Billiken Basketball TV coverage 2024-25

[almaman]

Wasted hour trying to find out if BSM is carrying any/all/rest of games this year? Anyone know right now it seems like back in the 60's what we have scheduled so far.

[Lord Elrond]

The bankruptcy proceedings of the parent company of BSM has been one gigantic slow moving disaster, with constantly changing results based on what teams they are keeping the rights too and what teams they are discharging in bankruptcy (or threatening to get rid of as a negotiating tactic) at any point in time as various hearings are held, and then because of changing market conditions (more people dropping overpriced cable TV and satellite TV, so cable channels depending upon getting their carriage fees like BSM are facing lower and lower revenues). Everyone is trying to keep things going so that the most revenue possible can keep flowing into team coffers. It’s been a stupid constantly changing mess that keeps evolving over time as everyone keeps squeezing the last penny out of the traditional cable and satellite TV model. To give you the latest example of how bad the overall market is getting, Direct TV just purchased its competitor Dish TV (and Sling TV as well) for the total grand price of $1 PLUS assuming all the debts of those companies, and some financial analysts are questioning if that $1 was money well spent. 
 

All this has made it frustrating as it can be for fans who just want to know how to watch the games. As far as I know, SLU games should still be available as they have been in recent years. However, it has been confusing to keep track of, and the coverage has all been about the major league teams. SLU is well down the list in terms of media coverage of the various hearings. Just be aware that things can change any minute, even in the hours leading up each game time. While I don’t think the plug would get pulled mid game some game during the season, I wouldn’t bet against it either. SLU is really at the mercy of market forces way beyond its control here. 

[slu72]

Are u saying ESPN+ won’t be carrying Billiken games? They carried all of them last year. 

[Lord Elrond]

ESPN+ will carry all the games they carried last year, the contract between them and the A10 is valid and not in question. It’s whether or not those games are also carried on Bally’s that is in question. Bally’s also helps produce the Billikens telecast, but if Bally’s goes bankrupt I’m sure SLU could still hire people to work the games.

[MusicCityBilliken]

2 hours ago, slu72 said:

Are u saying ESPN+ won’t be carrying Billiken games? They carried all of them last year. 

Bally's (similar to its predecessor FOX sports) is divided up into regions. All the Bally's regions had agreements with local NHL/MLB/NBA franchises. Here in Nashville I get Braves and Hawks games for for my basic cable cost on the regional Bally's sports channel. All other regional Bally's channels are blocked. Someone going to pickup those local franchise contracts up, it is too lucrative. The SLU basketball games that appear Bally's Midwest are probably sold to ESPN+.

I think in the worst case scenario we get Bills games similar on how we get SLU Men's & Women's soccer, Volley Ball, baseball, etc.. on ESPN+. With announcers you probably you never heard of and not all the playback capabilities. 

[WVBilliken]

15 minutes ago, MusicCityBilliken said:

Bally's (similar to its predecessor FOX sports) is divided up into regions. All the Bally's regions had agreements with local NHL/MLB/NBA franchises. Here in Nashville I get Braves and Hawks games for for my basic cable cost on the regional Bally's sports channel. All other regional Bally's channels are blocked. Someone going to pickup those local franchise contracts up, it is too lucrative. The SLU basketball games that appear Bally's Midwest are probably sold to ESPN+.

I think in the worst case scenario we get Bills games similar on how we get SLU Men's & Women's soccer, Volley Ball, baseball, etc.. on ESPN+. With announcers you probably you never heard of and not all the playback capabilities. 

Actually for most all ESPN+ basketball broadcasts of SLU basketball, I get the Billiken broadcast team for home games, for away games the opponents broadcast team. 

[Lord Elrond]

23 minutes ago, MusicCityBilliken said:

Bally's (similar to its predecessor FOX sports) is divided up into regions. All the Bally's regions had agreements with local NHL/MLB/NBA franchises. Here in Nashville I get Braves and Hawks games for for my basic cable cost on the regional Bally's sports channel. All other regional Bally's channels are blocked. Someone going to pickup those local franchise contracts up, it is too lucrative. The SLU basketball games that appear Bally's Midwest are probably sold to ESPN+.

I think in the worst case scenario we get Bills games similar on how we get SLU Men's & Women's soccer, Volley Ball, baseball, etc.. on ESPN+. With announcers you probably you never heard of and not all the playback capabilities. 

