Pac-12 annual meeting this week

[Buffnik]

*** Pac-12 Networks content

The networks have been overly egalitarian with respect to football, men’s basketball and Olympic sports content and programming.

* Football is the prime mover of audience engagement and revenue generation. It is not the tide that lifts all boats. It is the moon that lifts the tide that lifts the boats.
* The Pac12Nets are a linear and digital marketing platform for the conference.
* Where football meets marketing, opportunities must be maximized.
My sense is that Shuken, who has been on the job since September — he didn’t have a chance to set the content/programming framework for the 2017 season — understands that a shift in approach is necessary.

(I don’t expect he’ll get much pushback from the campuses, either.)

It’s not a zero-sum game. Football doesn’t have to grow in stature at the expense of the Olympic sports — there’s more than enough linear and digital room for both.

But if you own 100 percent of seven networks and aren’t making every effort to promote football, why are you even in business?

 

[MiamiBuffs]

Because the numbers, like the NFLs, are declining?

Media Circus: College Football Ratings Are on the Decline

Per Karp, here’s where the networks finished for average viewership for [2017] CFB regular season:
CBS: 4.951 million viewers, down 10% from 5.489 million in 2016 (down 540,000).
ABC: 4.203 million, down 18% from 5.097 million (down 894,000).
Fox: 3.625 million, up 23% from 2.951 million (up 674,000)
NBC: 2.742 million, down 3% from 2.814 million (down 72,000).
ESPN: 2.155 million, down 6% from 2.300 million (down 150,000).
FS1: 819,000, up 4% from 743,000 (up 80,000).

CBS's SEC package was the most-viewed individual package for the ninth straight CFB season, but this year’s average was its lowest in well over a decade.
ABC’s Saturday Night Football was down 4% from 2016, even though its window remained college football’s most-viewed window with 5.7 million viewers.
ESPN was easily the most-viewed cable net for CFB—it has the most games so that lowers its average—but was down with fewer Big Ten matchups.
Fox was the one outlier, with record-high viewership thanks to its new Big Ten deal.
NBC, Notre Dame fans just didn’t watch early in the season, but saw improvement over the last three game telecasts.

	2017	2016	Diff
CBS	4.9510	5.4890	(0.5380)
ABC	4.2030	5.0970	(0.8940)
FOX	3.6250	2.9510	0.6740
NBC	2.7420	2.8140	(0.0720)
ESPN	2.1550	2.3000	(0.1450)
FS1	0.8190	0.7430	0.0760
ALL	18.4950	19.3940	(0.8990)

[COLGROUP][COL][/COL][COL][/COL][COL][/COL][/COLGROUP]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/12/10/college-footballs-declining-ratings-2017-media-circus

900,000 less people no longer watch college football apparently.

 

[ahoelsken]

*** Pac-12 Networks content

The networks have been overly egalitarian with respect to football, men’s basketball and Olympic sports content and programming.

* Football is the prime mover of audience engagement and revenue generation. It is not the tide that lifts all boats. It is the moon that lifts the tide that lifts the boats.
* The Pac12Nets are a linear and digital marketing platform for the conference.
* Where football meets marketing, opportunities must be maximized.
My sense is that Shuken, who has been on the job since September — he didn’t have a chance to set the content/programming framework for the 2017 season — understands that a shift in approach is necessary.

(I don’t expect he’ll get much pushback from the campuses, either.)

It’s not a zero-sum game. Football doesn’t have to grow in stature at the expense of the Olympic sports — there’s more than enough linear and digital room for both.

But if you own 100 percent of seven networks and aren’t making every effort to promote football, why are you even in business?

This time of year is the time where you can really highlight that stuff.