When the CBS Sports Network announced it was picking up the University of Hawaii’s final regular-season football game for 2019, the Nov. 30 meeting with Army, it was met with a gasp.
CBS wanted a 7:30 p.m. kickoff at Aloha Stadium since the game was to follow the network’s 4 p.m. (Hawaii time) San Diego State-Brigham Young game.
The 90 minutes later-than-usual start — that’s if the Aztecs and BYU somehow manage to finish on time — makes for less-than-ideal packaging for UH ticket sales on the traditional senior night. But it was either that or the possibility of a Thursday or Friday night slot the network could have pushed for.
That’s part of the rub of the current Mountain West TV contract for UH. The school is obligated to accommodate the conference’s first tier media partners, CBS and ESPN, though it can impact UH at the box office and the Rainbow Warriors do not directly share in conference TV revenues.
Additionally, CBSSN reaches fewer households — approximately 51 million according to S&P Global Market Intelligence — than the Nielsen cable coverage estimates for ESPN (84.7 million), ESPN2 (84.5 million) or even ESPNU (60.4 million). CBSSN is not tracked by Nielsen. And, with a 12:30 a.m. Sunday Eastern time kickoff, the viewership figures to be minuscule.
’Bows on TVNetwork appearances for UH football in 2019
Date | Opponent | Time | TV
>> Aug. 24, Arizona, 4:30 p.m., CBS Sports
>> Sept. 14, At Washington, 1:30 p.m., Pac-12 Network
>> Sept. 28, At Nevada, TBA, ESPN
>> Oct. 12, At Boise State, TBA, ESPN
>> Oct. 19, Air Force, 5 p.m., CBS Sports
>> Nov. 30, Army, 7:30 p.m., CBS Sports
Subject to change.
The MWC’s current TV contracts end in 2020 and the negotiating window for future rights has been open for more than a month, which conference officials will preview at this week’s meetings. How UH might fit into a new alignment is one of the myriad questions the school and the conference are grappling with.
The MWC’s deals are currently worth approximately $14 million a year. The lion’s share, about $2.8 million annually, goes to Boise State. The rest comes out to about $1 million-$1.1 million each for the conference’s 10 other full members. UH, as a football-only member, isn’t one of them.
The Broncos negotiated the higher payout as a condition of returning to the MWC in 2012 from a brief dalliance with the Big East.
Under terms of its 2011 membership agreement, UH does not share in the overall revenues unless shares for all members top at least $2.3 million, something that has yet to happen. But UH is permitted to keep its revenue from the Spectrum contract. That was listed at $2.49 million for the year ends June 30.
Ideally, what would be best for UH is a carve-out arrangement where it would get a percentage of the overall pie since it must live by its constraints while still preserving whatever local rights package it can negotiate. The current Spectrum deal expires before the 2020 football season.
Navy had a carve-out agreement in joining the American Athletic Conference that had allowed it to retain much of its own inventory. But, then, Navy has a higher profile and with rights in the series with Army, considerably more leverage.
The UH equation is just one piece of the contract puzzle for the MWC, which wants exposure and more money from its next agreement, but also wants to avoid crowd-chilling late night and weeknight kickoffs.
For ex ample, two years ago UH’s game at Wyoming kicked off at 8:15 p.m. (Mountain Time) in Laramie, Wyo., and before a smaller crowd than the Cowboys had against Gardner Webb.
Something UH would like to avoid this season.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
