Based on comments by commissioner Larry Scott at Pac-12 football media day — “The scorecard we think matters, and that I know our university presidents and athletic directors care about most, is academic and athletic success across all sports’’ — the conference ethos leans egalitarian.
For years, that viewpoint was reflected in the Pac-12 Networks’ programming decisions. Executives seemed determine keep football in check, lest the beast swallow whole the conference’s beloved Olympic sports.
In 2018, however, we’ll see the beginnings of a revamped approach fueled by the campuses themselves and implemented by a new management team.
“The universities and the athletic directors have told us they want to emphasize football,” networks president Mark Shuken told the Hotline.
“We want to give the people what they want, when they want it, and interest is clearly driven by football. We just had to plan how to do it.”
Shuken has only been on the job for 11 months — he joined too late to set the programming course for the 2017 football season — while Larry Meyers, the networks’ Executive Vice President for Content, came aboard only this spring.
At the root of their tactical shift is an emphasis on football content that’s designed to satisfy fans now and benefit the Pac-12 over the longer haul.
Shuken, Meyers and the athletic directors seem to grasp a relationship that had been lost in the fog on 3rd Street:
The wholly-owned networks are a marketing tool for the conference; football is the prime driver of campus revenue and fan engagement; and the next media contracts will be based, to a large extent, on the perceived levels of fan engagement.
The networks should be all about football — about marketing the product and deepening the connection — whenever the opportunities arise.
Except for six years, they weren’t.
Under Shuken and Meyers, it appears, they will be.
“We have to elevate and promote the value of our football product to potential distributors for the next six months and the next six years,’’ Shuken said. (The conference’s Tier 1 media rights deals expire in 2024.)
“The industry is trying to figure out the engagement metrics,” he added. “I don’t know how to predict it (because of the speed of change). But we have to be ready.”
Shuken tipped his hand this spring with two shrewd programming moves:
For the first time, every end-of-spring football scrimmage was broadcast on Pac-12 National. (In previous years, some games were only on the appropriate regional feeds.)
Also for the first time, the men’s basketball studio show was live from Las Vegas during the conference tournament, with the set positioned in the middle of the plaza outside T-Mobile Arena.
Behind the scenes, Shuken brought in Meyers, a former vice president at Time Warner Sports (now Spectrum), and promoted Sam Silverstein, the the well-regarded head of digital content, to vice president for Editorial.
There are notable changes coming this fall, as well.
* ‘Inside Pac-12 Football’, the centerpiece to the networks’ nuts-and-bolts coverage, has been moved from its nonsensical slot on Friday night to a more visible and fan-friendly window on Tuesday.
* The pre-game show will broadcast live from a campus every Saturday morning — a micro version of ESPN’s College GameDay. (It will make one appearance at each school over the course of the season.)
Taking ‘The Pregame’ on the road, like broadcasting the basketball show from outside T-Mobile Arena, is intended to deepen engagement.
“TV used to be a passive medium,” Meyers said. “The Pac-12 Networks have to be an active medium. We want to break some of the traditional rules … and bring some of the exuberance to the program.”
What gets pushed out in short bursts on digital and social can become long-form content on the linear network.
Here’s a rundown of what to expect this fall:
* A new item, ‘The Playlist’, will feature coverage of news throughout the day. (It’s scheduled to debut during training camp.)
* ‘The Drive’ has been tweaked, with five compilation episodes airing throughout the season on the linear networks.
The content, collected weekly from various teams, will be shown in short-form segments on digital and social.
* Several network staples, from ’12 Greatest’ to ‘Final Score’ to ‘Football in 60,’ are back this season, as well.
Is it a major overhaul? Nope.
There is only so much that can change in one offseason, particularly as Shuken stays mindful of cost containment.
One could argue, in fact, that the shift in the networks’ approach to football is more pronounced than the actual programming changes for 2018.
But the new strategy is necessary, it’s long overdue, and it reflects Shuken’s larger mission: Using the best options at his disposal to build engagement for the looming media rights negotiations.
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