VERSUS Gets deal to air Pac-10/Big 12 Football

[Stevedude530]

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/networktv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003595322

FSN has reached an agreement to sublicense up to 10 college football games to Versus. Under the multi-year deal, Versus will get to televise games from the Pac-10 and Big 12 conferences, including teams like USC, UCLA and California.

For those curious, this is basically the TBS deal that the Pac-10 and Big 12 had last year, so a nice pickup for VERSUS.

Click to read more...

 

[LadyStanley]

including teams like USC, UCLA and California.

The institution of higher learning that we in the Bay Area call "Cal" is a shortened from of the University of California at Berkley (much to the chagrin of the rest of the "UC" system including UCLA, UCSF, UCSC, UCSB, UCSD, etc.)

The Pac-10 includes: USC (private), UCLA, Berkley, Stanford (private), Oregon State University, University of Oregon, Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State

And the Big-12 includes many schools in the mid-west.

 

[Nashville108*]

The institution of higher learning that we in the Bay Area call "Cal" is a shortened from of the University of California at Berkley (much to the chagrin of the rest of the "UC" system including UCLA, UCSF, UCSC, UCSB, UCSD, etc.)

The team that we stomped last year in the season opener is what I call them. They should've tried to get some SEC games. Nothing like a stadium in Tennessee with 107,000 screaming fans every Saturday.

But I digress, I'd say Versus will get more money from this than the NHL.

 

[Egil]

Why does Versus not have a highlight show ala Sportscenter?

 

[X0ssbar]

This is a very nice pickup for Versus. Another building block and another sign these guys are in this for the long haul. Hopefully they get to televise some games from the marquee schools from these leagues.

Sat., Sep. 15 Iowa at Iowa State JT VERSUS <-- decent start.

 

[Sotnos]

They should've tried to get some SEC games.

They couldn't afford the SEC.

But I digress, I'd say Versus will get more money from this than the NHL.

Maybe, but the bigger VS gets, the better it is for the NHL.

 

[LadyStanley]

Why does Versus not have a highlight show ala Sportscenter?

FSN has their 30 minute nightly summary "Final Score". My local Comcast Sports Net has a morning 30 minute summary "Sports Rise".


Perhaps its a matter of having the "news" team to prepare the information to broadcast, the talking head(s) to present it, and perhaps most importantly the sponsors.

 

[Stevedude530]

They don't quite have enough of a vested interest in enough "highlight-worthy" sports yet. If they maybe get another Big 4 league to air some games, maybe then.

 

[TheDanceOfMaternity]

Yeah, the SF chronicle was reeeeeeal happy about that today :

Although, it was funny when the guy wrote that you could add Stanford football highlights to the show "Holy ****"

 

[GKJ]

Excellent! Pac 10 football is among the best in College Football.

 

[Nashville108*]

Excellent! Pac 10 football is among the best in College Football.

If USC is playing

 

[LGP8771]

Why does Versus not have a highlight show ala Sportscenter?

Because they're Pejorative Slured. Same reason they didn't push for Buccigross to come over and do NHL2night under a different name.

They suck.

But on the subject of college football... Maybe this is good. As long as they don't put it ahead of hockey and maybe start giving hockey some better coverage.

I will give Versus some credit though. At least they launched Versus HD this year (even if they have to share with Golf Channel), and the graphics on the screen with Versus (especially the ones on top of the screen during gameplay), are pretty good. When the games are on, it looks like a legitimate sports network. When they were OLN even that was pathetic.

 

[PaulKariya]

What we as fans don't realize is that Versus is going to gain more and more viewers and will eventually go on basic cable along with ESPN. The only problem with this is that we have to play the waiting game until then, and will have to take more and more crap from the other big 4 sports. I think eventually Bettman did the right thing in moving from ESPN, its almost turned into an MTV.

 

[GKJ]

Why does VS even need their own HD Channel? The only things they would need it for is hockey and college football, most of which is played when golf isn't really in their full swing.


