When the Mountain West Conference announced its initial round of TV appearances for the coming football season this week, the University of Hawaii was nowhere to be found.
Nine of the 12 members had been selected for at least one ESPN game and three of them (Boise State, Air Force and San Jose State) were quickly booked for multiple appearances, the first time in any league UH has been in for a while that it was untouched in the first pass.
Until recently that would have been cause for some early concern at UH.
This week, however, it might have been all UH and its TV partner could do to keep from high-fiving in the hallways.
Such are the dynamics of the new MWC TV package and UH’s unique place in it that the Warriors stand to make more media money when they aren’t on ESPN and the networks. While UH’s conference brethren are ecstatic over ESPN and other national appearances for the bucks, including the newly added $300,000-$500,000 per game bonus payments, they bring, the Warriors are increasingly reliant upon their pay-per-view deal with Oceanic Time Warner Cable.
In exchange for being allowed to keep its $2.3 million guarantee from Oceanic this year, UH said it will not share in conference TV money, including bonuses, until all 11 other members have receipts in excess of $2.3 million each. With only Boise State and a couple others likely to reach that figure, UH would just as soon keep its PPV moolah to itself, thank you.
The more — and better— games it has away from the networks, the more lucrative PPV becomes for the Warriors, whose share climbs when sales top various benchmarks.
The combination of UH coming off a 3-9 season and an expanded, 12-member conference that retains Boise State, means the MWC TV partners have a wider menu of games to choose from.
Understand, too, that MWC TV partners ESPN and CBS will pick up additional games, likely including the season opener with USC, while the Oregon State game will end up on a Pac-12 affiliated (ESPN, Fox or Pac-12 Network) outlet and Navy lists CBS Sports as the carrier for its Nov. 9 game vs. UH.
To be sure, UH enjoys the visibility ESPN and network appearances bring. But too many of them — and half of the 2012 games were available without PPV — cut into the Warriors’ potential take.
Last year, UH played 12 games, only half of which were tied to its PPV deal, the smallest inventory it has had in a decade. And most of that lineup (Lamar, South Alabama, Nevada-Las Vegas, New Mexico and Colorado State) came against less attractive opposition. The more recognizable foes (USC, Boise State, BYU, etc.) did not require PPV subscription and, hence, did little to enrich UH coffers.
For now, at least, UH and Oceanic can exult in having the 2013 inventory untouched by ESPN’s first round of picks.
Whether the non-PPV buying consumer will ultimately have as much to cheer remains to be seen.
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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
