After doing some extensive digging on the recent tv contract and all the hooplah that it has caused. I have developed my on theory. Its based on what I have read and conversations that are being had about the state of the sport from a G5 perspective.
CUSA went into negotiations with all the major networks at what someone could call the very worst time. Millions of people are cutting chords and networks like ESPN who is saddled with millions of dollars in guaranteed contracts to several of the major conferences are not interested in paying a premium for what they consider filler content. MAC had what many now are calling the foresight to sign in to a long term contract with decent guaranteed money. This may prove to be their own undoing. CUSA has signed onto a short contract with very little cash money but with much better tv exposure. In the contract signed by CUSA, all the teams will be given the money to upgrade their stadiums and arenas to ESPN standards for production purposes. This means that The Joe and the TAC will have 6 and 4 HD cameras and equipment to produce the highest quality broadcast possible. It also means that there same quality production equipment will be available for every single conference game that we play in. We basically did the exact opposite of the MAC and took less money for a shorter amount of time in exchange for MUCH better television slots and the infrastructure needed to produce ESPN quality football. WHY???
We did it because we are about to go solo with our own streaming network dedicated to CUSA and only CUSA. We will have the remaining years of this new contract to advertise our athletics before moving to a CUSA network that we solely control and distribute. This allows all 14 teams to have high quality material to be distributed on the network, while also selling the rights to our higher end games to the major networks at a higher cost since they don't have to produce. Also it gives Terrestrial networks like the two Mytv stations in North LA the option to purchase the rights to our home games without having to deal with a middle man.
I conclude with this, that CUSA maybe for the first time in its history is ahead of the curve with its content. CUSA will control the entirety of its content and have the freedom to distribute it however it wants, while also having a Network that will satisfy the fans. This is the purest form of Capitalism that you can find in sports. We will no longer have to directly guess our value to the Major Networks but instead have it dictated to us by the amount of subscribers that our network creates, the amount of terrestrial networks willing to purchase our content and the number games that the Big Boys are willing to buy. The value will no longer be based on false markets, but on the actual value of the Programs themselves.
CUSA went into negotiations with all the major networks at what someone could call the very worst time. Millions of people are cutting chords and networks like ESPN who is saddled with millions of dollars in guaranteed contracts to several of the major conferences are not interested in paying a premium for what they consider filler content. MAC had what many now are calling the foresight to sign in to a long term contract with decent guaranteed money. This may prove to be their own undoing. CUSA has signed onto a short contract with very little cash money but with much better tv exposure. In the contract signed by CUSA, all the teams will be given the money to upgrade their stadiums and arenas to ESPN standards for production purposes. This means that The Joe and the TAC will have 6 and 4 HD cameras and equipment to produce the highest quality broadcast possible. It also means that there same quality production equipment will be available for every single conference game that we play in. We basically did the exact opposite of the MAC and took less money for a shorter amount of time in exchange for MUCH better television slots and the infrastructure needed to produce ESPN quality football. WHY???
We did it because we are about to go solo with our own streaming network dedicated to CUSA and only CUSA. We will have the remaining years of this new contract to advertise our athletics before moving to a CUSA network that we solely control and distribute. This allows all 14 teams to have high quality material to be distributed on the network, while also selling the rights to our higher end games to the major networks at a higher cost since they don't have to produce. Also it gives Terrestrial networks like the two Mytv stations in North LA the option to purchase the rights to our home games without having to deal with a middle man.
I conclude with this, that CUSA maybe for the first time in its history is ahead of the curve with its content. CUSA will control the entirety of its content and have the freedom to distribute it however it wants, while also having a Network that will satisfy the fans. This is the purest form of Capitalism that you can find in sports. We will no longer have to directly guess our value to the Major Networks but instead have it dictated to us by the amount of subscribers that our network creates, the amount of terrestrial networks willing to purchase our content and the number games that the Big Boys are willing to buy. The value will no longer be based on false markets, but on the actual value of the Programs themselves.
