Forum: Bison Football or UND Hockey

[Civil06]

I could be wrong but I believe they are free to compete with Cableone but they are required to offer service to the entire city , they are not allowed to start offering smaller sections at a time. That may be the reason for the delayed move into Fargo.

This is correct according to Commissioner Williams, who negotiated the wonderful deal we currently have with CableOne.

[The_Sicatoka]

About CableOne and their thoughts, from the Fargo (FCC) newspaper:

CableOne picked up UND’s full television schedule of 40 live events last year – events that were produced through the Fighting Sioux Sports Network.

Just as with FSSN, CableOne will now have the option of carrying the Midcontinent-produced UND content.

“I can’t see that (UND) would make any dramatic changes to prevent us from picking it up again, mostly for the benefit of the UND fan,” CableOne general manager Scott Geston said. “We will look at it like we do with everything else and make a determination after we get the paper work.”

Geston estimated CableOne will make a decision by late summer or early fall on whether they will pick up the television package.

[The_Sicatoka]

This is correct according to Commissioner Williams, who negotiated the wonderful deal we currently have with CableOne.

That's horrible. West Fargo let Midcontinent move in in phases.

[CaBisonFan]

Time to blow past the small-time attitude.

[TheBisonator]

Does FCC produce UND Hockey on radio, or do they just take a feed originating out of Grand Forks? I'm pretty sure WDAY-AM is just an affiliate of the UND Radio Network. I think Clear Channel out of Grand Forks is the originator of UND broadcasts. (The Grand Forks stations on this list are all Clear Channel owned.)

And yes, there are lots of pros and cons in all of this, but there's no way I'd trade the Midcontinent deal for (local) KVLY-TV.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see NDSU go back to FCC/WDAY-TV.

But that would leave the Arbitron monster in Fargo (Radio FM) wide open to UND.

FCC would have to agree for all games to be on WDAY as well as WDAZ/KBMY/KMCY. If not, FCC may not be worth it. If they agree to that, FCC may be the better option, cause of HD, and because most people think the people who run FCC are stupid, but they aren't as stupid as the people who run Hoak.

[MNLonghorn10]

Lol. Cableone.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

[HerdBot]

I think the writing is on the wall. No facts but an educated guess says...

KVLY is buttering up by televising the spring game on statewide TV. Its not a coincidence WDAY rolled out HD. FCC doesnt have any contracts with any area teams and has much to offer including an airplane for road production.. It makes logical sense. The Bison will be back on WDAY. It was our D2 home for 50 years. Hopefully its our D1 home for the next 50 years.

Heres my prediction...

Radio stays with 790/740
TV goes to WDAY statewide in HD. They produce a few road games. A few games on FSN North. Possibly the USD game on Midco . Craig Bohl show back on WDAY/WDAZ

[bincitysioux]

With today's announcement out of UND, I think we might be seeing the real reason for this survey/article: informal data collection. Follow along with me...

Several years ago, which university's media contract to go after was a no-brainer for ForumComm(FCC). They had a newspaper, radio station and TV station in Fargo and only a TV station in Grand Forks. Then several things began to change. The purchase of the GF Herald gave FCC a print stake in GF. Then came the initial contract fiasco. NDSU decided to split the media rights and FCC didn't even bother to submit separate bids. FCC ended up losing the TV rights to Hoak. Then came the president's house cluster-f. Remember that the $1 million that was supposed to pay for the whole thing came from Marcil Sr.(owner of FCC). Those two events pissed him the hell off and severely damaged the relationship between FCC and NDSU. The end result was FCC going after UND's radio contract instead of NDSU's. Now the split was complete.

But let's advance a few years. Chapman is gone. Marcil Sr. has handed over control of FCC to his son, Marcil Jr. I believe the guy at FCC that was in charge of the NDSU media contract was pretty old and has probably retired. Our SID and/or marketing director might also be different. But the big change just happened. Even though it was called the Fighting Sioux Sports Network, it was actually produced by FCC via WDAZ. All those games on FSSN and Fox College Sports? WDAZ people were behind it. You can be damn certain that FCC wasn't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts; they were making money on the deal. But buried in the UND/Midco announcement today was the fact that Midco is taking over all TV production. Goodbye FCC revenue stream.

Now FCC has to make a choice. Do they continue with the new status quo of producing only UND radio and backing it up with GFH print coverage? Or do they put on their big girl panties and go after the NDSU media contracts when they come up for bids? I think that's one of the reasons for the survey/poll in the Forum. They're looking for info on which contract could make them more money. There are pros and cons from every side. From FCC's perspective, there are advantages in going with NDSU and advantages in going with UND. From NDSU's perspective, there are advantages with FCC and advantages with Hoak/RadioFM. I think the next round of contract negotiations could get very interesting. I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see NDSU pairing up with FCC in the next contract.

NDSU getting Radio Fargo-Moorhead to dump North Dakota was major coup for them. I still get pissed about that every time I see the gap in Joel Heitkamp's teeth.

Just to clarify, WDAY radio is only an affiliate of North Dakota's broadcast network, they don't do any production.

I suppose there are some South Dakotans who watch UND hockey but I cannot name one acquaintance who is a fan or even a casual observer. I have never heard UND hockey brought up in a casual conversation.

Personally, I have no interest in UND hockey (or any hockey). I find it slightly bothersome (only 'slightly' because its just one channel) to go through the Midco channels and come across hockey played by a school which is just not on the radar screen for people in my area.

(In Watertown, SD) I have a choice for cable providers and at least annually I compare channel lineups and cost and make a decision on which company to use. UND hockey is not factored into the decision one bit.

I'm not intending to be argumentative, just that when you mentioned Watertown, it reminded me of 2008, when I went to Vermillion to the Sioux-Yote game. We spent the night before in Watertown, and when I walked into the hotel lobby, they had the Sioux hockey game on vs. Wisconsin on the TV. I thought that was kind of cool at the time.

And yes, there are lots of pros and cons in all of this, but there's no way I'd trade the Midcontinent deal for (local) KVLY-TV.

I also would not trade 45 cable telecasts for 6 state-wide network telecasts. Every home football and hockey game will be on TV this year. That's pretty good.

[THEsocalledfan]

I also would not trade 45 cable telecasts for 6 state-wide network telecasts. Every home football and hockey game will be on TV this year. That's pretty good.

Sadly, our Kelly Green bleeding posters are spot on in their assessment. What is the old politician line, which is what I think many Bison loving poster are doing, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig."

[4mcruenomore]

Ofcourse the hockey game was on in the hotel lobby, you guys were playing in town. Hotels cater to their guests, especially when there is a group in town. I talked to AG1 yesterday, trust me, no one cares about hockey....