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Ohio Basketball

Topic: TV Package Announced

Topic: TV Package Announced

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anorris
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Member Since: 7/6/2010
Location: Bristol, CT
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TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/7/2014 3:01:30 PM

http://mac-sports.com/news/2014/11/7/MBB_1107142738.aspx

As far as Ohio is concerned, a massive meh. Also, I feel like the banner ad for TWCSC should be taken out of the rotation, given that they don't, ya know, actually broadcast the conference any more.

OU_Country
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Member Since: 12/6/2005
Location: On the road between Athens and Madison County
Post Count: 8,370

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/7/2014 3:07:11 PM

anorris wrote:

If they don't broadcast the conference, what DO they actually have besides the Columbus Crew in terms of programming?

How has the MAC allowed a season when the conference seems to be on the rise come with basically no television coverage outside of the occasional ESPNU coverage and some ESPN3?

OhioStunter
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Member Since: 2/18/2005
Location: Chicago
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/7/2014 3:26:40 PM

So there's only ONE conference game broadcast on an ESPN TV station this year? Or do the wildcard games count?

Looks like Ohio will get some good TV action during their Dec. tournament.

GoCats105
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Member Since: 1/31/2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Post Count: 7,452

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/7/2014 4:07:01 PM

I don't understand why the MAC hasn't looked down other avenues for both football and basketball in terms of TV coverage. I think it's absurd that on Saturday afternoons I can get Sun Belt Conference and C-USA games on Channels 25 and 64 in Cincinnati, when a MAC team is located just 30-45 minutes from the city and boatloads of others within driving distance.

BuddyLee
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Member Since: 12/20/2004
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/7/2014 9:56:46 PM

I'm sure we'll get some games on STO which is at least good for people in Ohio to see. Also considering espn3 as national coverage is a joke. It's not even tv, just a glorified internet broadcast that I doubt anyone besides that schools fans end up watching. Color me unimpressed.

DXer
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Member Since: 12/21/2004
Location: Mobile, AL
Post Count: 135

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/7/2014 11:48:18 PM

It has always seemed to me that the MAC and STO would make a good marriage. If previous years there was an attempt at some coverage, but when Fox Sports Ohio bought them, the MAC coverage went out the door. STO needs programming, so being essentially the MAC channel seems like a good idea, unless there just isn't enough interest in advertisers within the MAC area to support it.

STO would provide national coverage for the MAC since it is on DirecTV, and I presume Dish, also. Yet, so much of the time when STO has carried a MAC game in recent years it was blacked out nationwide because, as I understand it, the MAC had a contact with ESPN to make the game available for their Full Court package. This was even if ESPN didn't actually pick our game up. To me this was an incredible short-sighted passing up a chance for national marketing of the MAC just to make a few dollars from an ESPN agreement.

It is so frustrating to see Fox Sports Ohio telecasting a game from Texas, Nebraska, North Carolina, or wherever, when there are MAC games from Ohio being played at the same time. So much for the "Ohio" in the name Fox Sports Ohio. There are a ton of local Fox Sports channels all across the country and I see plenty of their local games broadcast on those channels. But Fox Sports Ohio seems to concentrate on professional sports only when it comes to Ohio sports.

Monroe Slavin
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Location: Oxnard, CA
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/8/2014 12:13:40 AM

Winning adds indeniability. Saulball it and the spotlight will be there.

Where's the band?!
WHERE"S THE BAND?!

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Ohio69
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Member Since: 12/20/2004
Post Count: 3,062

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/8/2014 8:56:31 AM

If the money added up correctly, the MAC would be on TV.

It doesn't.

The MAC isn't.

Watching online is fine with me. I hook my computer (and even my phone) up to my big screen and watch "online" all the time.

Regional/national exposure is only going to come when the lowly MAC has more than just Ohio winning NCAA games every other year. (I don't expect that to happen.)

Can somebody hit a pull up jumper for me?.....

Jeff McKinney
Moderator

Member Since: 11/12/2004
Post Count: 6,155

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/8/2014 10:32:49 AM

That's a real shame that Time Warner has dropped producing MAC basketball broadcasts. I enjoyed that a lot and I'll really miss it. I can watch selected games on MAC digital, but it's not the same as having an actual network covering the league.

Monroe Slavin
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Location: Oxnard, CA
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/8/2014 11:36:58 AM

When you talk about our games being available on video (tv, webcast or whatever), you have two aspects.

First is are they available for OHIO followers so that we can see our #1 team? Obviously, this availability has increased greatly over the last handful of years. We'll watch pretty much any OHIO game because it's us. That's great.

Second is our attraction to others. Our stature as a 'program.' This, of course, determines how many of our games are broadly available and watched by a national audience. May the SaulBall begin.

Bleed Green & White
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Member Since: 12/27/2004
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/8/2014 7:24:11 PM

Sorry if I've missed it somewhere else, but are home team streams dead (unless they are the 4 pilot schools)?

If so and you only get to watch the games you play against one of those 4 or the occasional non-Conf tilt against a top program... Aren't we missing out on retaining existing fans, let alone expanding your viewership?

"we are bound to win the fray..."
Don't let anyone block your pride.
BSC '06

perimeterpost
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Member Since: 7/6/2010
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/9/2014 12:06:40 AM

Bleed Green & White wrote:

home streams are not dead, will be business as usual for teams that haven't converted to ESPN3. There will be 3 teams/year making the transition for the next 4 years, NIU, CMU and UB went first since they had the best infrastructure in place to facilitate the transition. I hope we are a part of the year 2 conversion.

