Summit League Media Rights Strategy

[nodak651]

On 5/29/2022 at 4:55 PM, ORU82 said:

I really want to thank the Summit League for being about as provencial as possible.  I realize Midco TV may be big in the Dakotas but that is exactly my point, they only are available in the Dakotas as well as Minnesota.  In other words by broadcasting this tournament exclusively on Midco stations you may be in luck if you live in the Dakotas but for the rest of the nation you are SOL.  Can our League be any more small minded?  I guess hoping for these games to be on any of the ESPN platforms is simply asking too much.  I realize basically every other D-1 conference has all of their tournament games on some ESPN platform but hey, we are the Summit and if it doesn't happen in the Dakotas it simply does not happen.  SMH  Oh and by the way, congratulations to the Good Guys, nice work today and throughout the entire tournament.  GO GOLDEN EAGLES!

Saw the above post and figured I'd start a new thread on this.  Commissioner Fenton and the Summit league are evaluating the league's media rights strategy.    Summit League partners with Collegiate Sports Management Group for media rights strategy   This article summarizes the current situation well: McFeely: How valuable is the Summit League? Conference wants to find out

I could see Fenton trying to work out a deal where the league has something similar to what he did at the NCHC, where schools have control of their local and regional TV rights, the conference controls streaming rights and places all Summit league games together on the same platform (espn+, midcosn+, or something like summit.tv), and ESPN or CBSSN televises a select number of conference games nationally.  With the tournament, Midco could broadcast the first rounds (with games available on the chosen streaming platform) with ESPN or CBSSN broadcasting the finals and maybe semi finals exclusively.  

FYI, Midco just signed a carriage deal with Comcast in the twin cities market (yes in MN) but they are also pursuing carriage deals with Charter, Mediacom, and other companies, and they are working to expand the Comcast deal to additional markets.  For all of you in Tulsa, request Cox to carry MidcoSN - it could actually make a difference.

Lastly, UND just signed a new deal with Midco, and the contract states that Midco will provide telecasts for free to official conference streaming platforms, and I think the same would apply to USD and SDSU.  Mentioning this to let you know that the league isn't locked in to working with Midco if the Summit Leage wants to take control of all streaming rights (to put all games on the same platform).