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Pac-10 Starting Its Own Network?

Of the six BCS conferences, the Pac-10 has long been saddled with the worst television contracts. Not only is the money not particularly good, but the coverage, in terms of national audience reach, is terrible. Having most of your games on Fox Sports Net not only leaves you at the mercy of the local FSN or Comcast affiliate but the audience for FSN is significantly smaller than that of the ESPN family. That is only compounded by late night games in the east for any prime time West Coast games.

It appears that the conference may finally be doing something about it. Apparently, the Pac-10 is in discussions with Fox to create a Pac-10 network along the lines of the Big Ten Network. It is a natural for the Pac-10 for many reasons. Not only does the conference need better control over its football programming, but it desperately needs the money. It is taking a financial backseat to the other BCS conferences in revenue earning $88.78 million in gross receipts for 2007. That compared to the $177.4 earned by the Big Ten, the $162.4 by the ACC, the $149.1 by the SEC and the $119.2 by the Big XII. The Big East earned $78.4 but its earnings aren't directly comparable as there are only eight football members and the new ESPN contracts (which obviated the necessity of a Big East network) had not yet gone into effect. Also, the Pac-1o has plenty of inventory as it conducts the most extensive and consistently high performing Olympic sports program this side of the Big Ten.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on May 14, 2009 (boomark / email).