This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

When the Pac-12's new television contract kicks in this fall, Utah and the rest of the league will be playing games on FX. Which is not exactly a cable network known for sports.

Before it telecast 13 college football games this past season, FX had been out of the sports business since 2006. But airing games on FX is one more example of how Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott negotiated the best TV deal of any college conference in America.

FX isn't front and center in the Pac-12's deal with Fox and ESPN. TABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox, Fox Sports Net and the new Pac-12 regional networks are all in the mix.

But FX is a major component of the unique deal that split the league's TV rights among Fox, ESPN and the Pac-12 itself.

"To be in the national sports business, you need not only a broadcast network but a national cable network," said FX President John Landgraf. "And we're the largest cable network Fox owns."

Odds are that if you have cable or satellite TV, you already have FX. It's in almost exactly the same number of homes as ESPN and ESPN2, which are each distributed to just short of 100 million households.

If Utah is on FX, it won't be difficult for Ute fans anywhere in America to see the game. (If you live in one of the 15 million homes that doesn't get FX, you must know someone who does.)

And because FX is included in most basic programming packages, it won't cost Ute fans more to see games on the channel.

Good for FX. Good for fans. And, potentially, good for the Pac-12. Scott has been all about increasing the Pac-12 fanbase; FX could be one way to do that.

"We had the second-largest reach of any [basic cable] channel in America last year," Landgraf said.

"Reach" is a TV term for the number of different people who actually watch a channel. And FX was second only to TBS, which carried major-league baseball playoffs and the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

"They're bringing an entirely new audience to their channel that we were not," Landgraf said. "And now we will."

FX also brings something to the table — younger viewers.

"The median age of our viewers is 35," Landgraf said. "The median ages of the broadcast networks ranges between 53 and 60. So we're, frankly, programming to a different generation."

A younger generation that the Pac-12 would love to turn into fans. Would love to be able to point to the next time it negotiates a TV deal. Because the only thing advertisers love more than male viewers is young male viewers, because they're the hardest to reach.

And those young male viewers are tuning in to watch UFC on FX, another new deal that's broadening the cable network's reach.

Although the 2012 football TV schedule has not yet been announced, Landgraf said FX will carry games "mostly Saturday during the day" with some in prime-time on Saturdays and some in prime-time on Thursdays.

Landgraf made it clear that he's not counting on Pac-12 football to take the place of his hit series like "Justified," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "American Horror Story." But he does see FX as "a very important component" of Fox Sports' overall strategy.

"I'm utterly in support of the need of Fox to be a first-class sports programmer," he said. "And if that involves Fox putting sports on FX, so be it."

Scott D. Pierce covers television for The Salt Lake Tribune. Send him an email to atspierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.