This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For those without a clear view of The Mtn., this is as close as you'll get to some MWC games this year.
In nearly three decades working as one of the highest-ranking executives in sports broadcasting, Kevin O'Malley has learned one important truth about the business:
New networks struggle.
It happened to Discovery. It happened to Lifetime, and TNT. It even happened to the undisputed king of sports broadcasting, ESPN - which O'Malley recalled needed seven years to enjoy the first real hint of the widespread distribution on cable and satellite television systems that it enjoys now.
So it's probably unrealistic for local sports fans to expect that they suddenly will be able to find the Mountain West Conference's groundbreaking television network The Mtn. with the same ubiquity as SportsCenter by the start of the upcoming college football season.
Or the basketball season.
Or even next season.
"This is not going to happen quickly," O'Malley said.
That will come as bad news to many local fans who feel alienated by a broadcasting deal that has eliminated undesirable game times and funneled millions more dollars to the schools in the league, but doesn't necessarily allow them to watch the Utah Utes or Brigham Young Cougars on the television system they prefer, if at all.
Nearly a year since the new network launched, featuring exclusive league programming that includes many of its most attractive football and men's basketball games, it remains available throughout much of Utah on Comcast - the cable giant with nearly 250,000 customers in the Salt Lake City market at the end of last year, according to Cable World magazine. But it still is not offered by either of the two major satellite companies - DirecTV and Dish Network - nor on any cable system in the St. George area. Many fans in rural areas also do not have access.
"We continue working together on distribution efforts," league commissioner Craig Thompson said, "and we are basically in daily communication, and have been, for several months. That's important to dispel any notion that there is concern or fracturing at any level. We're all in this together. We're a team, and we've worked diligently for the last couple of months to increase the distribution."
So far, to little avail, however.
In all, the network is carried on 17 mostly smaller cable systems in the seven states that are home to schools in the Mountain West, and reaches 1.2 million homes. But it is the lack of a distribution deal with the satellite companies that continues to annoy Utah and BYU fans who either don't want to switch to cable or live in parts of the country where the network isn't available on cable.
Even Comcast, which owns half of the network and is responsible for negotiating with the satellite companies, does not carry it outside its markets within the league.
"Comcast has not decided to carry it on a national basis," the company's vice president of communications, Tim Fitzpatrick, said.
That only contributes to what some see as a conspiracy by Comcast to keep the network out of reach for the satellite companies - its direct competitors - to force fans to switch to cable if they want to watch the Utes and Cougars regularly. It hasn't helped that Comcast has been running ads in Utah essentially taunting the satellite companies.
"If you're looking for Mountain West Conference action, you're not going to get it from your satellite dish," one television ad says. "You'll get it on Comcast digital cable."
Fitzpatrick disputed the notion that the ads complicate negotiations - he said the ads actually reflect Comcast's belief in the value of The Mtn. - or that Comcast would rather keep the network to itself. Because it owns half the network, the company stands to make more money if it can get The Mtn. distributed more widely, and Fitzpatrick noted that Comcast operates a dozen networks - including E!, Style, the Golf Channel, and a half-dozen regional sports channels - that are carried on satellite systems.
"The companies involved . . . are all large companies with complex business relationships," he said. "You've got distributors of programming, there's owners of programming. Comcast has a track record of getting its networks distributed, and is committed to getting The Mtn. as widely distributed as we can."
So what's the problem?
It appears to be simply a function of supply and demand.
Though the league and the respective distribution companies refuse to discuss details of their negotiations, the satellite companies clearly do not believe there is enough demand to justify the price they're being asked to pay to carry the network.
One report, in Broadcasting & Cable magazine last year, said the Mountain West was seeking 75 cents per subscriber - a princely sum, when compared to other networks.
According to the magazine, juggernaut ESPN gets about $3 per subscriber, but most other networks are much less expensive.
