PAC-12 Network

Once upon a time, folks living in Montana used to be able to see all the Husky games on TV, save for maybe one a year. Suddenly, moving swiftly out of the shadows, a strange network appeared. It called itself the PAC-12 Network, and it claimed to be a solution for games that we could not watch on TV.

Eagerly, I contacted our local cable companies to sign up for this solution. I was shocked to hear that nobody carried it. Then, I was devastated to see how many Husky games were going to actually be broadcast on this network...more than a few to say the least. I figured...hey, it's just in it's first year... Everyone will have it next year! So this year I do the same thing. Same results. There are lots of complaints from Washington residence who are being forced to leave major cable providers that they have been with for years just to get the PAC-12 network...and it's still not even available everywhere. I'm even hearing that lots of parts of COLORADO (another state that uh...actually has a program in the PAC-12) still doesn't even have access to it! So I figure...okay...you know what...lets just get Direct TV and that way we can get Sunday Ticket and the PAC-12 Network and be in football heaven. Contacted Direct TV...NOPE!

Online option? NOPE!

So..way to go PAC-12 conference. Thank you for introducing a network and then making it difficult/impossible for large percentages of PAC-12 fan-bases to access the games. Seems there was already a perfect system in place. I could see almost every game on either ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, FOX, ROOT, etc. But now, most of the games are off limits.

I complain about this from time to time....and I'm gonna keep complaining until a REAL solution is offered. This is just plain BS. Also, the PAC-12 Network is seriously even cheaper and trashier than Root Sports...so what's all this fuss about "The Pac-12 network is too expensive for us to carry and not jack up our rates for our customers!". I don't know if it's on the cable providers or on the conference...but seriously....

justintv and firstrowsports usually have games live.

The Pac 12 network is far better than Root Sports. They got most of the kinks out last year and now the broadcasts are pretty damn good.

DirectTV seems to pull the "its too expensive" card everytime a new channel comes around. At some point when is the provider just being stubborn? Used to have DirectTV, now have Comcast, never have to channels not being available, pay a little more, but not so much that the convenience isn't worth it.

Root Sports was fine for Pac 12 football but the programming was awful for basketball.

The problem is listed in your post... the games were on about 5 different networks. The PAC 10 (then 12) said "Hey, we can have ALL of that money ourselves, plus get the FANS to force Directv, DISH, Comcast and everybody else carry it. No way will this work out like the Mountain Network (which whether you think it was a big deal or not, proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the majors aren't going to piss around on these deals... they want it for next to nothing, and they WILL NOT cave to the demand to put it on the lowest tier).

The Mountain covered California, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, and Arizona (which is what... 20 million people in the different tv areas) and couldn't get Directv to give 50 cents per customer in the regions. It was owned by Comcast as well and they only put it on Comcast. By the time Directv picked it up, it was too late and Utah and BYU had left the MWC and the network was valued at approximately $0.

This isn't to say that the PAC 12 isn't way more appealing and such... it is just a cautionary tale on how the broadcasters handle these negotiations. They don't care to bargain. They throw out a price and never move from it. They did this exact thing and the PAC 12 decided to wait them out. Morons. They won't win this way. They need to offer it for FREE for a year and then see what kind of numbers it pulls and negotiate from there. Instead they decided to try to hardball the conglomerates. Lunacy.

They should have struck a limited deal with Google or SOMEBODY prior to announcing to at least give them leverage. But they blew it.

Hopefully Google turns the system into an a la carte system once again which we had prior to the deregulation. It was much better and more affordable for families. Google is working to strong arm the networks into offering things like HBO Go and Showtime a la carte through Chromecast and will use Comcast and Time Warner and Verizon to carry their signal to your home. It's a great business plan. They are also rolling out massive wi-fi nationwide and I think Directv, DISH, and others are doomed if it works. It's a matter of time, but the PAC 12 jumped the gun by about 4 years on their tv idea. It was stupid, but they got all of the Utah and Colorado money as hopes of holding them over during the bumpy time, and hoped that getting the mountain west cities involved in negotiations would skew the asking price (throw in Salt Lake City/Provo and Denver metro areas and you're adding approximately 5-6 million potential viewers and increasing the broadcast footprint by a time zone).