Pac-12 Networks still working to expand

The Pac-12 has reached an agreement with AT&T U-verse to provide customers with Pac-12 Networks, effective immediately. Those with AT&T’s programming will have full access to all of Saturday’s games.

Here is part of the Pac-12’s official statement on the agreement, which includes the channel listings.

So the Pac-12 Networks are in a bit of a war with DirecTV, since the satellite television provider refuses to add the conference’s flagship network to the list of channels it carries. They’re not being subtle about it, with commissioner Larry Scott literally urging fans to switch providers.

The latest salvo was this commercial (along with 11 others), which asks fans: what kind of buffalo do you want to watch?

Pac-12 Football Media Day is underway, and commissioner Larry Scott is already firing shots. In his opening remarks Friday, Scott called for fans currently watching television via DirecTV to change providers and pick up the Pac-12 Networks.

Addressing the Pac-12 Networks situation, Scott told the media, “Unfortunately we are still at an impasse with DirecTV... no closer than we were last year. I urge our fans to drop DirecTV and subscribe to [a provider] that has it.” The Pac-12 Networks website has a clear display explaining how to move on from DirecTV.

The Pac-12 and DirecTV are still having trouble coming to terms with a deal that both teams will agree upon. The Pac-12 has come to the table with many of the major satellite and cable providers, including Dish Network, Comcast/Xfinity, Time Warner, Cox, and Bright House. DirecTV remains the biggest satellite provider that has yet to come to the table and make a deal.

Pacific Takes has this quote from Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott providing a pessimistic appraisal of the situation. It seems like neither the Pac-12 nor DirecTV are close enough to getting a deal in place.

Pac-12 Networks and DirecTV are having themselves a public battle at the moment. As a college football fan and fan of the Pac-12 (and DirecTV customer), I can’t help but come down in support of MORE FOOTBALL ON MY TV RIGHT NOW THANKS. And this, via Pacific Takes, might be the best argument yet as to why DirecTV should crack first:

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The Pac-12’s new TV network has not been shy about publicly calling out companies with whom it has failed to reach an agreement, and now the Pac-12 Networks have turned their sights on DirecTV, openly criticizing the satellite TV provider who is fighting back as the companies try to reach a deal.

With a pair of conference games set to appear on the Pac-12 Networks this Saturday - Cal vs. USC as well as Utah vs. Arizona State - the demand for the network and its frustration with the fact it is unavailable in some households is rising.

Pac-12 Networks and the DISH Network have agreed to terms on a multi-year broadcast agreement, with broadcasts beginning on Saturday.

Currently, DISH Network is the only satellite provider offering Pac-12 Networks. DirecTV and Pac-12 Networks remain in talks. Brian Floyd of CougCenter points out that the Pac-12 Networks’ deal with DISH may pave the way for a deal with DirecTV, as the Pac-12 Networks now have leverage.

The Pac-12 Networks are unlikely to add coverage on AT&T U-Verse and the Dish Network by the second week of the college football season, according to Jon Wilner (via Pacific Takes.)

The networks are less than a month old and are still working out some kinks, though are leaving a large market without coverage as of now as they are yet to make a deal with DirecTV either. Here’s Pacific Takes’ Avinash Kunnath with more on this situation:

The fledgling Pac-12 Networks couldn’t come to terms with DirecTV before the beginning of football season, so the channel is telling fans of the conference to find a different TV provider.

The two sides were supposedly near a deal, but that has apparently fallen through. Whether the request to fans is a negotiating tactic or a sign that the channel will not be carried on the satellite provider anytime soon isn’t certain, but regardless, the station issued a letter to fans Thursday, the same day the channel will offer its first three football games.

The Pac-12 and DirecTV are working on a deal to get the conference’s television networks, Pac12Nets, on the satellite provider before the start of the regular season, according to Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News.

That doesn’t necessarily mean a deal is imminent, and last-minute snags are always possible in these situations, Wilner says. But a deal struck before the start of the season wouldn’t take long to translate to the networks hitting the airwaves, with groundwork already being laid for signal transmission. Wilner says he’s heard nothing on a similar deal with DirecTV’s rival provider, Dish Network.

