Digital Cable Big Part of Game Plan
By STEVE DONOHUE -- Multichannel News, 9/3/2000 8:00:00 PM
Though ESPN's college-football pay-per-view package has been primarily a direct-broadcast satellite product in recent years, network executives said they expect digital-cable growth to level the "ESPN Game Plan" playing field.
ESPN went into the college-football season, which kicked off last weekend, with Game Plan available in about 2.5 million digital-cable homes, up from 1 million last year.
The network recommended that DBS providers and cable operators charge subscribers $99 for the full-season package, which includes about 130 out-of-market games, or $11.95 for a single day of games.
Most DirecTV Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp. Dish Network DBS subscribers opt for the full-season option.
Since most cable operators haven't dedicated enough channel space to offer all of the games, about 90 percent of PPV revenue ESPN generated from cable distribution came from single-day buys, said Skip Desjardin, vice president of ESPN's video-products group.
"If you're an analog cable system and you're offering two or four games on Saturday, that's not as great a value as if you're offering 10 or 12 games on Saturday. Multiply that over the whole season and you don't have as robust a season package for $99 if you're an analog cable operator, so that skews sales a little bit," he added.
"What we hope and believe will be the case for the long run is that as digital rolls out, that ratio in cable will become very much the same that it is in DBS," Desjardin said.
ESPN offers games from the Big 10, Pacific-10, Southeastern, Big East, Big 12 and Mountain West conferences.
ESPN shares revenue generated from the games with the conferences, PPV distributor In Demand L.L.C. and satellite and cable operators, Desjardin said. It also shares revenue with corporate sibling ABC Inc., which owns the rights to many of the games and produces many of the telecasts.
Desjardin said revenue for ESPN Game Plan-which he called the network's most popular PPV package-was up about 20 percent last year compared with the previous season.
He declined to say how much revenue it generated. But The Carmel Group analysts estimated that the package pulled in $52 million.
In addition to the local affiliate-marketing kits ESPN distributes to operators through In Demand, ESPN is marketing the package through all of its networks, and ABC will pitch the product during its weekly national games, Desjardin said.
ESPN also buys ads in college alumni publications, hoping to attract displaced fans to the out-of-market games.
In some markets, such as Oklahoma City, Game Plan can be a tough sell.
"It really depends on the schools that are playing. [Oklahoma City] is not a city that has a lot of transient people from other markets," said Dave Bialis, general manager of the Cox Communications Inc. system there.
But local games involving the University of Oklahoma can be a big PPV sell, he added. Last weekend, Fox Sports Net distributed the Oklahoma-University of Texas at El Paso game on PPV, charging $24.95 for the contest.
Conference rules allow FSN to offer games that aren't picked up for broadcast, syndication or national cable distribution, and to distribute them in the teams' home states.
FSN will also distribute the Sept. 9 Oklahoma-Arkansas State University game through its "Big 12 Special Order Sports" division.
Other regional sports networks, including Sunshine Network, distribute some college-football games on a PPV basis.
Recommending that operators charge $24.95 for advance PPV buys and $25.95 for same-day buys, Sunshine distributed the University of Florida-Ball State University game last weekend, and it will distribute the Florida-Middle Tennessee State University game this coming weekend, spokeswoman Amy Pempel said.
No related content found.
Featured Company
-
Digital Rapids
Digital Rapids is the leading provider of professional hardware and software tools, technology and expertise for bringing video to wider audiences and new viewing platforms. Continuing to set new standards in quality, productivity and versatility, our solutions span the critical ..more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
