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Big Ten Network (BTN)

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SEC Network Worth Three Times Big Ten Network

From al.com (That's an Alabama website)
The SEC Network, which celebrated its first birthday on Aug. 14, was more successful than anyone could have imagined. After the most successful network launch in cable television history, the SEC Network has a market value of $4.77 billion, according to research firm SNL Kagan. By comparison, the Big Ten Network, which launched in 2007, has a value of $1.59 billion.

How did the SEC Network blow away the competition in its first year? It starts with the fans.

"The SEC's passion and devotion is clearly showing through here," said Jeff Nelson, vice president of client strategy at Navigate Research. "People wanted the network and were willing to pay for the network."
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But wait....
The SEC took a different approach when it launched its network. While the Pac-12 retained full ownership in its network, which has struggled to get widespread distribution, the SEC partnered with ESPN to launch the SEC Network. The SEC doesn't have an ownership stake in the network -- ESPN has full ownership -- but instead negotiated a revenue split with the sports television power.

ESPN and the SEC declined to provide the exact terms of the arrangement, but it is believed to be a little less than a 50/50 split. That could limit the long-term revenue potential for the SEC and its schools -- the Big Ten still owns a little less than half of its network -- but gave it a tremendous advantage when initially negotiating carriage agreements.
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LordJeffBuck said:
SEC Network Worth Three Times Big Ten Network

From al.com (That's an Alabama website)


But wait....
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Yeah, that article gave me a chuckle. It's worth more, but they have no equity. They're charging higher subscriber fees, but that's because ESPN can strong-arm every carrier by making threats about the rest of their portfolio. They're thumping their chests over their superior fan engagement carrying them to a record-breaking network launch, but that same fan support apparently wasn't enough for them to make a go of it five years ago. SEC Network was born on third base and thinks it hit a triple. When BTN was started everybody thought these sorts of networks were a folly. While the SEC was too timid to act, the Big Ten was creating the conditions that the SEC now enjoys.
 
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"I own zero percent of a ten million dollar home. So I'm richer than you; you own 50% of a house that's only worth four million."

Sounds like those S-E-C types have been talking with Robert Kiyosaki and Dave Del Dotto about how to use Other People's Money (OPM).
 
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MaxBuck said:
"I own zero percent of a ten million dollar home. So I'm richer than you; you own 50% of a house that's only worth four million."

Sounds like those S-E-C types have been talking with Robert Kiyosaki and Dave Del Dotto about how to use Other People's Money (OPM).
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I'm not even sure it's that at this point. I would like to see the numbers. Cause as far as I can tell tv sets and subscriber fee's are similar. So it stands to reason it'd be worth near what BTN is worth not 3x.
 
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bucknut11 said:
Now if they'd just add Chromecast support...
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I got all my info from BWI. So, beware of the info. But I checked my Roku the other day, and no BTN. Last night I checked it again, and there's BTN. So the guy who started this thread either knows what he's talking about, or got lucky. Here's the thread I'm talking about:

http://bwi.forums.rivals.com/threads/heads-up-for-those-with-roku-and-google-chromecast-btn.33246/

He has no links to outside information, so believe it if you want, but here's what he says:

Heard from a high placed BTN source this afternoon that BTN is "sprinting to the finish line" in an effort to make BTN2Go and BTN Plus available on both Roku and Chromecast before next week's games. They hope both are available before week 1.
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Mark Silverman said at Media Days that Apple TV and Xbox specifically "are on the short list of future agreements".
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LordJeffBuck said:
SEC Network Worth Three Times Big Ten Network

From al.com (That's an Alabama website)


But wait....
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The equity point aside, I'm somewhat skeptical about those numbers.

Is it value based on investment? Or value based on actual returns? LHN is worth a fortune in terms of the former, and a giant sinkhole in terms of the latter. Of course their launch was very successful -- it's owned by ESPN so there was little doubt they'd force their way into provider's packages.

And what is the content really worth outside football season? Football is going to make up the majority of worth for all these networks -- but BTN seems to be able to do fine with the non-revenue sports. SEC notoriously doesn't support those sports (Big sponsors 28 sports vs. 20 for SEC) , and their insular viewing base is just as disinterested in olympics, lacrosse, volleyball, hockey, etc.

The article talks about "viewer intensity", but what happens if you've got 500,000 households paying $15/month for the sports package to get SECN in September, October, November, and December... then cancel for the other 8 months? I suppose that's not as prominent now due to the structure and package system -- but as we move closer to ala carte that doesn't bode well for SECN as a stable year-round entity.

Furthermore on that "viewer intensity", SEC has had some of the lower tv ratings during the BCS era. Big dominates tv ratings even when it's being trash-talked nationally. So whenever they start gushing about that stuff, I've got a squinty eyed look... we already know for a fact that while it's watched religiously regionally, nobody watches it anywhere else. The Big has viewer ratings nation-wide due to the diaspora of graduates, and former state residents in general. While that's hurt recruiting, it's provided nation-wide demand for Big sports.

Today the SECN is showing:

Georgia - Louisiana Monroe
Ole Miss - Tennessee Martin
Missouri - Southeast Missouri State
Tennessee - Bowling Green
LSU - McNeese State
Florida - New Mexico State

This is probably a major chunk of their football content until the end-of-year DIAA bye weeks.

I have a feeling they could've wrote a similar article about LHN a few years ago... ESPN got them on a lot of packages in Texas. But then it petered out as the content just wasn't there long term.
 
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