3 more games get picked up by TV
(Written by kencraw)
Over at Calbears.com, they announced that 3 more games have been picked up for TV coverage. (Hat tip to commentor AERose for alerting me to the Minnesota game getting picked up prompting me to go search for a press-release on the subject.)
The new additions after ABC/ESPN picked up USC, Oregon and Maryland via their Pac-10 contract and FSN/Versus picked up no games via their Pac-10 contract, are:
- CSN Calfornia picked up the Eastern Washington game as everyone expected. CSN California is our “fall back” option and they’re small enough of a network that any game they get causes a big up-tick in viewership.
- ESPN (or ESPN2) picked up the Minnesota game via their Big-10 contracts or associated options (I don’t know their contractual situation at all).
- CSN California got the rights to the Washington game from FSN Northwest who had already picked up that game for local coverage. This will ensure that the game is shown locally to those who don’t have the full FSN sports package.
That gets us to half the games on TV with the rest being up for 12-day selections:
| Date | Opponent | Current TV | TV Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/5 | Maryland | ESPN2 @ 7:00 PM | n/a |
| 9/12 | Eastern Washington | CSN California @ 2:30 PM | n/a |
| 9/19 | @Minnesota | ESPN(or 2) @ 9:00 AM | n/a |
| 9/26 | @Oregon | ABC @ 12:30 PM | n/a |
| 10/3 | USC | ABC @ 5:00 PM | n/a |
| 10/17 | @UCLA | decision 10/5 | ABC @ 12:30 PM or Versus @ 4:30 PM |
| 10/24 | WSU | decision 10/12 | ABC @ 12:30 PM or ? |
| 10/31 | @ASU | decision 10/19 | ABC @ 12:30 PM or ? |
| 11/7 | Oregon State | decision 10/26 | ABC @ 12:30 PM or FSN @ 4:00 PM or ? |
| 11/14 | Arizona | decision 11/2 | ABC @ 12:30 PM or Versus @ 4:00 PM or ? |
| 11/21 | Big Game | decision 11/9 | ABC @ 12:30 PM or FSN @ 3:30 or 7:00 PM or Versus @ 4:30 or 7:00 PM or ? |
| 12/5 | @UW | CSN California and FSN Northwest @ 3:30 PM | n/a |
For the observant viewer, they noticed that there was no “or ?” on the UCLA game. That’s because there are two contracts available and only two games to pick from, Cal at UCLA and Stanford at Arizona. So both games will get picked up, it’s just a question of who will be on ABC at 12:30 PM and who will be on Versus at 4:30 PM.
The Big Game also seems like a likely pickup as there are 3 television slots available and only 4 games to pick from. Particularly when one of them is Oregon State at WSU, which would only get picked up if for some reason OSU is on fire again this season, something I don’t expect, it seems safe to say that the Big Game will be picked up by one of these contracts.
The other 4 games are battling it out for 1 to 3, 12-day selections with always two or more games getting left out in the cold by the Pac-10 contracts (exception: 10/31 where there’s 1, 12-day and 2 games to choose from). The good news these days is that CSN California appears to be in Cal’s hip-pocket for any game that doesn’t get picked up for one of the more lucrative contracts. That’s where that “or ?” is not something to be worried about. We know exactly who’s going to do it and are pretty confident they’ll want it.
Overall that means things are looking good for a another season with every game on TV.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Hi Ken-
Any thoughts on the WSU game? There are 5 conference games that weekend so I think the 12:30 ABC pick is unlikely. The other options would be versus or FSN in the afternoon or evening. If those fall through and we go to CSN California, what time would this start? If we don’t get any TV, does Cal have preference on start time?
August 12th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Yeah, the WSU game has CSN CA written all over it. I don’t know that Cal cares, but I suspect CSN CA will likely have other things they want to work around and will request a time.
I don’t know if there’s any value in this, but previous CSN CA games all seem to be mid-afternoon, somewhere between 2 and 4 PM. Not sure why.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
The date you have listed for the Oregon game is incorrect.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Oops. Sure enough, I had a typo there. Thanks for the heads up, Colin. I’ve corrected it to the actual date: 9/26