5 minutes ago, the BTN went into hibernation

[Pewterschmidt]

That was the last BB or FB game for almost 6 months on the network. Other than Spring Game look-ins and the rare Gopher baseball game, time to take the network off my favorite list until late August. No joke but these conference networks have a very weird business model. Name me another network that has hardly any original programming for 1/3+ of the year. I'm happy that it's generating money for the 'U' but is this really sustainable? Honestly, I don't know the answer. Maybe someone can fill me in. I sure hope it is because I love the BTN between September and March.

 

[howeda7]

That was the last BB or FB game for almost 6 months on the network. Other than Spring Game look-ins and the rare Gopher baseball game, time to take the network off my favorite list until late August. No joke but these conference networks have a very weird business model. Name me another network that has hardly any original programming for 1/3+ of the year. I'm happy that it's generating money for the 'U' but is this really sustainable? Honestly, I don't know the answer. Maybe someone can fill me in. I sure hope it is because I love the BTN between September and March.

It's called subscriber fees. The fact that no one will watch it from tonight means they won't be generating much ad revenue. But they'll still be earning the $0.10 or $.20 per subscriber per month. Why? Because while you may not watch it for 6 months you demand your cable company carry it the other 6 months. I haven't watched more than 10 minutes of Fox Sports North since October, but I will watch it for hundreds of hours starting April 1st, probably more than any other network.

 

[Pewterschmidt]

It's called subscriber fees. The fact that no one will watch it from tonight means they won't be generating much ad revenue. But they'll still be earning the $0.10 or $.20 per subscriber per month. Why? Because while you may not watch it for 6 months you demand your cable company carry it the other 6 months. I haven't watched more than 10 minutes of Fox Sports North since October, but I will watch it for hundreds of hours starting April 1st, probably more than any other network.

I understand the subscriber fee model but comparing it to FSN doesn't add up. From April thru September, it has the Twins. From October thru March, it has the Wolves, Wild, and Gopher Hockey to sell ad space and still get subscriber fees. Add to the fact that FSN also gets national broadcasts like PAC10 BB, ACC Sunday BB, PAC10 FB, and B12 FB. There literally is nothing on during the summer months on the BTN while they still have to pay nightly recap shows, etc while generating little to no revenue.

As weird as it sounds, the BTN might do well if it paid for the rights to broadcast some games of the Twins, Brewers, Tigers, Indians, Reds, Pirates, Cubs, and the White Sox. Maybe 2 or 3 games from each team. It would put those games on a national network and would drive more traffic during the summer. Just something that I thought might be something interesting to explore. It might require changing the name of the network to something like MIDWEST TELEVISION NETWORK but it sure would fill a huge hole in programming and could generate more money for the university partners.

 

[howeda7]

I understand the subscriber fee model but comparing it to FSN doesn't add up. From April thru September, it has the Twins. From October thru March, it has the Wolves, Wild, and Gopher Hockey to sell ad space and still get subscriber fees. Add to the fact that FSN also gets national broadcasts like PAC10 BB, ACC Sunday BB, PAC10 FB, and B12 FB. There literally is nothing on during the summer months on the BTN while they still have to pay nightly recap shows, etc while generating little to no revenue.

As weird as it sounds, the BTN might do well if it paid for the rights to broadcast some games of the Twins, Brewers, Tigers, Indians, Reds, Pirates, Cubs, and the White Sox. Maybe 2 or 3 games from each team. It would put those games on a national network and would drive more traffic during the summer. Just something that I thought might be something interesting to explore. It might require changing the name of the network to something like MIDWEST TELEVISION NETWORK but it sure would fill a huge hole in programming and could generate more money for the university partners.

When the Twins launched Victory Sports, the first thing they did was go out and grab rights to Gopher BB. It was very smart. They also had a deal for the T-wolves to co-own the network, but couldn't agree on the split. If they'd done it correctly, it would have worked well.

It actually would work well for the BTN to go in with one of the MLB teams. The Twins issue with Victory Sports was getting clearance and the BTN has that. I don't think the Big Ten will ever go for it for 'political' reasons (for lack of a better word) but it would actually be great for both sides. The idea of 2 or 3 from each would be better for the network, but not practical. More like selling 1/3 of the network to the Twins and giving them 1/3 of revenue.

 

[Unregistered User]

Name me another network that has hardly any original programming for 1/3+ of the year.

Bravo, MTV, VH1, TRU TV...pretty much anything that deals in "reality TV" including pretty much every major network.

 

[DontHassleTheHoff]

The BTN is always good for a late-night "Big Ten's Greatest Games" every once in awhile during the summer.

 

[tjgopher]

BTN gets between $.50-$1.10 per subscriber per month within the Big Ten footprint. Between $.10-$.50 outside the footprint. Let's estimate that averages out to $.20 per subscriber nationally. BTN has 70 million subscribers.

Do the math:

70,000,000 X .20 = $14,000,000 per month

14,000,000 X 12 months = $168,000,000 per year on subscriber fees alone.

And, that is actually a little conservative with relation to average subscriber fee, IMHO.

Then, you get actual advertising revenue.

 

[Buttcheeks McGaffigan]

Countdown to Nebraska.

 

[howeda7]

BTN gets between $.50-$1.10 per subscriber per month within the Big Ten footprint. Between $.10-$.50 outside the footprint. Let's estimate that averages out to $.20 per subscriber nationally. BTN has 70 million subscribers.

Do the math:

70,000,000 X .20 = $14,000,000 per month

14,000,000 X 12 months = $168,000,000 per year on subscriber fees alone.

And, that is actually a little conservative with relation to average subscriber fee, IMHO.

Then, you get actual advertising revenue.

Isn't $14 million about what each school gets per year? So that sounds about right (12 schools/12 months). Advertising revenue then covers the operating costs and paying Fox it's fee.

 

[tjgopher]

Isn't $14 million about what each school gets per year? So that sounds about right (12 schools/12 months). Advertising revenue then covers the operating costs and paying Fox it's fee.

No, I think each school gets about $6-8 million from BTN each year. CBS/ESPN/ABC and BCS gets each Big Ten school another $13-16. Each school gets about $22-25 million through all of those sources.

I've seen estimates that total revenue for the BTN is about $210 million per year. It is EXPENSIVE airing all of those games in HD with entire production crews, etc. I'm sure the Big Ten gets a nice cut and Fox owns 49% of the network, so they probably get a lot of the bottom line.

 

[Silvio]

I think the network offers original programming year round. By the OP's standards KFAn and KSTP should also shut down when they are not in the middle of Vikings and Twins season respectively as their listening audience falls off dramatically.