Sooner (24 hr) Network

[8timechamps]

Would you watch it?

Of course we would all subscribe/watch if there were a football game on the SN. And, many of us would subscribe/watch if there were basketball games on the SN. I might even watch part of a baseball game (probably be more inclined to watch softball though...but that's for another thread). With the exception of those few events, I can honestly say I would have very little interest. If I'm going to spend time watching TV, it's probably not going to be the OU vs Iowa State field hockey game, or the OU vs KU cross country meet. Nothing against those student athletes, as I respect all of them, I'm just pretty sure I'm not going to watch.

THIS is the problem the LHN is going to run into. Are they going to mandate that you must "subscribe" to watch their football game? And if so, that's probably the only way they can get subscribers. With the exception of the parents/family of the other student athletes.

I'm not an expert on any of this network crap, in fact I can't remember most of the channel numbers my own cable provide has. BUT, it just seems like the price ESPN/Disney paid Texas is awful high for an "experiment".

[soonersweetie]

I think it would make more sense to have a Big 12 network
instead of ou network or lhn. Just seems there's more viewership n advertising dollars

[rekamrettuB]

It's not a subscription pay channel like Playboy right now. ESPN is just having a horrible time selling the channel to providers such as Direct and Dish and the like. Any chance for an OU network went out the window from the horrible, or lack of, success the LHN has had thus far. Plug will be pulled w/in 12 months I imagine.

[Tear Down This Wall]

The problem for any school is the there is not enough widespread appeal for a cable company to justify raising its rates for all customers. UT is just one of about a dozen FBS football schools in Texas.

Also, because the economy of Texas has been good for, basically, the last three decades, people from all around the country have moved there. And, those people did not go to UT.

As of the 2000 census, more than half the population of Collin County, a large suburb of Dallas that includes Plano, McKinney, and Allen, was composed of people born outside the state of Texas. I suspect it's the same in most large cities in Texas whose economies are thriving. The loyalty of those migrating to the state does not lie with UT.

The surprising thing, to me, is that the people in Austin and Bristol - especially the ones in Bristol - didn't factor in the demographics. It appears that the only demographic they factored in was whole population. They didn't dice down the whole number at all to see the composition. Stupid.

I think cable will die within the next decade anyway, or be just one of many equal choices. I think what the schools really want is to have more pay-per-view with the money going directly to them.

Whatever the case, the $300 million mistake has already been made. Therefore, if Boren and Castiglione think we can sit in the Big 12 because another deal like that is out there for us, they are badly mistaken.

[badger]

I think we need to team up with OSU, perhaps also with KSU and KU and have a Heartland network or perhaps, with the Pokes, a Sooner/State Network.

I want to see more OU baseball, more OU basketball (especially the women) and if they were to show some golf that might be something fun to fall asleep to on a Sunday afternoon since Tiger sucks now. The few times I've seen volleyball shown on ESPNU it's been fun.

If they were to just show legendary games or highlights, I'd never get sick of it.

The reason I think KU/KSU/OSU would be good inclusions to go in with on this network is because THEY AREN'T GETTING ON TV. The OSU/KU game this week? It's getting a tape delayed telecast at like 10:30 on Saturday, but only locally. Yes, a top 5 (or so) team is not on TV this week. lulz.

That is why I think those guys would jump at this opportunity, even if we take 90 percent of the profits :eddie:

[SoonerMom2]

Badger -- Agree with you 100%. That type of network would work IMHO.

[Tear Down This Wall]

I think we need to team up with OSU, perhaps also with KSU and KU and have a Heartland network or perhaps, with the Pokes, a Sooner/State Network.

I want to see more OU baseball, more OU basketball (especially the women) and if they were to show some golf that might be something fun to fall asleep to on a Sunday afternoon since Tiger sucks now. The few times I've seen volleyball shown on ESPNU it's been fun.

If they were to just show legendary games or highlights, I'd never get sick of it.

