Wildcats would've benefited from HBO exposure
Showtime will debut “A Season With Notre Dame Football” on Sept 8, a 12-episode, behind-the-scenes revelation of Fighting Irish football.
The Pac-12 Networks will begin broadcasting “The Drive,” a weekly look inside the Utah and Oregon State football programs on Sept. 23. The first three seasons of “The Drive” were snooze-inducing. It has been so bland that Arizona did not volunteer to be a featured team.
HBO, which established the template for a reality TV sports series with “Hard Knocks,” an unvarnished look inside NFL teams (Houston Texans this year), also hoped to tap into the college football market.
In fact, driven by a global media distributor WME-IMG, the inaugural season of HBO’s college football reality series was set to feature the Arizona Wildcats, narrated by “Hard Knocks” voice Liev Schreiber and a small army of about 30 videographers and HBO-related personnel.
It would have been priceless exposure for Rich Rodriguez and his emerging football program. But before HBO could move its people to Tucson, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and Pac-12 Networks president Lydia Murphy-Stephans scuttled the deal.
HBO, which has 134 million subscribers globally, has delayed its launch of a “Hard Knocks” college series until 2016.
The Pac-12 Networks, which has 11 million viewers, blocked Arizona to protect “The Drive.” Is that move good for the order, or just one of the league protecting its territory? I think the league would have benefited by the exposure. Lord knows, the Pac-12 Networks can use more viewership.
The Pac-12 is a politically-charged business venture divided in three parts: the schools and their administrators, the commissioner’s office and the Pac-12 Networks. All of the parts are not always in agreement.
Blocking Arizona’s opportunity to go global on HBO exhibited who calls the shots. A more interesting showdown would’ve been for HBO to offer USC or Oregon the first crack at “Hard Knocks.”
The power might’ve shifted had the Trojans and Ducks called in their chips.
