Courier-Post 1/28/07: TV shuts out Philly college hoops
Investigative column
Published 1/28/07
Courier-Post newspaper
Hed: Fans miss out on Philly hoops on TV
“Comcast SportsNet is the home for college basketball in the Philadelphia region.” – Comcast SportsNet’s Stephanie Smith.
By AARON BRACY
Comcast SportsNet calls itself the home for college basketball in the Philadelphia region. An investigative look, however, into the 2006-07 schedule reveals that college basketball in Philadelphia is closer to homeless when it comes to television coverage.
The paucity of games on television this season has been frustrating for college basketball fans – many of whom, like this reporter, are alumni of one of the six Philadelphia Division I schools (Drexel, La Salle, Penn, St. Joseph’s, Temple and Villanova).
Nine of the 16 games this season involving two Philadelphia schools aren’t televised, including Saturday’s Penn-St. Joseph’s game. It is believed to be the first time since the Big 5 was formed in 1954 that a Hawks-Quakers game wasn’t televised.
The blame for the sad state of Philadelphia college basketball on TV can’t be placed only on Comcast. But it certainly is a reach, at best, for Comcast SportsNet to call itself “the home for college basketball in the Philadelphia region.”
Consider:
–Comcast SportsNet (CSN) is airing 55 regular-season men’s basketball games this season and only 13 games, or 24 percent, involve a Philadelphia team.
–Of the 110 total appearances on CSN, only 14 of them, or 13 percent, are by Philadelphia schools.
–Stanford, with six appearances, shows up most on CSN this season as Pacific-10 schools appear 41 times on CSN.
–CSN also is airing 16 regular-season women’s games. Tennessee, with four appearances, shows up on CSN in Philadelphia as much as the St. Joe’s and La Salle men (4) and more than the men’s teams at Temple (3), Drexel (2), Villanova (1) and Penn (0).
So, if you’re a Comcast subscriber in Philadelphia and a fan of the Pac-10 or the Lady Vols, you’re in luck. If you’re looking for the home of college basketball in the Philadelphia region, CSN is hardly the place.
Philadelphia college basketball also has been prominently featured on CN8, another Comcast entity, since the network’s inception in 1996. This season CN8 has turned its back on Philadelphia college basketball – or most of it.
Consider:
–Hofstra, with three appearances, shows up in CN8’s 20-game Mid-Atlantic package as much as Temple does and more than Villanova (1), St. Joe’s (0) and La Salle (0) combined.
–Northeastern, Towson and Virginia Commonwealth (all members of the Colonial Athletic Association, like Drexel and Hofstra), with two appearances apiece, are on more than the Wildcats, Hawks and Explorers combined. CAA schools comprise 22 of the 40 appearances on CN8.
–On a positive note, Drexel, with seven appearances, turns up the most of any team. Penn makes six appearances.
So, if you’re a fan of the bordering University City schools or the CAA, you’re in luck this season. If, however, you’re looking for the home of college basketball in the Philadelphia region, CN8 isn’t the place, either.
Genesis of a problem
Prior to this season, the Atlantic 10 – of which St. Joseph’s, La Salle and Temple are members – signed a five-year deal with CSTV that grants the college sports network television rights to conference games and non-conference home games.
It was a risk by the A-10 since CSTV is an upstart network which wasn’t even available on Comcast’s Philadelphia area systems at the time of the deal. The league is gambling that CSTV, which is owned by CBS, will emerge as a national factor much like ESPN2 did in the early ’90s. At the moment, the A-10’s gamble isn’t paying off.
For years, the A-10 kept the league’s TV rights and operated its own television network, brokering deals with television outlets to air the games. The league decided after last season to put the TV rights up for bid, and CSTV paid for the rights and went looking to get a return on its investment.
And that’s where the problems started.
The A-10 TV deal
CSTV approached Comcast and asked the company for at least two things in exchange for carrying the games: money and distribution.
Comcast caved only partially on the latter, putting CSTV on its digital sports tier. As for the former, while both sides remain tight-lipped as to the financials, it’s clear both are driving a hard bargain.
