minimal ratings. Why overpay for more?
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20121221/catholic-7-future/#ixzz2Ftm2KsAI
The lead suitor right now is Fox, which is starting its own national sports cable network that's expected to be on the air this fall. The glut of inventory means that it will inevitably be split between multiple networks, but Fox has been most aggressive so far.
There would be some symmetry to Fox using Catholic 7 basketball as a bedrock of its newly founded sports network. Some other upstart cable television network did that with Big East basketball in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It seemed to be a pretty good formula for ESPN.
The other leading candidate would be NBC/Comcast, which made a huge bid for the Pac-12 that ultimately ended up forging an unlikely alliance between Fox and ESPN. NBC/Comcast is certainly interested, as they been a persistent factor in the race for Big East programming before things began to fall apart in that league.
Could Fox buy it all and sell some off to other places? That seems feasible. Could there be a multi-network deal? That's highly possible as well.
What would surprise people is that ESPN's fingerprints were nowhere to be found on this Catholic 7 breakaway. The chances of them bidding for it -- especially with the potential eye-popping price tag -- are minimal. Could ESPN end up with some inventory? Sure. It could end up with a share if the Catholic 7 want to maintain a tie to ESPN. (There's certainly some nostalgia from ESPN for Villanova, St. John's and Georgetown). But for now, the chances of ESPN as the primary carrier of this league are slim. They're already overloaded with regular-season basketball that gets minimal ratings. Why overpay for more?
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20121221/catholic-7-future/#ixzz2Ftm2KsAI