Of course Larry Scott has a standing desk. All people in the future have standing desks because they are healthier, and the offices of the Pac-12 are located in said future.

Larry Scott is neither Apple nor PC: he has one of each on his desk, an Airbook and a Samsung desktop. The office looks freshly occupied, just decorated enough to make you think someone had been there for six, possibly seven months or so. A garden tended by residents of a nearby nursing home sits out one wall of windows, diagonal rows of flowers and vegetables basking in an unusually sunny, fog-free San Francisco day.

There will obviously be huge issues with regards to cable and satellite coverage, particularly with regards to whether or not DirecTV will eventually put the channel on their platform. But the early signs are that the programming is definitely giving the conference the type of early look they’ve long deserved.

Talk about the Pac-12 Network at our conference website dedicated to Pac-12 coverage at Pacific Takes.

As the Pac-12 prepares for another exciting season of collegiate sports, Wednesday marks another milestone for the conference as their television network officially goes online for your viewing enjoyment.

Going live at 6 p.m. PT this evening, the Pac-12 Network will begin with what’s sure to be one of its flagship programs in Pac-12 Live. This program will provide a basic overview of the Network, a look ahead to the upcoming college football season, as well as a look back at how some Pac-12 athletes fared in the recent Olympic games in London.

It’s finally here boys and girls. The Pac-12 network is set to come online Wednesday evening and everyone is excited about it.

The folks over at Bruins Nation, the dedicated UCLA blog, have broken down their initial coverage, which is set to begin around 6 p.m. PT Wednesday night. They’ll start with their flagship program ‘Pac-12 live,’ breaking down the upcoming football schedule, recapping the Olympics and its Pac-12 ties, and much more.

The soon-to-be first college conference network to land on the moon is aiming for serious profits:

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Pacific Takes has an extensive report on the Pac-12’s new digital outpost, which appears to the pre-transhumanist eye to be composed of bricks and stuff.

On the heels of a gigantic media rights deal with Fox and ESPN, the Pac-12 has announced the details of its newly formed conference network. The Pac-12 Network is set to broadcast a slate of programming that includes football inventory held back from the primary media rights deal, as well as Olympic sports and other Pac-12-centric programming. In order to form the network, the Pac-12 pulled in the services of Comcast, Bright House and Cox and Time Warner to form six regional networks, as well as a national network.

Pac-12 football games will be assigned to Fox, ESPN and the Pac-12 Network through a lottery of sorts, with each of the networks rotating the first picks on a week-to-week basis. Between ESPN, Fox and the Pac-12 Network, all football and men’s basketball games will be broadcast on television. The Pac-12 made a conscious decision to hold inventory out of the primary deal in an effort to give the Pac-12 Network a head start and make it more enticing to networks and distributors.

The Pac-12 is going to drag you kicking and screaming into the future, and in the end you will thank it. The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner reports the expanding conference is “exploring partnerships” with Apple and Google about a potential online-only media distribution outlet.

Larry Scott and friends recently put together a $3 billion media deal with ESPN and FOX, but the next step is to figure out how to start up a conference-specific network. As Wilner spells it, that could be a revamped channel, a whole new channel or a whole new reality for which you are not prepared.

Larry Scott played coy with exact figures during Wednesday’s press conference on the Pac-12 media rights deal, but the San Jose Mercury News got more exact figures out of him shortly thereafter. (Does doing math in public make Larry Scott nervous?) The actual value sticker on the arrangement is, in fact, $3 billion, not the $2.7 billion first reported. Individual schools will rake in an average of just under $21 million, rather than $22 million. And the NBC/Comcast hydra has only itself to blame for losing out on the conference’s allegiance. Scandalous!

Pac-12-to-be fan reactions to Wednesday’s announced conference media rights deal with ESPN and FOX ranged from respectfully skeptical to over the moon. Below, a roundup of assessments from current Pac-10 program communities:

• SB Nation Arizona wonders if the Sun Devils’ cut of the cash can be used to bring back non-revenue sports cut by ASU.