Pac-12 Network off to good start, and will get even better

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 25, 2012

Content through the first week and a half of the fledgling Pac-12 Sports Network has been underwhelming, unless previews of the conference’s field hockey and water polo seasons are what you had in mind.

But the good stuff is coming.

A doubleheader featuring Northern Colorado at Utah and Northern Arizona at Arizona State next Thursday kicks off 35 football games that are part of 850 live events to be telecast during the network’s inaugural year.

On Saturday, Sept. 1, Oregon State’s opener against Nicholls State will be among those games on the network.

The next two Saturdays, Oregon’s games — against Fresno State and Tennessee Tech — are on the docket.

“The quality of our games are terrific,” says Gary Stevenson, president of Pac-12 Enterprises. “The first weekend we have California opening its new stadium versus Nevada, and then San Diego State at Washington. In week two, we have Oklahoma State at Arizona, Mike Leach’s home opener (with Washington State) versus Eastern Washington, and Fresno State at Oregon. In week three, we have another Oregon game, and Houston versus UCLA. In week four, it’s Cal at USC.

“In the first four weeks, we have every (Pac-12) team on the air. There’s so much excitement about all the new coaches, and everybody in the conference believes they have a legit chance to win.”

It’s part of the package that includes long-term deals with ESPN and Fox and offers viewers the opportunity to watch every Pac-12 football and men’s basketball game this year.

Beyond that, more than 75 percent of the live action will feature “Olympic” (we used to call them “minor”) sports events.

The Pac-12 Network doesn’t settle for the crumbs of what is left after ESPN and Fox feast on other games, either.

“We have a draft,” Stevenson says. “In football, the Pac-12 gets the No. 1 or 2 picks among games for the week in seven of the 13 weeks. Basically, it’s the same thing for basketball. There’s enough programming to go around.”

The games will be scheduled for TV about three weeks ahead of time through the season, Stevenson says, though the Pac-12 Network already knows it is airing Cal-USC on Sept. 22.

Three of the top five cable companies — Comcast, Cox and Time Warner — have signed on. Coverage is available in 48 million homes, compared to the 17 million when the Big Ten Network was launched in 2007. (While no other conference has its own network, an SEC network is coming, I’m told.)

So far, no Pac-12 deal has been struck with the Dish Network or DirecTV, though reports are a contract with the latter is close. DirecTV would add another 20 million homes to the Pac-12’s coverage base.

“We have really good content,” Stevenson says. “DirecTV would agree with that, I think. We’re working with them on a daily basis, because our goal is to have 100 percent distribution.

“We want every operator in the country to carry us. I would say there isn’t one operator we haven’t had real solid conversations with.”

“Still in discussions,” is all Robert Mercer, DirecTV’s public relations director, will say on the matter.

Ten Oregon distributors are carrying the Pac-12 Network, including Comcast and Frontier in the Portland area.

On Comcast, the six regional Pac-12 networks — including the one that covers Oregon— are available on the digital starter package. The Pac-12 national network can be purchased through the sports entertainment package. In addition, there is a digital network off the Pac-12 website, an extension of the “TV Everywhere” concept.

The Pac-12 Network has secured solid on-air talent, including play-by-play announcers Kevin Calabro, Ted Robinson and Dave Flemming and studio hosts Rick Neuheisel, Curtis Conway, Ronnie Lott and Jeremy Bloom for football and Bill Walton for basketball.

Stevenson says the Aug. 15 launch for the network was “fantastic.” The first live sports event was women’s soccer, with defending NCAA champion Stanford playing host to Santa Clara.

“A beautiful night, a full house, and the (Stanford) football team shows up,” Stevenson says. “The telecast was excellent. We’re off to a good start, but the work begins.”

It will be two to three weeks before ratings are available, “but I saw one report of a half-hour test, and (viewership in) Portland rated very high,” he says.

It’s going to be a different world for broadcasting at Oregon and Oregon State, which was previously taken care of in house. IMG (Oregon) and Beaver Sports Properties (OSU) will continue to handle everything but television for now, including radio, multi-media rights, sponsorship, game-day promotions and signage.

“The only thing we lose is TV, and that’s OK,” says Steve Sullivan, general manager of Beaver Sports Properties.

“TV was maybe one-tenth of our overall business,” says Brian Molvason, IMG general manager. “Most of the money in the business is from our overall partnership with the Ducks. The average TV production costs for a football game in HD is $40,000 to $45,000. Your inventory has to be a pretty high number to cover that cost.

“The Pac-12 Network provides that much bigger of a platform as the Oregon brand grows and more national partnerships are created with the Ducks. The network puts more eyeballs on from sponsors. I’ll miss the day-to-day creativity to bringing fans the telecast, but from a business standpoint, it’s pretty much a positive.”

Beaver Sports Properties won’t have rights to selling advertising to live broadcasts on the Pac-12 Network, but will have inventory on the network’s weekly coaches’ shows.

“We’ll know more after the end of the season, but our hope is we’ll work hand in hand with the conference to bundle inventory to benefit all of us,” Sullivan says. “The Pac-12 Network also now owns the wireless category, which is a big win for Beaver Sports Properties and Learfield Sports.

“(The network) is going to be a lot more exposure for the total athletic department and the university in general. And Beaver Nation is going to win on this big-time. They’re going to be able to watch Oregon State sports around the clock, and year-round. That’s pretty exciting.”

Beaver Sports Properties and IMG, incidentally, have made a number of joint pitches to companies regarded as potential sponsors and advertisers.

“We just secured Wells Fargo together as a Civil War partner,” Sullivan says. “Beaver Sports Properties’ relationship with IMG has grown. It’s worked out well.”

I’m not big on nostalgia games, but I watched most of the two hours of the Pac-12 Network’s rebroadcast of the 2006 USC-Oregon State game. It wasn’t bad. There were interviews interspersed throughout with such as Pete Carroll, Mike Riley, Jeff Van Orsow and Matt Moore that added to the presentation. (I could do without the interview with Beaver Fan.)

Calabro is, for my money, as good as anyone in the business at play-by-play, and Neuheisel’s insight, wit and breezy style will play well in the studio. The Pac-12 Network isn’t bad now. It’s going to get better.