the official statement from Fox:
FOX Sports has elected not to match an offer the BCS Group has received from ESPN to televise BCS games from 2011-2014, and plans to notify the organization by phone today.
Even with today’s vast economic uncertainties, FOX Sports made a very competitive bid to keep broadcasting BCS games free to every home in America, one that included a substantial rights fee increase, and certainly as much as any over-the-air network could responsibly risk. Unfortunately, the University presidents and BCS commissioners were not satisfied and they’ve decided to take their jewel events to pay television. We wish everyone well.
The only ones that won’t air on ABC will be games like Utah vs Wake Forest (or who ever wins the ACC).
Stay tuned, Nick. I don’t think that is going to be the case.
Dump the BCS!
The power of the Mouse..
I imagine that a few of the bowl games that ESPN currently have broadcast contracts with will find their way onto FOX. Then, FOX could actually try to ramp up the importance and/or history of the Cotton Bowl, a game that hasn’t had much attention in at least a decade (unless the CB committee successfully moves into the BCS Group as they are trying to do after 2010).
Although Mikey may be correct and this may be just a negotiating move by Fox Sports, I think particularly after the Digital TV switch in February, the distinction of ad supported cable vs. broadcast TV is going to be so nearly meaningless that the sort of populist rhetoric in the Fox announcement like “they’ve decided to take their jewel events to pay television” will be laughed at.
I think it’s likely that after February, fewer than 10% of US HHs will receive television only via over the air (the current estimate is 13.6 million out of 114.5 million or about 12%). If that falls to 5-8% it might be well within the “who the hell cares” range. Honestly, it may be there already.
I’m sure it’s already there, but you make one assumption about the digital transition that I’m not sure is valid.
The most very basic plans offered by the cable companies do NOT include ESPN. Even Comcast. It’s essentially all of the local channels, plus a couple cable channels (maybe CSPAN and a news channel) but it doesn’t include ESPN, USA, SciFi, TBS, TNT or any of that which is commonly thought of as “basic” cable, because they never advertise the super-duper basic cable. But I’m sure that’s what a lot of folks who are dragged kicking and screaming into the digital future will opt for.
Bill, I didn’t mean to suggest that Fox was not actually passing or that the statement released was just gamesmanship. I was saying that I don’t think any games will end up on ABC, as the previous commenter had suggested.
I agree with Robert that many if not most of the homes that add cable after the DTV transition will opt for “broadcast basic” packages that do not include ESPN. While you may be correct that cable penetration will go north of 90%, I suspect that ESPN penetration will still be in the 80s a year from now.
Also, note that the difference in ratings between an event on OTA and the same event on cable is typically more than just the difference in coverage.
Good. The BCS without a playoff is a joke. Let it die on cable. Now for the playoff, 3-4 teams at the most. How many years has a number 5 team even deserved a shot at the title?