The reason I think KU/KSU/OSU would be good inclusions to go in with on this network is because THEY AREN'T GETTING ON TV. The OSU/KU game this week? It's getting a tape delayed telecast at like 10:30 on Saturday, but only locally. Yes, a top 5 (or so) team is not on TV this week. lulz.

That is why I think those guys would jump at this opportunity, even if we take 90 percent of the profits :eddie:

One would think that Mizzou with their vaulted Journalism/Mass Comm dept. would have had a leg up on all of this in such matters. http://smilearchive.com/s/cwm/cwm/eek5.gif

[SouthFortySooner]

I have one, its called SoonerFans.com. :)

[badger]

I have one, its called SoonerFans.com. :)

Oh yes, I love the variety here. And if it's not available on another channel, someone will start one here :D


One would think that Mizzou with their vaulted Journalism/Mass Comm dept. would have had a leg up on all of this in such matters.

They did announce some type of online thing, but I'm not sure what the current status is.


Badger -- Agree with you 100%. That type of network would work IMHO.

I just really, really want to be able to watch my beloved Sooners and don't care what channel its on or who we have to share TV time with and I imagine fans of other schools are thinking the same thing (even the Bevos, who are largely shut out of their own channel because ESPN charges cable providers so d@mn much for their programming and the providers finally said 'enough, you already get $4 per subscriber for your main channel, you're not charging 40 cents for this one-football-game channel!').

Just... get on TV, Sooners. I've watched womens games on the EZBUY channel in low def. I'm not picky.

[8timechamps]

The problem for any school is the there is not enough widespread appeal for a cable company to justify raising its rates for all customers. UT is just one of about a dozen FBS football schools in Texas.

Also, because the economy of Texas has been good for, basically, the last three decades, people from all around the country have moved there. And, those people did not go to UT.

As of the 2000 census, more than half the population of Collin County, a large suburb of Dallas that includes Plano, McKinney, and Allen, was composed of people born outside the state of Texas. I suspect it's the same in most large cities in Texas whose economies are thriving. The loyalty of those migrating to the state does not lie with UT.

The surprising thing, to me, is that the people in Austin and Bristol - especially the ones in Bristol - didn't factor in the demographics. It appears that the only demographic they factored in was whole population. They didn't dice down the whole number at all to see the composition. Stupid.

I think cable will die within the next decade anyway, or be just one of many equal choices. I think what the schools really want is to have more pay-per-view with the money going directly to them.

Whatever the case, the $300 million mistake has already been made. Therefore, if Boren and Castiglione think we can sit in the Big 12 because another deal like that is out there for us, they are badly mistaken.

That's my thought exactly. For the self proclaimed "worldwide leader in sports", seems like a pretty big oversight.

I also happen to agree with your point about cable becoming irrelevant. Everything is going the way of the computer/tablet. I think whichever cable provider you choose will just be the service provider to programming available on your computer/TV. In other words, outside of live events (mostly sports), it's all going to become on-demand.

[ouflak]

Being out of Oklahoma (and out of the country) I would have no access to it by any means, unless they combined it with the current version of All-Access on Soonersports.com. My big concern is will I lose access to my Tier 3 content online if this network comes into existance. That would pretty much make that account worthless and I would be all but completely cutoff from seeing any OU sports.

[8timechamps]

Being out of Oklahoma (and out of the country) I would have no access to it by any means, unless they combined it with the current version of All-Access on Soonersports.com. My big concern is will I lose access to my Tier 3 content online if this network comes into existance. That would pretty much make that account worthless and I would be all but completely cutoff from seeing any OU sports.

I hadn't even thought about that. But, I would suspect if the SN becomes a reality, the tier 3 content would all be moved to the network.

[jkjsooner]

That's my thought exactly. For the self proclaimed "worldwide leader in sports", seems like a pretty big oversight.

I also happen to agree with your point about cable becoming irrelevant. Everything is going the way of the computer/tablet. I think whichever cable provider you choose will just be the service provider to programming available on your computer/TV. In other words, outside of live events (mostly sports), it's all going to become on-demand.