Many cost just pennies per subscriber, though some - such as TBS and MTV - get between 25 and 50 cents per subscriber, and the Disney Channel gets $1 per subscriber. Even the combination of ESPN's lesser sister networks ESPN2, ESPNews and ESPN Deportes costs distributors only 35 cents per subscriber.
Dish Network "has always been very supportive of new networks and will continue to be as long as there is a demand for the channel and a fair economic deal," spokesman Kevin Hubbard said in an e-mail.
That's why the league has continued to ask disgruntled fans to contact the satellite companies or their local cable provider to request they carry The Mtn., to attempt to prove that significant demand exists.
Yet that might be difficult.
The national reach of BYU notwithstanding, the Mountain West is hardly one of the largest or most prolific leagues in college sports.
The league estimates that its nine schools have about 1.25 million living alumni and just more than 200,000 active students, proving that "there is a market," according to Thompson. Yet that pales next to the Big Ten Conference, which is following the Mountain West's model for its own television network that will launch next month (mostly in high-definition, something The Mtn. does not feature) but have 4 million living alumni and about 300,000 active students to draw upon as potential customers.
And even the Big Ten has its problems with distribution.
While it has reached an agreement to be carried nationally on DirecTV, in addition to 40 smaller cable companies, it has been feuding with Comcast over what the network will cost and whether it should be offered on basic cable.
Commissioner Jim Delaney recently blasted Comcast for describing his league's network as a "niche sports channel" that will provide "second- and third-tier sporting events" because most of its best football games will be bumped to ABC and ESPN and much of its programming will feature women's sports.
Comcast refused to apologize for curiously taking shots at precisely the kind of network that it's trying to sell to the satellite companies. It's not hard to imagine the satellite companies similarly believing that The Mtn. is a "niche" channel that does not deserve a high price tag.
No clear timetable
In any case, the tussle illustrates the ongoing battle between sports leagues and broadcast distributors.
As leagues charge higher and higher prices for the rights to broadcast their games - the Mountain West is getting $120 million over 10 years from CSTV, about triple what ESPN was offering to renew its original broadcast deal with the league - so, too, are the rights-holders trying to charge more for cable and satellite operators to carry the broadcasts.
And when that happens, cable and satellite bills increase.
Nevertheless, the Mountain West believes that operating the network over the past year has helped improve its negotiating position.
"A year ago, the channel hadn't launched yet," said Kim Carver, the vice president and general manager of the network. "I think we've certainly proven ourselves and . . . provided a must-see channel" that's easier for distributors to understand. A year ago, the league was pitching a network whose model had never been attempted.
"There was no blueprint," Thompson said.
What it all proves is just what Thompson and his colleagues have been insisting, that building a network takes time.
O'Malley worked for years as a senior vice president at both CBS Sports and Turner Sports - he's a consultant for the Mountain West and other leagues now - and he has seen it a million times. He can tick off network after network, even those with massive corporate backing, that strained for years before finally achieving widespread distribution.
"This is a new area for the whole cable industry," he said. "The Mtn. is the first of these networks. . . . Other conferences have looked at the possibility of doing this and I think other conferences will be getting into this business as we go down the road. But all of them understand that this is a developmental process."
O'Malley has studied a business model for a network like The Mtn. with three leagues, he said, and all three of them approached it believing they would lose money for the first two years and not enjoy "adequate carriage" until the third year.
That could mean a long wait for The Mtn., though O'Malley didn't want to guess how long.
"It would be pretty tough to say, 'Here's the timetable,' " he said. "That kind of prediction is probably something that nobody could reasonably make."
* Fans who subscribe to satellite television services will be able to see nearly half of the Utah and Brigham Young football games this season.
* Eleven of the teams' 23 games - including the annual rivalry meeting on Nov. 24 - will be broadcast on Versus, CSTV, ESPN or Fox Sports Northwest, networks that are available on both Dish Network and DirecTV. Another 11, however, will be shown only on The Mtn. - and the Utes' game against San Diego State on Oct. 13 will not be televised at all.