The James Harden Revolution Will Not Be Televised
If you were hoping to watch your 16th-ranked Sun Devils visit the dangerous USC Trojans tonight, you’re out of luck. This game, like so many others, is not televised in Arizona. What forces conspire to keep James Harden out of our living rooms? Keep reading to find out.
With the Arizona State men’s basketball program on the verge of moving from Pac-10 afterthought to contender, its quickly growing fan base is missing out. Why? Because tonight’s critical road game against USC is not on TV.
Stupefied fans in the Valley will be treated to a Fox Sports Arizona presentation of Washington State vs. Oregon State at 7 p.m. Thursday. That’s followed by Arizona at UCLA at 9 p.m. ASU’s 8:30 game against USC will not be on television in Phoenix.
Washington State vs. Oregon State? We believe the term is: WTF?!
We’re sure there are complex contractual issues when it comes to FSAZ and what they can and can’t show. But if that’s the case and we’re ASU’s administration, we think we’d try to do something.
A top 20 men’s basketball team doesn’t come around Tempe too often, and fans are missing out on a critical conference game. Couldn’t Thursday’s 8:30 p.m. start time have been moved up to 7 p.m., so that both the ASU game and the UA game could be televised in Arizona? Would Trojan fans be so crushed to play a game a little earlier in the evening?
This same scenario occurred when ASU opened the season on the road against Stanford, and we’re still annoyed we didn’t get to see that 30-point beatdown.
ASU is at least throwing fans a bone with an offer to view the USC game online, but charging almost $7 for the right to view is just bad public relations. It’s obviously a way to make a few bucks while fans clamor for any option. If the athletic department wanted to create some good will among fans, it would have offered this online deal free.
As of now ASU’s remaining untelevised games are: 1/29 vs. Washington St; 2/28 at Washington St.; 3/5 vs. Stanford and 3/7 vs. Cal. Thankfully, there’s a good chance that the final two games of the regular season – Stanford and Cal – will be picked up by FSAZ.
Is it too much to ask to see the home team on TV? What do you think?
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This is an interesting marketing problem. ASU is only assured of two more winning months (i.e., months with James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph on the roster) during which to create goodwill with a fan base that for the first time in a decade truly believes in the direction of the program.
By offering up the game free, they’d likely draw far more eyeballs than by charging even $7. If the game is extra memorable (thanks to a dramatic finish or a big game from James), that’s a branding experience that could help convert casual fans into die-hards.
A loss of a handful of $7 receipts now could result in future season ticket sales to fans that have never crossed over from casual, football-first Sun Devil to hardcore hoops head.
ASU has nothing to do with the price,that come from the for-profit service that is steaming the game.Hopefully in the future ASU will be able to do this on there own.
Its an unfortunate situation, but the post and comments also explain the reason. The FSN AZ schedule of games is predetermined contractually. There is sometimes an opportunity to shift the TV games, but it depends on the terms of the contract, the teams involved, and the network. Yes, WSU vs. OSU is an awful game, but by being part of the Pac-10 contract, they are guaranteed a certain number of TV appearances, and FSN AZ is obligated to fulfill their end of the deal.
On the web site, ovdevil is correct in that ASU partners with another company for streaming content online, and they cannot simply make the event free. That too would need to be approved by the partner, but why would they do that, since this game will be in high demand and will generate revenue for them,
They partner with CSTV/CBS for their audio/video streaming service, I believe. The problem is that many other colleges also contract with the company and offer audio and video content online for free. I remember when we played Vanderbilt last year in baseball, many of the Vandy fans showed up on ASU message boards, steamed that they normally get free audio and video of their baseball games, free of charge, but were prohibited from watching the game online because ASU wouldn’t allow it.
Now of course, different schools may negotiate different contracts in terms of what will be provided online, and for what cost. However, it is certainly a debatable point whether or not you make more in subscription fees to offset the cost of building your program by allowing the maximum number of fans and alumni to watch or listen to games by not charging for it.
[...] it’s best this game wasn’t on television. The Sun Devils will get a chance at a road split when they face UCLA on national TV Saturday [...]