Boise State football’s new TV deal ditches ESPN, moves kickoffs a little earlier
ESPN will no longer broadcast Boise State football home games under the Mountain West Conference’s new TV rights deal, which was announced Thursday.
Beginning with the 2020 season, CBS Sports will have rights to Boise State away games and Fox will own the rights to the Broncos’ home games. Games could air on CBS, Fox, CBS Sports Network, FS1 or FS2.
The allure of ESPN played a role in not only keeping Boise State in the Mountain West, but building its national brand.
“I think a combination that really took us to the next level was, 1, being on ESPN, and 2, playing well on ESPN,” former Boise State coach Chris Petersen said in 2013.
Boise State football has appeared on an ESPN-affiliated channel 119 times since 1999. The Broncos likely won’t be on ESPN at least until a potential bowl game in 2020, because the only nonconference road game is at Marshall, whose conference doesn’t have a deal with ESPN, either.
The move comes with significant risk in terms of viewership. Only five regular-season games on FS1 drew 1 million viewers in 2019, compared to 66 on ESPN or its related cable channels. But the Mountain West’s new deal will be lucrative for the conference.
The contract is for six years, and Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said it’s worth $270 million, but he declined to break down how the money will be distributed to the conference’s 11 full-time members (Hawaii is a football-only member). Boise State will continue to receive the same additional revenue it received in the previous deal, Thompson said.
Doing the math, Boise State should receive in the neighborhood of $5.7 million per year under the new deal, while the rest of the conference’s 10 full-time members would receive about $3.9 million. Hawaii will receive a partial share, Thompson said, but that dollar amount hasn’t been determined yet.
Under the previous deal, Boise State received an additional $1.8 million in TV money each year on top of the $1.1 million distributed annually to the rest of the conference members except Hawaii, which has its own TV deal with Oceanic Time Warner. The additional funds are part of a deal Boise State negotiated in 2012 when it agreed to stay in the Mountain West rather than leave for the Big East (now American).
The increased TV revenue could help Boise State address football coach Bryan Harsin’s request for investment in the program, including a renovation of the east side of Albertsons Stadium.
Overall in 2020-21, CBS Sports will air 23 football games and 32 men’s basketball games, including the men’s basketball conference championship game, which has been on CBS since 2013. CBS will continue as the Mountain West’s primary TV partner and have the first pick of conference games. The majority of those games usually air on CBS Sports Network. CBS also has the right to air an additional 10 games per sport each year as part of its all-access streaming service.
“Given both the strength of the Mountain West Conference and success of our partnership over the past 15 years, continuing our long-term relationship with the conference was a priority for us,” CBS Sports Executive Vice President of Programming Dan Weinberg said Thursday. “Retaining the conference’s top games for CBS Sports Network is important and builds upon our already strong schedule. We look forward to an exciting future with the conference in the years ahead.”
Fox, FS1 and FS2 will air at least 16 and up to 23 football games, and up to 32 men’s basketball contests. A minimum of seven games will appear on Fox or FS1. FS1 is channel 146 and FS2 is channel 148 on Cable One in Boise.
Fox or FS1 will televise the Mountain West football championship game, and Fox Sports President Mark Silverman teased Thursday that the network could use Boise State’s home game against Florida State on Sept. 19 for its Big Noon Kickoff window, which would mean a 10 a.m. kickoff for the Broncos.
“We actually believe if we are able to kick that game at 10 a.m. and it would be airing on the Fox broadcast network, it’ll most likely be the highest-rated Boise State football game in at least five to seven years,” Silverman said. “We think there’s an incredible audience there. We do it as a special occasion, and again, I think it could be something everyone could rally around and make it a fun one-time event.”
CBS and Fox can select up to five games each for Friday nights, not including special dates like Thanksgiving weekend.
Thompson said late kickoffs and tip-offs would continue to be part of the new deal, but available TV windows will not allow football games to begin later than 8 p.m. Fox’s kickoff window is from 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. local time Saturdays and from 5:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Fridays. CBS’ window extends to 8 p.m. both nights. In 2019, eight of Boise State’s 12 regular-season games kicked off at 8 p.m. or later, including four of six home games.
Silverman insinuated that Boise State’s games appearing on Fox networks could kick off earlier, though.
“One of the benefits of obtaining these rights was to fill a 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., roughly, local kick, but not the sole one,” said Silverman, adding that the network is focused on filling earlier slots. “That early time frame, it was the second-highest rated window in all of college football last year, our noon Eastern time. We’re looking all over the board. We’re not only focused on late night.”
Thompson said this will be the last time Boise State’s home games are negotiated separately as part of the TV deal. Boise State secured the separate negotiation arrangement as part of its deal to stay in the Mountain West.
Thompson said conference members met in December in search of more equity in future deals.
“That is the anticipation, that everybody’s membership agreements would get more germane and equal,” Thompson said.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 3:29 PM.
