The deal that the MAC made with STO broadcasting should be questioned.
WHY?
2 reasons spell it out:
1) It's an 8 years deal.....too long
2) Broadcasts only covers the Ohio region

I live in R.I. and have DirecTV.
I receive the STO station broadcasts, except MAC sports, this wasn't part of their contract.
When the league contracted with FOXSports a few years ago all games were available anywhere in the country.
This conference has severely dimished it's exposure.
It's becoming more difficult for the mid-majors to compete with the big conferences and this STO deal didn't help.




GO BOBCATS

  

mcbin....Thanks for the heads up on the free home game web casts. However there have been games @ CM & Buffalo that STO covered & I wanted to watch.







GO BOBCATS

They have shown a lot more games on tv this year. Add up the espn games and we have gotten on tv more than past years overall. The free webcast of home games is aswesome for those non-conference games and the MAC games not on tv. MAC site games available too. STO is available everywhere for the right price. Same deal for us in the midwest wanting other region packages. Those are extra. STO is great because they also  provide Horizon League games too. Finally a network that isn't catering to national deals with the PAC 10 and Big 12. STO is for Ohio. And  Those of us in the state love it.  Those of us in Celeveland love the station. Bruce Drennen and Chuck Galeti are Cleveland guys. They have great shows and know their stuff.  This a perfect fit for Ohio, Akron, Kent State. We are gonna get taken care of every year.  No other network will show us that many times a year.  We had what 5 games between men and women on STO and a 6th on ESPN2.  If we can play well in Cleveland we will get on for the quarters, semis and the final.  Those outside area just have to hope the Bobcats get in the dance and then  get us that national coverage our fans outside of Ohio want.  We got an exciting team that gets up and down the floor.  

Yeah, all three of 'em. 

Most STO broadcasts are available on ESPN3.

Steve, there's no reason to the kind of agreements forged by short-sighted people. I live in Florida, have Directv with STO on it ... and those MAC games are blocked!

I have been bequested a equine quadriped and would like to register my findings after having looked at the animal's dental structure. Where may I take such comment?

The above comments explain a lot of things. However, are the fees the MAC gets from ESPN to have their games "potentially available" on pay-per-view so lucrative that it outweighs the exposure the MAC would get from having a larger audience watching the games on STO?

So here we are. STO is advertising all-day coverage of the MAC tournament quarter finals next week. That is outstanding. But will it be blacked out nationwide, also, just like the regular season games?

Yup. Or ESPN3.com, if you have access.


The issue is how the contracts work.  ESPN purchases, as a block, the rights to broadcast MAC football and men's basketball games.  STO doesn't contract directly with the conference, they sub-license (most) games from ESPN.  Their sub-license is for their natural footprint, plus a few outlying areas also covered by the MAC (like Chicago or Buffalo).  ESPN would retain other rights -- for online, as well as pay-tv elsewhere in the country.  Most of the time, they put these online and on Game Plan, but if they lack enough slots, lets face it, we're probably among the smallest revenue generators.

Now, the reason I say most games is because after ESPN has made their selections, and STO has bought sub-license games, the rights typically would revert back to the schools to sell/give to local broadcasters.  Akron produced a number of games, and Kent at least one, that were produced by the schools themselves, and these were not available through ESPN3 or Game Plan.  I would be curious to know if these games were blacked out.  They were fairly easily identifiable at Akron, because Mix typically didn't do color commentary, and Reghi would be wearing an Akron polo.