When the dust settled on negotiations after the season was nearly 2 months old, CSTV and Comcast announced a deal that put 10 regular-season A-10 games on CSN and two tournament games each on CSN and CN8. The 10 games CSN agreed to air were part of a 32-game A-10 syndicated package put together by CSTV.
“Comcast SportsNet is the home for college basketball in the Philadelphia region, where so many great A-10 schools are located. We are pleased to partner with CSTV in order to cover the games that are most important to our viewers,” said Stephanie Smith, CSN’s senior vice president and GM, in a press release announcing the deal.
Adding four previously contracted games on CSN or CN8 to the 10 in the deal, a total of 14 St. Joseph’s, La Salle and Temple regular-season games are on either CSN or CN8 this season. That’s just a little more than half of the 26 appearances the three schools combined for last season on CSN and CN8.
Obviously, this was a bad deal this year for the A-10, which wants exposure for its teams, and CSTV, which wants a return on its investment. Most of all, it’s a bad deal for fans, who just want to watch their teams.
Games left out
There are many games not included in the deal that are relevant and important to Comcast subscribers – most specifically games involving two Philadelphia schools that are not on TV.
Of those nine cases, CSTV owns the rights to eight of the games. (That includes Saturday’s Penn-St. Joseph’s game, which CSTV owns because it’s the Hawks’ home game even though it was played on Penn’s home court.) ESPN was the rights holder for the other game that didn’t air, Drexel at Villanova on Dec. 8.
It’s a familiar story for Villanova fans, whose team’s non-conference games go untelevised year after year because of a dispute between ESPN and Comcast, one eerily similar to CSTV and Comcast.
The bottom line is that all nine games should be on television. To understand why they are not, specifically the eight owned by CSTV, we must take a step back.
The old way
In the past, the A-10 schools would have retained the rights to any games not in the league’s syndicated package – such as the eight above.
The result was St. Joseph’s, La Salle and Temple, happy to get the games on TV, would trade the rights to its games to CSN or CN8 in exchange for the network assuming production costs and, in some cases, other considerations.
Now, it’s up to CSTV to distribute the rights to A-10 games, and the CSTV-Comcast relationship clearly isn’t working as well as the A-10-Comcast relationship did in the past.
Case in point: the eight aforementioned games.
After first saying those eight games weren’t offered to them by CSTV, Comcast has since acknowledged that they were part of a package of games the parties discussed. Without knowing what specifically is being asked by CSTV for rights to the games, it’s impossible to single out either side as the sole at-fault party. Either way, they’re both wrong.
CSTV owes it to the A-10 and the league’s fans to get the games on TV, even if it means putting more A-10 games on its national network. (Meantime, Comcast should take CSTV off the tier.)
Comcast owes it to subscribers to provide relevant sports programming, and the Pac-10 and Tennessee women aren’t relevant to Philadelphia sports fans. (Comcast picks up those Pac-10 and Tennessee games from affiliate feeds, which is cost effective.)
Although they would have needed to change some starting times, all nine games – if Comcast wanted them – could have been aired on CSN or CN8.
CSN and CN8 are not the only television options for Philadelphia college basketball games, only the ones that make the most sense for Philadelphia fans.
It makes business sense, too.
The ratings
Based on TV ratings, Comcast subscribers are interested in college basketball games that involve Philadelphia teams.
Consider:
–According to Nielsen Media Research, seven of the top eight rated CN8 college basketball broadcasts through last weekend involved a Philadelphia school.
–The three worst rated games of the 12 CN8-aired games through last weekend didn’t involve a Philadelphia team.
(Ratings for CSN weren’t available at press time).
The future
No one wants of repeat of this situation next season, but don’t be surprised if that’s what happens. Although CSTV and the A-10 claim things will be better next season, there is no evidence to believe them.
It’s all in the hands of Comcast and CSTV.
Common sense says Comcast and CSTV, recognizing neither is gaining anything when fewer games air, should meet somewhere in the middle in negotiations to get more games on.
Sadly, it’s doubtful they will.
