AT&T merger may give Arizona Wildcats athletes more exposure
Bottom line: Arizona Wildcats do not get enough National exposure due to late-night games and lack of programming available on the east coast. That may change soon.
Jon Wilner, Pac-12 Hotline, wrote a piece on the ever-changing media landscape and the possible effects of on the Pac-12 Conference and it’s athletes. Especially Arizona Wildcats quarterback Khalil Tate. Wilner makes a great point about issues caused by the Pac-12 Channel and late-night football schedule released in May:
"“Exposure issue, especially as it pertains to Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate and Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert. Well-positioned as second-level contenders, they need to produce big games on big stages.”"
Big stages. That means a nation-wide stage. Something the Pac-12 Conference does not have when games are aired on their proprietary channels.
The Pac-12 athletes need to be seen playing in primetime games and showing their talents to as many people, fans, media, scouts, professional teams and award-voters as possible. That means the platform must be national and the games must start at a decent time for the east coast. Without these two things happening, they face an uphill battle to be seen.
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We saw the East Coast bias rearing its ugly head in the Arizona Basketball vs. ESPN Mark Schlabach and Dick Vitale fiasco. Zona Zealots Contributor David Rosen begged Vitale to “Let it go,” and it seems he finally has. They seemed hellbent on making an example of Sean Miller to take the heat off Duke, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan State and more. It didn’t work out completely but the shade they threw put a cloud over A Players Program. I find myself explaining what happened over and over again because many fans just believed the fake or unsubstantiated news.
On top of pushing ESPN to let it go, I asked Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott about the detriment to our athletes to not be seen on the East Coast by media and voters of awards, All-Teams, and team assessments through each season. Scott’s answer surprised me. All it seemed he cared about was winning the time slot, getting high ratings. He pointed out that was because the Pac-12 was the only sports programming on TV late at night.
Scott made his own point, but he did not address that the only people who could watch our Arizona Athletes were those with access to the Pac-12 Channel. The Pac-12 Channel is still not an option for DIRECTV subscribers, and CBS cannot air Pac-12 highlights if they don’t pay for them, so that’s a whole bunch of people who can’t even watch Arizona games if they wanted to. That doesn’t take into account the time of games which usually starts around midnight on the East Coast. Just try finding a bar on the east coast carrying the Pac-12 Channel.
The Pac-12 schools aren’t making the money they can make right now. Is it a surprise to any of you? The Pac-12 payouts pale in comparison to other Pac-5 Conferences. As reported by Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today Sports, Pac-12 Conference member Washington State projects that “Revenue-sharing and won’t even reach $38 million in payouts per school until 2023.” And while that sounds like a ton of money, the Big Ten is projecting to pay it’s member schools roughly $51 million and the ACC, $40 million THIS YEAR.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Judge Richard Leon rendered his verdict in the$85 billion AT&T’s takeover of Time Warner. The proposed takeover was challenged by the Trump Administration and the Justice Department due to the new entity having too much power and would result in higher fees for consumers.
This decision allows AT&T and Time Warner merger to move forward. Wilner projected that if this merger were to take place, AT&T might have to spin off DIRECTV if the judge decided it had to. Time Warner includes the Pac-12 on their platform, DIRECTV still does not. He was right, the judges ruling “Proposed that either AT&T not get Turner in the deal or that it should divest itself of DirecTV prior to acquiring Time Warner,” according to Melanie Locklear, engadget.com.
The reason DIRECTV has historically given as to why they cannot make a deal with the Pac-12 is that the Pac-12 wants a price too steep for DIRECTV to swallow. At one point Scott wanted DIRECTV to charge $5 to each DIRECTV subscriber whether they wanted the channels or not. That doesn’t make sense at all for DIRECTV. Why the two sides couldn’t get creative and find a solution is beyond me. The revenue models for both entities couldn’t justify offering the channel to only those who wanted it possibly.
Larry Scott thought that the AT&T acquisition of DIRECTV would get the Pac-12 on DIRECTV. It did not happen.
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Either way, the pending mergers of AT&T and Time Warner and Fox and Disney (ABC) could change the 2022-23 negotiations to bid on Pac-12 rights. It won’t, however, change things for this upcoming football season where the 5/1 odds Bryce Love (Stanford) and the 14/1 odds Khalil Tate will need to get views to get votes. It’s up to fans to help the east coast know about their Cats on social media, get ready! In the meantime, visit Khalil Tate’s fan site to get educated.