Fox Sports 1 gambles with massive Big East basketball deal

There’s been a lot of coverage of Fox Sports 1 in its opening weeks, but a move the network made last March that’s largely escaped the recent hype will be a large factor in whether or not FS1 is successful.

Fox’s 12-year deal to broadcast the new Big East Conference’s basketball games is a huge risk for the network, just based on the volume. While FS1 also has rights to air Big 12 and Pac-12 basketball, those deals are small compared to the 108 Big East games airing on Fox Sports 1 this season. That’s more games than NBC airs of the NHL and ESPN airs of the NBA each season, for a 10-team league mostly focused on small, northeastern Catholic schools.

FS1 isn’t the only network buying in. As part of the deal, 12 Big East games air on Fox Sports 2 (the first significant live team sports programming on that channel), and one Ohio State-Marquette showdown will air on Fox. In addition, CBS bought in to a sub-licensing deal that allows 20 games to air between CBS and CBS Sports Network.

That’s a lot of inventory for a conference that features one team that drew top 20-level ratings in the nation last season. Sure, teams like St. John’s, DePaul, Villanova and Seton Hall play in (or near, in the latter’s case) big television markets, but there are definitely risks involved with going all-in on this league. The additions of Butler and Creighton bank on schools that play second fiddle in the already midlevel markets of Indianapolis and Omaha.

Son of the Bronx released Fox Sports 1’s ratings figures for the past week on Friday. The top-rated program? UFC Fight Night last Wednesday, with 824,000 viewers. College football? Drew audiences of 710,000 (for Boise State/Washington), 585,000, 493,000, 412,000 and 311,000. The network averaged 493,000 viewers, topping ESPNU, but well short of ESPN and ESPN2. If that’s the range for the more popular college football regular season on FS1, then how much can Big East basketball reasonably expect to bring in?

Big East basketball will likely make a splash around March, when its tournament at Madison Square Garden is usually big news. Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery will call it, and it should be some of the most exciting basketball all year. But without a lot of the state/football schools, and without the mighty ESPN to push it, it may be an uphill climb for the new Big East.

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