Struggling Pacific 10 Looks at Starting Its Own Network

The Pacific 10 Conference Network is likely coming to a cable channel near you.

Outgoing commissioner Tom Hansen told the Orange County Register that the creation of a Pac-10 network is a top priority. The reason, of course, is money. The Pac-10, which reported gross receipts of $88.78 million for the 2007 fiscal year, is taking a financial backseat to other Bowl Championship Series conferences.

In 2007, the Big Ten reported gross receipts of $177.4 million and the Atlantic Coast Conference $162.4 million. The Southeastern Conference reported $149.1 million and the Big 12 $119.2 million. The newspaper did not provide data for the Big East, but according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the league reported $78.4 million.

The Pac-10's contract with Fox Sports runs through 2012, but Hansen said that if the league "were to partner with [Fox] we could advance that and go to a new model."

That would mean an arrangement similar to the one shared by the Big Ten and Fox, where the league owns 51% of the Big Ten Network, Fox 49%.

Pac-10 officials were briefed on their TV options last week in Phoenix.

How bad are the Pac-10's current TV contracts? The league receives approximately $43 million annually from its television deals with Fox and ABC/ESPN. The Big Ten received $66-million from the Big Ten Network alone in 2008.

Thanks to Image of Sport.

Comments

[bevo]

Here's the difference between the Pac-10 and Big 10: Big 10 folks care about their sports.

Has anyone bothered to watch these channels? Up next: Northwestern v. Iowa in field hockey. OMFG! No way! Put the kids to bed. Put the dogs out. Folks, nothing says scintillating competition like Northwestern v. Iowa. It is a match that transcends a simple contest because these two teams just plain hate each other.

Please. Spare me. These networks represent Example A as to why cable and satellite providers must be forced into offering ala carte programming. I cannot believe I subsidize this junk.

[Matt]

Naturally we're going to have someone with the moniker of 'Bevo' crap all over anything that isn't Texas football-related.

If you're a Big 10 fan, you watch Big 10 sports. If you're a Big XII fan or alum (Bevos excluded as they're above such nonsense) then you watch Big XII sports. Same thing for Pac10, Mountain West, etc. Spend some time in other people's shoes for a minute...

...and with formerly fringe NCAA sports (Hockey, Baseball) taking off and some of the conferences having piss-poor TV contracts (*ahem*BigXIIthanksDallasoffice*ahem), this is going to be how schools deliver for their fans when the networks either fail to or are blinded by ego, money, and TV auidence shares (ESPN).