The problem is the rights fees being paid to pro teams is way too high for the local Ballys sports network to pay for with revenue from cable tv carriage fees and advertising. As an example, the Phoenix Suns got dropped in the bankruptcy proceedings last year, and no cable outlet wanted to pick up the rights to broadcast those games. They put together a way to put their home games on local Over The Air TV in only Phoenix (on some subchannel I beleive), and selling a streaming package (around $15 a month) in states only allowed by the NBA (there were other teams in the same boat, the NBA divided up at the state level which teams fans could get which team, enforced by geolocation software). They did that starting before last season, no cable TV games at all, no guarateed rights fee being paid by a cable network, and no cable network was interested in picking them up all year.  I would love to see the financial results of this, but this is proprietary info that neither the NBA or the teams have to share. Eventually they will have to share with the players association as that revenue makes up revenue sharing for player compensation in the CBA.  
 

I will point out that if sports teams saw a setup like the Suns as being more profitable to them than the rights fees guaranteed to them each year by contract, then they could easily have used the regional sports networks bankruptcy as a way to jump to that. Instead, everyone is trying everything to keep what they have going. 

[billikenfan05]

My fellow MBMs:

I promise you, if something definitively changes with SLU Basketball TV situation it will be discussed in one of the most recent 10 posts on this message board. 

You will be able to watch EVERY SLU regular season home game and every conference game on ESPN+

Non-Conference Away and Neutral games, as per every year prior, you will be at the mercy of the host team or tournament. 

I can guess with a fair amount of certainty that we will not have the two exhibitions televised. 

[MusicCityBilliken]

1 hour ago, billikenfan05 said:

I can guess with a fair amount of certainty that we will not have the two exhibitions televised. 

We never did in the past. Also, did not even get radio on those games.

[billikenfan05]

1 minute ago, MusicCityBilliken said:

We never did in the past. Also, did not even get radio on those games.

Correct. If they do decide to televise the exhibitions it will be a big change in policy. 

[NextYearBill]

but will they be in 4k ?!?!

[cgeldmacher]

Does anyone know if SLU's athletic department benefits financially off of game being broadcast on ESPN+?  I would assume they were paid something if a game was broadcast on Bally's.

[billikenfan05]

8 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

Does anyone know if SLU's athletic department benefits financially off of game being broadcast on ESPN+?  I would assume they were paid something if a game was broadcast on Bally's.

Other way around, I believe.

[cgeldmacher]

Just now, billikenfan05 said:

Other way around, I believe.

So, you are saying that we have to pay for games to be on Bally's but get paid for games on ESPN+?

[Lord Elrond]

Bally’s just announced it will drop Cardinals games for 2025. This will affect 11 other MLB clubs as well. I wouldn’t count on Bally’s carrying any Billikens games ever again, or maybe not much of anything. Story was just dropped on the Post-Dispatch website, I’m not sure how to get around the paywall. If you want to watch Billikens basketball this coming season, ESPN+ seems to be the way to go, unless it gets picked up by a national channel. 

[Old guy]

Disney+ carries ESPN+ and a fair number of other sports channels. If you have young kids this may be a good way to get ESPN+.

[MusicCityBilliken]

2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

Other way around, I believe.

On those Bally's games it is local advertising (ie Royal Bank, SLUcare, etc..). Isn't it SLUs (the Athletic Dept.) job to recruit the advertisers? Who gets the revenue for that? 

[billikenfan05]

25 minutes ago, MusicCityBilliken said:

On those Bally's games it is local advertising (ie Royal Bank, SLUcare, etc..). Isn't it SLUs (the Athletic Dept.) job to recruit the advertisers? Who gets the revenue for that? 

Truth be told I don't know, it would be Billiken Sports Properties if it is. I just assumed Billiken Basketball was not as valuable to Bally's as the other way around. 

[willie]

7 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

Bally’s just announced it will drop Cardinals games for 2025. This will affect 11 other MLB clubs as well. I wouldn’t count on Bally’s carrying any Billikens games ever again, or maybe not much of anything. Story was just dropped on the Post-Dispatch website, I’m not sure how to get around the paywall. If you want to watch Billikens basketball this coming season, ESPN+ seems to be the way to go, unless it gets picked up by a national channel. 