MY STATE. MY TEAM.

nam1975
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Member Since: 3/25/2012
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/9/2014 10:44:12 AM

I don't think ESPN3 is available to DirecTV subscribers anymore.

They ask for your provider to watch, and DTV is not on the list.

anorris
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Member Since: 7/6/2010
Location: Bristol, CT
Post Count: 2,262

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/9/2014 3:58:40 PM

nam1975 wrote:

I don't think ESPN3 is available to DirecTV subscribers anymore.

They ask for your provider to watch, and DTV is not on the list.

ESPN3 is a service provided through contracts with your ISP, not your television provider (though they're often the same company).

OU_Country
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Location: On the road between Athens and Madison County
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/10/2014 11:05:42 AM

GoCats105 wrote:

Ohio69 wrote:

With these two thoughts in mind, what makes the money add up for the Sunbelt and C-USA? It's not as if they have loads of basketball programs that have had significant success.

As always, I think the MAC does such a shoddy job of selling and branding itself. The MAC could do very well as a basketball conference if they just let more people know about it, and did a better job highlighting rivalries, and their best teams. Some of that starts with scheduling the BEST GAMES and the BEST TEAMS during times you can get them on TV, and get as many butts in the seats for those games as possible.

Tom Valentino
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Member Since: 3/13/2005
Location: Painesville, OH
Post Count: 277

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/11/2014 10:10:46 AM

http://mattsarzsports.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-mac-espn-a...

There's a lot of good information here on the TV deal. The biggest takeaways are that with this new contract, ESPN controls all video rights, and that includes having the ability to sublicense games to other channels, such as CBS Sports and Fox Sports 1 and 2.

The ESPN contract effectively kills the regional TV deal with Time Warner, but it sounds like new regional TV deals could be in the works with the MAC's past TV partners.

Hopefully this all means that the conference will eventually end up with a package of games 2-3 nights per week (plus the conference tournament) on STO or Fox Sports Ohio, similar to what we've had in past years. It is kinda weird to not have that in place by now with the season about to start, though.

Ultimately, once ESPN finishes upgrading the productions at all the campuses, I really do think the over-the-top service is going to be great - as in, a broadcast-quality stream for every game played at a MAC campus. It's gonna be a bumpy few years getting there, though.

On Twitter: @1tomvalentino | TheNailPodcast.com

UpSan Bobcat
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Member Since: 8/30/2005
Location: Upper Sandusky, OH
Post Count: 3,812

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/11/2014 2:33:22 PM

http://deadspin.com/mac-commissioner-squirms-out-of-quest...

Bleed Green & White
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Location: Driving on US 33
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/11/2014 5:47:17 PM

Steinbrechergate!

No #MACtion without REPRESENTATION!

"we are bound to win the fray..."
Don't let anyone block your pride.
BSC '06

The Situation
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Member Since: 7/12/2010
Location: Columbus, OH
Post Count: 957

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/11/2014 6:01:53 PM

If the leadership of this conference has a vision, the communications director certainly isn't telling the general public about it.

I've seen enough of this rag tag group of conference officials and their autopilot business deals. They may have MAC degrees but I'm ready for heads to roll.

At what point do the university presidents step in and ask for new leadership?

Last Edited: 11/11/2014 6:02:29 PM by The Situation

OhioStunter
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Member Since: 2/18/2005
Location: Chicago
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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/11/2014 11:30:14 PM

Is there not a vote of MAC members on key issues like....oh I don't know...a 13-year ESPN contract? I think each school's leaders should be questioned on that just as much as the Commissioner.

Bleed Green & White
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Member Since: 12/27/2004
Location: Driving on US 33
Post Count: 164

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/12/2014 7:52:21 AM

After reading most of the linked articles and a few others I've stumbled across, I applaud the journalists at Kent for taking the watchdog approach.

I don't know what their tactics were leading up to these articles, commentaries, and interviews but I wonder if a softer approach would have garnered more substantial results (ie getting info about the cost associated with upgrading broadcast tech, the 'mandate' of 35 broadcasts a year, and how that's to be funded). I don't think the approach matched the purpose.

Seemingly what the press (Kent writers and professors) is:

We still don't know anything about this contract. It's a secret. TELL ME THE SECRET!
Taxpayer funds could possibly, maybe be used to upgrade the tech and fund this contract. TELL ME HOW YOU SOLD OUR SOULS TO ESPN FOR 13 YEARS, OR I'M GONNA USE A HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION TO PROVE HOW MUCH I DON'T LIKE YOU.

Instead I would have proposed a tactic like this:

Hey bro, sweet contract! Bet you've got a confedentiality agreement between you and ESPN huh? Tottaly understand. I've been talking with fans and university-types (you know how yet can be) and there's some concern about the cost involved in upgrading facilities to accommodate some of the public provisions of this deal. Can you tell me more?
Yes, I understand we're making a lot more on the TV rights than we were, but ya know society has been built for instant gratification (remember Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka? Bad reference, Nrrmind.) and the fans just haven't seen any details, and that just leads to more questions.
Got it. You're still gonna give me unintelligent corporate BS. Cool cool. I'll just be over here calling each school for more info until someone misspeaks.

"we are bound to win the fray..."
Don't let anyone block your pride.
BSC '06

bornacatfan
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Member Since: 8/3/2006
Post Count: 5,716

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RE: TV Package Announced

Posted: 11/12/2014 12:37:11 PM

The Situation wrote:

nicely put. I think A Sun and others certainly have a vision and plan and mandated parameters for cameras and broadcast equipment tht is simple, portable. cheap and effective.

never argue with idiots, they bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Winter comes and asks how you spent your summer.....

The game loves and rewards those who love and reward the game

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