I have trouble believing that this is the direction things are going to go. Unless you have FiOS or some other fiber service to your house, there just isn't the bandwidth for everyone to start doing all their video viewing in an on-demand fashion. Sure, it works now but if we all started doing it for every bit of TV that we watch it would fail miserably.

Just look at the current on-demand service. Ever tried ordering an on-demand movie on Friday night and have some wierd error code pop up? The cable companies won't admit it but that usually because they've filled up their bandwidth they've allocated for on-demand.


One other thing going against this model is that most of us get our Internet service via the cable companies. They're going to protect their business and now that there is no legal requirement for net neutrality, there's no guarantee that the cable companies aren't going to start blocking Internet traffic that competes with their core business.

I have DirecTv for for TV channels and Time Warner for cable. DirecTv uses the Internet (i.e. Time Warner) to download On-Demand movies. You think Time Warner isn't thinking about blocking that?

[pweitkem]

No, I would not... I pay enough already for my tickets and travel to the games. To start up a network that squeezes OU backers for one additional dollar is ludicrous. And after seeing the LHN has the Kansas game this year I want nothing to do with any individual school having their own network.... it's stupid.

[8timechamps]

I have trouble believing that this is the direction things are going to go. Unless you have FiOS or some other fiber service to your house, there just isn't the bandwidth for everyone to start doing all their video viewing in an on-demand fashion. Sure, it works now but if we all started doing it for every bit of TV that we watch it would fail miserably.

Just look at the current on-demand service. Ever tried ordering an on-demand movie on Friday night and have some wierd error code pop up? The cable companies won't admit it but that usually because they've filled up their bandwidth they've allocated for on-demand.


One other thing going against this model is that most of us get our Internet service via the cable companies. They're going to protect their business and now that there is no legal requirement for net neutrality, there's no guarantee that the cable companies aren't going to start blocking Internet traffic that competes with their core business.

I have DirecTv for for TV channels and Time Warner for cable. DirecTv uses the Internet (i.e. Time Warner) to download On-Demand movies. You think Time Warner isn't thinking about blocking that?

No, I have never had that issue. I guess I could see it happening, but seems like it would be akin to having trouble loading a webpage.

As for the bandwidth issues, do you think technology won't overcome that? I do. I listened to an interview with HBO's Michael Lombardo (a month or so ago), and he made it very clear that a full time OnDemand network was the way the cable industry is going. HBO has already launched their HBO Go.

At this point, what isn't on-demand? I live in Denver, and everything I watch is available on my computer. I have Comcast for both internet and cable. With the combination of Comcast's OnDemand, Netflix and ESPN360, there is very little I need my regular home cable box to view.

[agoo758]

I wouldn't subscribe to the OU network, and if a game was shown exclusively on the network, I wouldn't be happy.

[Keller Sooner]

I would subscribe, but I don't know if it would be available in N. Texas.

[MeMyself&Me]

LHN isn't a premium subscription channel. ESPN wants it in the basic package that regular ESPN is in. If you pay for cable/satellite with a provider that actually carries LHN, you'll be paying for it.

The reason why LHN will work is that ESPN owns it. They'll get it on cable/satellite packages the same why they've gotten other lesser channels on cable/satellite packages. When the ESPN contract comes up for renewal with said provider, they'll require LHN be carred as part of the deal to keep carrying ESPN. ESPN is the single biggest reason people hang on to cable/satellite providers and these providers will have no choice but to fall in line or they'll lose subsribers in droves to other providers that still have ESPN either because the other providers haven't gone up for renewal with ESPN yet or they have already given in.

Don't believe me? DirecTV has publicly expressed their desire to not carry LHN. Their contract with ESPN is up at the end of the year. Look for LHN to be on DirecTV next year.


As to the OP, I would likely watch an occasional program on OUN if it was quality production and provided to me in HD. I would certainly rather have an OUN than to pay PPV for one game a year.

[SoonerKnight]

A Big XII-I-I-I+I Network would be beter!