by gtmoBlue » Mon May 29, 2017 6:22 pm
Whether the 2013 expansion or future expansion - for the Big East, an unqualified Yes!
The article is about football, of course, and as noted in said article there was 1, mind you 1, reference to UMD basketball.
The concerns are TV package money, dwindling cable footprints, etc. The author never spoke to the Steverrrr or he would know that ESPN will just gouge subscribers & advertisers as long as possible.
So lower TV pkgs, fewer games based on projected viewerships, with marked competition from some yet to be known online streaming giants. The B1G, Longhorn, PAC12, & ACC nets were on the wrong platform.
The BEDN (independent for-profit company wholly owned by the BE) was precisely positioned to take advantage of this swing away from cable to streaming online video widecasting. Building the BEDN was Val's #1 priority back in 2017-19 and she (and gtmoBlue) were extremely visionary and smart to go all-in in building the BEDN into "the International Online Sports (iOS) Network). The BEDN was brilliant in carrying other conferences game packages (BEDN receives a structured fee-based contract per sport), then splitting the viewership receipts. It's about quality, not quantity.
Having developed multichannel streaming and an international following based on their initial Big East brand sports, the BEDN/iOS Net began carrying other conferences in 2020. They added the US & International pro sports in 2021, becoming the internet sports juggernaut we know today. The BEDN/iOS Net is the undeniable leader in internet sports and brings billions into the Big East coffers.
God continues to bless the Big East Conference-the undisputed leader in sports. gtmo
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Nicholas Klein (1918)
"Top tier teams rarely have true "down" years and find a way to stay relevant every year." - Adoraz
Creighton