With the possible demise of STO and Fox Ohio too preoccupied with baseball and A10, the MAC should look toward the new Fox Sports 1 channel (currently known as Speed) to get some openings for TV coverage of Saturday games.  According to ESPN, the Catholic 7 are negotiating with Fox for carriage on FS1.  The MAC should be talking with them, too.  Another possibility is that Fox will move some of its Big 12 and Pac 12 games to FS1, leaving other slots open for Saturday games.

so it's true that speed will become a all sports network. While I am not sad to see the continued demise of nascar it is a sad day still for all  auto racing fans, especially those of us who followed f1 and sprots car racing on the network.  I don't like nascar but it did pay the bill.

Let's not limit ourselves in this quest.  Both CBS and NBC now have cable sports channels that are looking for live event programming so they can grow....I'd do about anything to be associated with either CBS or NBC.  Allie LaForce now cohosts a late nite show on the CBS channel...

Big article in Friday's Investors Business Daily about how ESPN, Fox and Comcast/NBCUniversal are chasing sports programming.  Part of sports appeal is that it's not time-shifted watched (uh, not recorded and watched later) so more valuable to advertisers (can't speed thru the commercials and might stay on the channel to watch more of the channel's programming.....thought 'channel' is less relevant as people watch on pc/portable/tablet/phone).

More winnings and we get the O H I O sports network.

DirecTV has it as HD only.  We'd have to get an HD box.

#1: Yes, it is all but a done deal that Speed will become Fox Sports 1, primarily because it is fairly widely distributed, and they can use the Speed distribution deals to get on in a large number of households at once.  This is almost identical to NBC/Comcast's move with Versus, using its wide distribution to launch NBC Sports Network.

#2: While NASCAR will obviously be okay coverage-wise, other motorsports like F1, sportscar racing, endurance racing, and MotoGP will suffer, I'd guess.  However, with NBC, CBS, and FOX all trying to get in on the 24/7 sports space owned by ESPN, there may be space for some of those properties on one of those networks.

#3: The DirecTV deal isn't 30 million alone, it pushed CBS Sports Net to 30 million subscribers, total (DirecTV only has ~19 million subs, and I'm certain not all of them receive CBSSN).  For comparisons sake, NBC Sports Network is in ~78 million homes, Speed Channel (the mythical-as-of-now FS1) has 81 million, and the main two ESPN nets are in nearly 99 million.  Even ESPNU is in well more than double the homes of CBS Sports Net, at 73 million.  Saying CBS Sports Net is on in 17 homes is a bit of a stretch, but not that far off the mark.  They aren't close in terms of exposure, and I'd be upset if they were in the discussion for our rights, as it would be a tremendous step backwards for the conference.  At this point, the ESPN3 exclusive broadcasts are available in more homes (79 million) than NBCSN, CBSSN, or even ESPNU.

#4: Our current deal with STO is for second-tier rights; those are sub-licensed from ESPN, which owns our rights through 2016-2017.  If you think ESPN would allow the MA to sell those second-tier (usually regional) rights to NBC, CBS, or FOX, you're out of your mind.  So the earliest we would see a deal with one of those networks would be four years out, and it would mean we'd be off the ESPN family entirely (including ESPN3 streams).  They'll do split deals with some conferences because they can't lose that programming, so they'll put up with CBS to get the SEC and so forth.  I don't think the MAC has that kind of bargaining power.

My conclusion: we hope FS Ohio essentially splits into two full-time state-wide RSN's, and that gives them enough time on the broadcast clock to keep doing the MAC.  Options outside of that would be increasing the size of the OTA broadcast package which is presently 6 games a year.

I really don't see losing STO as huge on the football side -- they only broadcast 5 games in 2011 and 3 (the minimum stated in their contract) for 2012.  The big loss would be on the basketball side, where they televise more games, and the early rounds of the tournament.

Thanks Anorris. Very insightful. 

nascar still has enough clout to destroy real sports car racing(ALMS) and replace it with their idea(grand am) so they probably will be able too last out the economic storm that is dragging down motorsports in the U.S.A..

nah, f2000 will do

Not discussed in this thread is the fact that NBC will be paying big cash to broadcast the EPL.  So the need for NBC for find sports programming is not as great as inferred above.  Also opens up space on ESPN and FOX.  Not sure what happens to the FOX channels dedicated to soccer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/oct/29/nbc-250m-english-premier-league-epl-broadcast-us