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ESPN Launches 15 College Conf. Channels on Apple TV and Roku
- Thread starter hithere
- Start date
Wyo2dal
Well-known member
It's sort of funny TBH, While this isn't ground breaking information if you think back to 2006 and you follow a careful timeline of how this is becoming reality the Mountain West being one of the smaller conferences actually got this ball rolling.
The MWC was the first Network 100% dedicated to one conference. I know it seems odd but just look at it.
MWC Network - Launched September 1, 2006 & Closed June 1, 2012
Big 10 Network - Launched August 30, 2007
Texas Longhorn Network - Launched August 26, 2011
Pac 12 Network - Launched August 15, 2012
SEC Network - Launched August 21, 2014
Now this is where it gets crazy, the WWE is the first national big time player to 100% cut the cable from cable companies. When it launched the WWE Network 3 days ago after years in plan.
Now the biggest sports network in the world is following suit, Those 15 Conferences those are going to be all the small conferences, See this is how ESPN becomes the only player. Right now Root/CBS are covering the MWC but mark my words there is no reason for ESPN to launch a stream based channel for conferences that already have stream based content unless there is money to be made. But there is no money to be made when ESPN already covers them all.
The power 5 conferences have nothing to gain from being aired over ATV and other streaming media devices because most of networks already provides their own streaming at pretty high quality. Think of the 15 smallest conferences Basketball & Football that get zero media attention and do not have nation media markets to cover the cost of HD trucks.
If I wanted to capitalize on small market audiences in the technology world of today I use internet streaming.
We'll see how it all ends up working out but I find it funny that the MWC got the ball rolling and then failing due to not having the fore sight to look at the big picture outside of the MWC distribution region.
The MWC was the first Network 100% dedicated to one conference. I know it seems odd but just look at it.
MWC Network - Launched September 1, 2006 & Closed June 1, 2012
Big 10 Network - Launched August 30, 2007
Texas Longhorn Network - Launched August 26, 2011
Pac 12 Network - Launched August 15, 2012
SEC Network - Launched August 21, 2014
Now this is where it gets crazy, the WWE is the first national big time player to 100% cut the cable from cable companies. When it launched the WWE Network 3 days ago after years in plan.
Now the biggest sports network in the world is following suit, Those 15 Conferences those are going to be all the small conferences, See this is how ESPN becomes the only player. Right now Root/CBS are covering the MWC but mark my words there is no reason for ESPN to launch a stream based channel for conferences that already have stream based content unless there is money to be made. But there is no money to be made when ESPN already covers them all.
The power 5 conferences have nothing to gain from being aired over ATV and other streaming media devices because most of networks already provides their own streaming at pretty high quality. Think of the 15 smallest conferences Basketball & Football that get zero media attention and do not have nation media markets to cover the cost of HD trucks.
If I wanted to capitalize on small market audiences in the technology world of today I use internet streaming.
We'll see how it all ends up working out but I find it funny that the MWC got the ball rolling and then failing due to not having the fore sight to look at the big picture outside of the MWC distribution region.
hithere
Well-known member
Wyo2dal said:
That's the key, I think. That whether or not content will be streaming, just using ROOT and/or CBS isn't something to use long term. If my memory serves, it was due to the membership instabilities and ROOT at the time was the only option. Using themw.com and streaming, I can watch most Wyoming and MW games but like espn or not, they're the dominant player when it comes to sports.
Didn't Charter just come to Laramie somewhat recently? And Charter is a participating ISP in watchespn (espn3). COX in San Diego and Vegas; Verizon in Albuquerque, San Jose, Fort Collins, Fresno, Colorado Springs and Vegas; Comcast in Logan; Charter in Reno and Laramie. Boise is the only outlier with no watchespn participating ISP. I wonder what the reasoning is behind why the MW isn't a part of this 15 conference model added to watchespn? Is the MW still under the thumb of that CBS deal made a while back?
Wyo2dal
Well-known member
hithere said:
It's going to ATV and Roku those are streaming media players, They allow for content distribution at a much lower overhead. Give it enough time and ESPN will crack into the smart TV market that has to be long term goal.
Roku & ATV are for people that want to be able to watch TV content without having a TV bill.
hithere
Well-known member
Wyo2dal said:
Which then gets in to the a la carte discussion. I personally have two jailbroken ATV's with a friend's watchespn account because I don't pay for cable. But would love to legitimately pay for just watchespn.
I know the financial reasons why espn is very reluctant to go a la carte. But I don't know why the MW is not currently one of the 15 conferences in this deal. I'm hopeful that after some time, these first deals will be seen as baby steps.
