Longhorn Network Promo Video

Saw this last night while browsing the new ESPN Texas-centric page, Hornsnation.com and was blown away. The relive the 2005 season video gave me chills.

Someone, please tell me LHN will be available on ESPN3 … purty please?

Yes Vince, it IS Showtime, Showtime, Showtime!

More please.

Case’s Landry stache…Less please

Do we even know what channel it would be on for UVerse, DirecTV, etc? I’ll just keep it on that channel and stare at the TV waiting for them to flip the switch until 7pm on 9/3.

I think even Aggies could watch that video and think, “okay, this is some cool stuff”.

I called Dish today to see if they were carrying it. They did not yet know but I made it clear that if another satellite provider carried it and they didn’t, I was gone.

As long as it stays off u-verse I could care less

I’m seriously pumped after watching that. The ’05 video stuff looks awesome. I just might devote an entire DVR to this channel.

mikefag says…

@miketag

it’s couldn’t care less. I still don’t get how people constantly screw that expression up.

Wow…. that… was… AWESOME!

I was really impressed with the production values. It’s much better than Fox would have done. I can’t wait!

rival, you couldn’t care more about caring less. Do I did the grammar good?

I have heard the same thing, srr, about the cable negotiations with major carriers always going down to the last minute for a new entry like LHN. Local sports radio has been making a big deal out of no major deals yet. The Astros stink and I guess they need something to talk about.

Dear sweet baby Jesus, will someone please have mercy on me and tell me where I can watch this on my stoopid effing iPad? Between flash and HTML 5 I’m dang near ready to go android.

(and I’m stuck on vacation without a PC).

Thanks!

srr50 -
 
It seems like these cable negotiations always go to the wire. What are the negotiating points? Simply cents on the dollar or is something else?

I called Time Warner in Dallas yesterday and asked for the LHN. The girl said, “We just got a memo saying they are negotiating now and we should know something within the week. They said they would let us know.” I asked if I could leave my number and be advised when available. She said I could and took my number. They are cutting it thin.

Scipio Tex, there was a book published earlier this year called “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN” which described the history of ESPN, from the early days to last year.

The book had some info on how they negotiated with every cable carrier (especially difficult in the early years), basically charging so much per subscriber. I think it was up to 50 cents/subscriber for the main ESPN, then they’d try to sell ESPN2, ESPN3, etc separately once they developed those. Sounds like it was always a bare-knuckled fight with the cable people to get them to pay for new channels.

I’d guess negotiations for something like LHN might start at 5 - 10 cents/subscriber since it doesn’t have universal appeal, but that’s just a SWAG. They also had a 2nd revenue stream from selling ads, so basically they could financially whip CBS/NBC/ABC sports divisions because of the double source of revenue, once cable became prevalent.

Anyway, each carrier will need to negotiate a separate deal with them.

Scipio:
 I believe its dollars and deliverables. This is relatively unchartered territory here (a single school network). UT and ESPN are trying to point at the Big 10 network as a template, but of course on a smaller scale.

Time Warner Cable is the key player in this for the distributors. They are the largest carrier in the state, they are expected to set the bar for the subscription fee. The others — especially Comcast, U-Verse and Direct TV — are more than willing to wait and see what kind of deal is made with TWC.

ESPN wants 40 cents per subscriber per month, and a spot on the basic digital cable tier.

The price is high for new channels, but not that high for sports-specific channels. In-state, ESPN is selling brand-awareness with Texas and “insider” looks at the program. The asking price is IMO why ESPN pushed the high school games and 2nd Big 12 games out in public — it was a negotiating ploy.

Right now TWC and the others are probably saying, “you want 40 cents per subscriber? Fine you go on the sports tier — not the basic tier.”

Being on the basic digital cable tier is key for the LHN and ESPN in Texas and the surrounding states — it makes the dual revenue stream (subscription + advertisers) much stronger. For those out of state get ready to pay for the LHN as an “added value” channel on a monthly basis.

TWC cable is a tough negotiator — they still don’t carry the NFL Network — but I believe since they at one time showed an interest in partial ownership in the LHN, they will make a deal.

Again the Big 10 Network might give a clue as to how this will go. They had a very hard time getting distributors signed up, for basically the same reasons, but after they went up, they quickly were available in 30 million households in less than two months, and the Big 10 Network is now available in 19 of the Top 20 markets in the country.

Obviously the LHN is on a much smaller scale, and while $300 million over 20 years is a lot of money to us, it’s pocket change for ESPN, and it is a reachable goal for return on investment.

The key is getting on the basic cable tiers in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. As for advertising dollars — total number of viewers are not that important.

This is a true niche market, one that advertisers can be attracted to because of over-indexing. I won’t go into great detail here (maybe in another post after the LHN is up and running for a couple of months), but basically overindexing is an advertiser reaching a higher percentage of a deserable target demo than normally available. The LHN obviously would appeal to UT fans and graduates. Graduates who make more than the median to start out, who reach the $100,000 per year plateau faster, have more disposable income, and are faithful to their alma mater.