Heard a long decision on KMOX tonight  Their take was Don’ t bet on anything  It’s all very much a mess in process  Wherever the Cards and Blues end up Billiken Basketball could end up as a filler add on . We will end up somewhere  

 

[Lord Elrond]

21 minutes ago, willie said:

Heard a long decision on KMOX tonight  Their take was Don’ t bet on anything  It’s all very much a mess in process  Wherever the Cards and Blues end up Billiken Basketball could end up as a filler add on . We will end up somewhere  

 

It’s been amusing to watch, but the Cardinals have made it clear in the past that they won’t take a cut on what they were guaranteed from Bally’s in rights fees, so it looks like the Cardinals are no longer going to be on Bally’s. It is a mess, the final word has not been given, but for this season I would say if you want to watch the Billikens, go to ESPN+. But check every night in case something changes.

[slu72]

I sign up for the games with ESPN+ from Oct thru March. It’s $12/mo and I get just about all the games. In conference games are occasionally shown on CBS SN, NBC, and USA. But even there ESPN+ shows them I believe. 

[Taj79]

When you get Billiken games on ESPN+, that is usually just a tap-in feed from whatever station is telecasting it.  I am guessing Highmark and Robertson and Dass and others were doing games for FSMW/ BSM and then ESPN+ just tapped into that feed.  It's the likely reason you get Duquesne announcers on Duquesne home games, La Salle announcers on their home games and so on.  ESPN+ does not have traveling broadcast teams, they essentially pirate the already-existing broadcasts.  If BSM is not doing Billiken games, there will be nothing to pirate in terms of live video.  Additionally, while schools will typically assign their home announcers, schools don't have the equipment to set up for typical broadcasts.  SLU would need school announcers, video management, cameras, cameramen, all the stuff that sits in trucks outside event venues like Busch, the Final Four and so on (not to that scale obviously).  

I disagree with slu72's statement above about ESPN+ pirating CBSSN, NBC and USA only because if the games are on there, that is where I usually watch them and have never bothered to do a comparison to see if ESPN+ is carrying them as well.  I would think those networks say nay-nay to giving ESPN+ access to content they have paid for but I don't know for sure.  I have the local sports package along with ESPN+ so I get the other channels plus I will get SNY and some others which sometimes carry games from Fordham, Rhodey and Umass.  Basically the northeast.  

Without Bally, SLU will need someone to step into the void, someone likely independent like the old KPLR broadcasts.

[brianstl]

13 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

It’s been amusing to watch, but the Cardinals have made it clear in the past that they won’t take a cut on what they were guaranteed from Bally’s in rights fees, so it looks like the Cardinals are no longer going to be on Bally’s. It is a mess, the final word has not been given, but for this season I would say if you want to watch the Billikens, go to ESPN+. But check every night in case something changes.

The Cardinals are going to end up getting far less money than they think.

[OkieBilliken]

2 hours ago, Taj79 said:

When you get Billiken games on ESPN+, that is usually just a tap-in feed from whatever station is telecasting it.  I am guessing Highmark and Robertson and Dass and others were doing games for FSMW/ BSM and then ESPN+ just tapped into that feed.  It's the likely reason you get Duquesne announcers on Duquesne home games, La Salle announcers on their home games and so on.  ESPN+ does not have traveling broadcast teams, they essentially pirate the already-existing broadcasts.  If BSM is not doing Billiken games, there will be nothing to pirate in terms of live video.  Additionally, while schools will typically assign their home announcers, schools don't have the equipment to set up for typical broadcasts.  SLU would need school announcers, video management, cameras, cameramen, all the stuff that sits in trucks outside event venues like Busch, the Final Four and so on (not to that scale obviously).  

I disagree with slu72's statement above about ESPN+ pirating CBSSN, NBC and USA only because if the games are on there, that is where I usually watch them and have never bothered to do a comparison to see if ESPN+ is carrying them as well.  I would think those networks say nay-nay to giving ESPN+ access to content they have paid for but I don't know for sure.  I have the local sports package along with ESPN+ so I get the other channels plus I will get SNY and some others which sometimes carry games from Fordham, Rhodey and Umass.  Basically the northeast.  

Without Bally, SLU will need someone to step into the void, someone likely independent like the old KPLR broadcasts.

Worst case scenario, we could still broadcast our home game on ESPN+ using the same technology/etc as the womens team uses.   I believe alot of their home games are ESPN+ exclusive.    I guess we would have to sell ads ourselves.   I'm thinking we are currently in a much better position to generate ad revenue than last season.  

[Lord Elrond]

2 hours ago, brianstl said:

The Cardinals are going to end up getting far less money than they think.

Agreed. They get $76 mil per year in rights fees from Bally’s for the 150 games they broadcast last year, which is a little over $500,000 per game. So, if half a million people on  average watched each game, the Cardinals need $1 from each viewer each game to match what they got in rights fees.