Apple looking at PAC 12 football
- Thread starter MMC
- Start date
No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
They'll get paid, but that'll be their death as a conference in terms of national interest if they lock themselves behind Apple+.
Malaka
you know, **** it, let’s just not think so much
No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
It’s a sheltered garden of a platform that most are oblivious to and isn’t remotely a place that people really tune to en masse to watch anything remotely sports-related. Heck, even for those that get it, Apple+ is just that free thing that many check out once or twice before forgetting about, if that.
Malaka
you know, **** it, let’s just not think so much
I’m guilty of the latter, but my point is more that it’s accessible. Like most though there’s too many options to keep up with, and already an overbloated amount of streaming services that don’t give you access to the content they promise you(I just want to watch the hawks on ESPN+ FFS)… it would be nice if there was a centralized platform.
So it’s the yoho pirate life for me because of this problem either way. The real story should be whether or not the players will get a cut of that money
So you like monopolies?I’m guilty of the latter, but my point is more that it’s accessible. Like most though there’s too many options to keep up with, and already an overbloated amount of streaming services that don’t give you access to the content they promise you(I just want to watch the hawks on ESPN+ FFS)… it would be nice if there was a centralized platform.
So it’s the yoho pirate life for me because of this problem either way. The real story should be whether or not the players will get a cut of that money
PCSPounder
Stadium Groupie
Will Apple overpay for the Pac the way they did for MLS?
Will Pac-12 Network be part of the deal? The story about Amazon only wanting one Pac football game a week hinted at the obvious limitation. Meanwhile, Apple is the obvious driver of the new goofball MLS playoff structure that added teams and games… to a point. Sounds like Apple wants a lot of content.
I’m not here to say Apple will be a savior. They’re a stopgap until the B1G MAYBE decides they want more western schools. But I would bet that they’ll do something that keeps the band together for the length of the B1G contract… because modern conference realignment generally waits for contract renegotiation time.
Will Pac-12 Network be part of the deal? The story about Amazon only wanting one Pac football game a week hinted at the obvious limitation. Meanwhile, Apple is the obvious driver of the new goofball MLS playoff structure that added teams and games… to a point. Sounds like Apple wants a lot of content.
I’m not here to say Apple will be a savior. They’re a stopgap until the B1G MAYBE decides they want more western schools. But I would bet that they’ll do something that keeps the band together for the length of the B1G contract… because modern conference realignment generally waits for contract renegotiation time.
I’m confuse I thought cable was dying so what’s the problem? It just seems like nobody knows what they want
Malaka
you know, **** it, let’s just not think so much
It's an oligopoly as is. The division of services that's led from cable cutting to 15 different services has only hurt the consumer. I am for pirating, am for freedom of media. We have to suffer through your shit ads and marketing which takes away from the art/sport I want to enjoy.
On this note witnessing a tiktok or telecom logo on an original 6 franchise uniform makes me want to vomit. Gambling has even more poisoned my experience of watching a game with friends because they are more focused on props than the spectacle of watching these players with elite skills or storyline between teams. Intermissions no longer cater toward rivalries or a team's development and push for a championship, but the odds and probabilities.
If we are witnessing the death of purity in a sport like hockey, we might as well make it accessible. I should not have to spend 30m of my day struggling to cast it from a streaming site despite paying for ESPN+ and NHL Network and having local channels.
We lost the war against corporations when it stopped being $70 for a TV package and anywhere from $140-$200+ over the last year. Don't get me started either on how these streaming platforms have ruined filmmaking!
Get off my lawn etc.
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Malaka
you know, **** it, let’s just not think so much
What you're for is making sure the people who actually produce the things you watch don't get paid. To hell with you, thief!
Malaka
you know, **** it, let’s just not think so much
They get paid through the advertising shoved down my throat. We’re in a black mirror episode! To hell with you!
PCSPounder
Stadium Groupie
Paying $300 a month for cable is ass.
Being too greedy to adjust to market conditions is totally ass.
If you want to ask how people will coalesce to solutions the way some will want them to, we probably won’t.
KevFu
Registered User
People really should be talking more about the monopoly of ESPN that's causing the Pac-12 situation.
Everyone is looking at the Pac-12 and saying "Welp, they should have played the ESPN Destroys Conferences Game better" like the rich bettors in Squid Game, instead of saying "Wait a minute, ESPN destroying conferences isn't right!"
It's not Darwinist Capitalism with "the marketplace" making the Pac-12 wither and die. ESPN purposefully and deliberately decided that one of the Big 12 or Pac-12 was to die. They actually PICKED the Big 12.... the moved Oklahoma/Texas to the SEC, armed the American with data and facts and leaks to try and lure other Big 12 teams into the AAC.