An example would be TV golf. The total numbers are never good, especially if Tiger Woods isn’t playing. But they still have quality advertisers because of over-indexing.

Research shows that 27.2% of golfing households earn $100,000 or more annually. That’s 74% higher than the national average, which means that golfing households are 74% more likely to earn $100,000 or more which gives an index of 174 — a very attractive audience for high dollar items.

The starting median salary for a UT graduate is $49,100, mid-career median salary, $87,500. There are over 500,000 living graduates of the University of Texas. Those coming out of graduate school start out much higher.

ESPN has built an empire on knowing the price point that will draw advertisers to their niche market. I’m sure they have one set for the LHN as well.

Thanks sr

humina humina humina BONER!!

Some more info on what ESPN is currently charging per subscriber, from a Wiki source:

ESPN typically charges $4.08 per subscriber per month for access to its main channel alone (plus another $1.05 for the rest of its English-language channels), the highest of any non-premium American cable channel and comparable to the premium channels. Other cable channels charge, on average, 5-20 cents per subscriber per month.

srr50 says they are asking 40 cents/month for the Longhorn Network … no doubt the carriers consider this just a starting point in the negotiations.

srr50 thank you and your brain

Just finished watching. That is amazing!! While I’ll never forget being at the Rose Bowl, just watching some highlights broght back the magic of that season. Can’t wait!!!

SCHA-WINGGGGG!!!

srr50 -
 
You’re absolutely invaluable. Thanks for the education.

Can someone put it YouTube? It’s worth a tequila shot at the Rice tailgate. And that’s my opening bid. Dying out here.

I thought it was McCoy’s teeth, not his moustache they were making fun of at first. He looks like a 60’s British rock star. Also, Ricky talking about the Hook ‘Em with a guy in India makes me wonder if it’s the Hindu sign for “I’m Holdin”.

Seriously, that was a great vid. Thanks, as always, Steve! I trust you in these matters and now feel certain I’ll be watching it soon on DirecTV. Truth is, I don’t care if I see the Rice game anyway if that’s what it takes for the right deals to be made. There will be at least ten other games on TV live either way, more than half of which I’ll see in person.

God Bless Harley Clark!

srr - Great stuff, man. Thanks.

Even as positive rumors start coming out today, word remains that DirecTV won’t have it.

I’m getting worried. And pissed.

Am I the only SOB in this fanbase with Dish Network? Anyone here any inside word on that?

On some thread or another, someone said that Dish had told them that a deal would get done.

Huck,

Direct TV is pissing me off.

want dish info also.

I have Dish and issued them my ultimatum.

and I think those of us with directv are SOL…super.

“Even as positive rumors start coming out today, word remains that DirecTV won’t have it.

I’m getting worried. And pissed."

That doesn’t seem to be what srr50 is saying. Therefore, I’m remaining optimistic based on that until everyone but them has it.

Then, if they still refuse, I’ll just switch to Dish, who’ll welcome me with open arms and some freebees. It’s hard to imagine they’s put that many Texas and/or national subscribers at risk to one of their closest competitors

Just sent Dish another email. Will advise if I get a response other than the standard company line.

Direct TV and ESPN’s contract is up at the end of the year — they may just wait and wrap up all negotiations into one fight then — which means you could be SOL for the football season.

Answering my own proposition, it looks like the eSPN and DirecTV deal expires this year and some are speculating that ESPN won’t negotiate anything new with them until that time, which would make us SOL temporarily, but for this season basically. I don;t know if this is true or not. srr, any insight?

Oops! Sorry Steve, I just read your comment. Many thanks.

Love the video.

Someone sit McConaughey down in front of the promo at 6:41 “Clockwork Orange” style.

That’s the first time I heard Harley Clark tell the story of the Hook ‘Em hand signal. I like his comment to the dean that he should glad that our mascot isn’t the unicorn.

"What we are supposed to do as coaches is give our guys an advantage by strategy."
- Mack Brown

Obviously, Mack, you never gave Greg Davis the memo.

Directv is banking on the fact that people are more loyal to the NFL than to UT. They are betting wrong.

The pretty cool thing about the video is I KNOW that when Harley Clark was talking about the Hook ’Em sign… every single one of of us was flashing it right back at the screen, juuuuust to make sure that we were doin it right.

Also, every time a Sooner fan throws ’em down, a meth lab explodes.

Verizon FiOS is official.

I love listening to the radio shows in the morning in Houston talking about how we obviously must have been planning to leave the conference since we didn’t want to make a big 12 network.

To dovetail Huckleberry’s post:

http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/colleges/2011/08/verizon-adds-longhorn-network-to-its-national-list-of-channel-options.html