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[QUOTE="kyleslamb, post: 15332, member: 895"]
RE: television markets

Guys, you've gotta think of it like this: it's not just about viewership and whether Rutgers brings a ton of viewers to television events. The FCC has structured markets, as does Nielsen, and these markets are basically negotiated as a whole because the OTA stations in those markets are responsible for covering the news of all schools within that market. So Rutgers, being in the New York City market, is negotiated as having an in-market team if they join the Big Ten because that's the market it belongs to. So even though they may not give the Big Ten as much leverage as other draws, the cable operators are still forced to negotiate them on basic or expanded basic tiers because they are part of the New York City market. Basically it means that when Rutgers is on ABC or ESPN, it's going to be given coverage in New York City as if it were part of the city, since the OTA stations are responsible for the Eastern portion of New Jersey (the Southern portion of the state is part of the Philadelphia market).

As I said... there are nearly 2 million households in New Jersey's half of the market, so cable operators can't ignore those people regardless of whether the folks in New York City give a lick about Rutgers football. They have to look at the big picture. Even though Rutgers may do terribly in the city, they can't differentiate the city from the New Jersey half, because of how the markets are defined by the FCC.
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