The Big 12 knew it, called them out on it. and ESPN gave the Big 12 a contract to shut them up, and now ESPN refuses to give a TV deal to the Pac-12 at a fair price.
If there was a formula of "X viewers = X dollars" and the SEC sets the marketplace, then the Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC should be peers.
But because NBC, CBS and Fox let ESPN/ABC become the dominant force in sports broadcasting UNCHECKED with no competition, it's too expensive/risky for them to start now.
If I'm the Pac-10, I'm calling Congressmen representing the Pac-10 states, the Mountain West states, the Big East markets, the A-10 markets, the Conference USA markets... and I'm asking for them to split ABC/ESPN apart like Ma Bell.
PCSPounder
Stadium Groupie
On one hand, it was 6-7 years ago that Kirk Herbstreit was working a game (not Gameday), got a little huffy with an online comment, and all but blurted out over air that the Pac-12 should appreciate what it’s getting with the 7:30 pm Pacific Time slot, because that was the best it was going to get going forward.
So if I dispute anything about this, it’s that the b12 was solely targeted. It could be better argued that the network was playing these conferences off against each other.
Moreover, Fox could have done something more sane than a two-school western addition to the B1G. They’re only in it for the markets. So, while ESPN earns their vitriol here, Fox really isn’t any better. Moreover, NBC and CBS have demonstrated that there are reasons they don’t dip their whole bodies into sports programming, and it’s time to accept that for what it is.
That’s my way of saying that this cry for anti-trust has no merit among the current group of judges and politicians. Which Is a problem.
I was pleasantly surprised by Apple’s overall presentation of MLS last night. There are issues to work out, but they did at least as well as could be expected. And it’s possible that Apple would add more money to a contract if they had more games… and perhaps the Pac should tell the linear networks to sod off anyway. The even greater news would be a merging of sorts of Pac-12 Networks with Apple TV, with the thought that a lot of the sports the Pac does better would have an improved platform. Probably too much to ask…
KevFu
Registered User
Because they know the deal... ESPN invested in the SEC well before that and the talk of ESPN analysts turned to how good the SEC was and everyone else was an also-ran, which drove recruits to their coveted property.
Look at market sizes, the SEC at the time was like 75 million people in those states; and the Big Ten was about 120 million, not counting NYC with Rutgers.
ESPN's investment in conferences has NOTHING to do with the data everyone talks about in conference realignment, it's about "getting max value." ESPN manipulates the value of programs and conferences, and it's all a self-fulfilling prophecy...
Take Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a huge band with a national fan base... because they were on TV more than anyone else from the 1950s to the 1990s. The Big East basketball schools are so much better than all the other non-football programs basketball teams... because ESPN put them on TV all the time from 1979-2015.
The Sun Belt usurped Conference USA in terms of the power each conference holds... because ESPN replaced the airtime of C-USA with the Sun Belt, because it was cheaper to not give C-USA the contract their audience deserved, and instead sign the Sun Belt to a cheaper contract and give them those time slots.
ESPN is a college sports monopoly and Congress should order their split off from Disney.
PCSPounder
Stadium Groupie
Do you understand that the only thing I’m really saying is that Washington has done spit about anti-trust concerns for decades? I’m not in the mood for an argument about what DC should do… when they won’t.
And one fear is that, if Washington does decide there’s an issue, they’ll penalize ESPN for purely political reasons. Then things will get worse, not better.
While I’m aching to make this a political discussion (but apparently I like this board well enough to not desire to get banned from it), I refer to my baseball proposal on that other thread. I may not be 100% serious about it for baseball, but I’m more serious about it for college sports. If you’re going to get the government involved in this, a promotion/relegation scheme with more power given to the NCAA (or it’s successor) and thus forcing ESPN to share… and making this a business of EARNING your way to the top level… nothing will be perfect, but there ways to sculpt this to protect a greater number of interests. Killing the conferences perhaps does half the job anyway. One thing to note, however, is that leagues that have pro/rel are often geared to get more fans out to live games at all levels, and that could get interesting in this environment.
PCSPounder
Stadium Groupie
Watching various media and pod-media in the last 48 hours coalesce to an agreement on the horizon between Apple and the Pac. Apple does want Tier 1 rights, they will sublet to a larger provider in most instances, and a regular Friday night game is part of the plan. I’m hesitant to say that Apple will either buy the Pac-12 Network or be the partner network the way the B1G, SEC, and ACC networks operate… sounds like it’s somewhere near the latter, and at the least, Apple will use the network architecture.
MMC
Global Moderator
mouser
Business of Hockey
Highly variable income is a big concern when schools have to set their sports budgets.