If they got something else such as baseball, it would be different.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Good for them. I adore the Mountain West Conference (the only one they have exclusive national rights to, if I'm not mistaken) but the Pac-10 and Big 12 are much bigger names.

Though I'll take Colorado State/Wyoming over Texas/Oklahoma any day of the week. Mind you, I'm insane.

 

[Sotnos]

Not sure where else to put this, but VS just moved from 74 to 26 (next to ESPN) on the biggest cable provider in the Tampa area. Anyone else notice anything similar?

 

[Hasbro]

Though I'll take Colorado State/Wyoming over Texas/Oklahoma any day of the week. Mind you, I'm insane.

Not really Mountain West (the REAL WAC) is some good football.

 

[Stevedude530]

Their schedule of MWC games this season is much more diverse than just TCU every week too.

Here's their college football schedule so far.

9/1 2:00 PM Virginia vs. Wyoming
9/1 5:30 PM Arizona vs. BYU
9/8 10:00 PM Wisconson vs. UNLV
9/15 1:30 PM Iowa vs. Iowa State
9/15 5:00 PM UCLA vs. Utah
9/29 10:00 PM Cincinatti vs. San Diego St.
10/18 8:00 PM Utah vs. TCU
10/25 9:00 PM Air Force vs. New Mexico
11/8 9:00 PM TCU vs. BYU

 

[WVP]

Not sure where else to put this, but VS just moved from 74 to 26 (next to ESPN) on the biggest cable provider in the Tampa area. Anyone else notice anything similar?

That's nice. I am so tired of the "You can't even find hockey on TV joke." I mean, if you can't find a channel in the age of the internet and digital programming guides, then give up. You don't deserve a television.

I hope Versus does well, not only for hockey, but to knock ESPN down a few notches a provide actual sports programming.

 

[Stevedude530]

Even if it's not near ESPN normally, it's probably near it in the HD lineup. ESPN and ESPN 2 HD are 202 & 203 in my area, while VERSUS is 206 & 207.

 

[WVP]

Yeah, it's 252, 253 and 255 where I live.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Their schedule of MWC games this season is much more diverse than just TCU every week too.

Here's their college football schedule so far.

9/1 2:00 PM Virginia vs. Wyoming
9/1 5:30 PM Arizona vs. BYU
9/8 10:00 PM Wisconson vs. UNLV
9/15 1:30 PM Iowa vs. Iowa State
9/15 5:00 PM UCLA vs. Utah
9/29 10:00 PM Cincinatti vs. San Diego St.
10/18 8:00 PM Utah vs. TCU
10/25 9:00 PM Air Force vs. New Mexico
11/8 9:00 PM TCU vs. BYU

Not a single Colorado State game? Sigh. I used to get to watch 4 or 5 of their games a year on ESPN because they always played with such a weird schedule (the kings of thursday night games). No one else in the conference was ever televised though. Now it's the opposite.

 

[X0ssbar]

Even if it's not near ESPN normally, it's probably near it in the HD lineup. ESPN and ESPN 2 HD are 202 & 203 in my area, while VERSUS is 206 & 207.

Here in Columbus VS. HD channel is also right in the same range as ESPN and ESPN2 HD:

ESPN 785
ESPN2 786
VS. HD 754

Considering we only get about 13 channels in HD they are all basically right next to other. Comcast is smart to launch and position their HD channel quickly as possible as that is where the future lies.

 

[Chileiceman]

Good for them. I adore the Mountain West Conference (the only one they have exclusive national rights to, if I'm not mistaken) but the Pac-10 and Big 12 are much bigger names.

Though I'll take Colorado State/Wyoming over Texas/Oklahoma any day of the week. Mind you, I'm insane.

I agree with you. But I'm a Wyoming fan.
But the funny thing is that in Wyoming VS is on very few basic cable packages.

 

[Snap Wilson]

The team that we stomped last year in the season opener is what I call them. They should've tried to get some SEC games. Nothing like a stadium in Tennessee with 107,000 screaming fans every Saturday.

We'll see how that goes this year.

Great pickup for Versus. Looking forward to seeing more of my team's games.