Raycom's role in ACC TV deal

[cusenole9]

I'm lazy so I'm just copying and pasting a post from the FSU board, but I found this interesting. There is a large camp out there that says, what exactly did Swofford do that was so bad? This might answer that question. First let's look at the acc's product in terms of TV viewers:
Football:
SEC: 4,447,000 viewers
B1G: 3,267,000
ACC: 2,650,000
Big 12: 2,347,000
PAC 12: 2,108,000
Big East: 1,884,000
Basketball:
B1G: 1,496,000 viewers
ACC: 1,247,000
SEC: 1,222,000
Big 12: 1,069,000
Big East: 1,049,000
PAC 10: 783,000

Not bad at all. Obviously, other things go into these TV deals, but still, I think this shows that the ACC TV deal should be at least comparable to those of the other major conferences.

So where did the TV negotiations go wrong? It wasn't this recent round. It was the one before...
Copied from FSU board:
In 2010 as I recall the ACC contract was first negotiated in more or less it's current form, Swofford insisted that ESPN partner with Raycom. While other conferences put the Tier 2 rights up for bids the ACC bundled and gave away the store. Without this no bid award, Raycom goes under. Shortly thereafter Swofford's son gets promoted to Marketing Director at Raycom. Nothing technically illegal seems to have happened here but certainly there is a stench of corruption about all this.

So where does Chad Swofford work?

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ch...fford/a/578/8b4
ESPN executive in link below explains how they got the ACC deal: by appeasing Swofford and bringing in Tier three broadcaster Raycom, a company with an outmoded business model and in general a company widely considered to be an inferior quality broadcaster of sports events....that was on-the-brink-of-financial-extinction!

Here's one insider interview of how this happened. In his own words ESPN's negotiator John Skipper asks Swofford what it will take for ESPN to get the deal. Swofford says unequivocally "bring in Raycom". So ESPN gets a cut rate deal and the ACC football schools are dealt a killshot. All in order to save Swofford's son's job...? Read...decide...discuss.
Business Report

Again just thought this was interesting...apologize in advance if you disagree and I wasted your time.

 

[OrangeMojo]

one thing that can't be argued with in that post - Raycom is absolutely horrible. Even today watching one of their broadcasts is like watching something on regional cable circa 1993. I was always amazed that such a seemingly powerful conference had such low-budget looking broadcasts.

If any of his is true - then obviously Swofford should lose his job. Maybe he can catch on at Raycom doing something :noidea:

 

[OrangeMojo]

according to Swofford's LinkedIn bio he's been a director of new biz development at Raycom since 2007. another funny coincidence here is that his first real job out of college in 2004 was as assistant director of sports marketing at.....Boston College

 

[ImperialOrange]

So based on those numbers the Big 12 and Pac 10/12 have the same numbers of veiwers as the Big East for Football+basketball and the B1G has the highest basketball viewership. Not sure those numbers make too much sense.

 

[NKR1978]

I'm lazy so I'm just copying and pasting a post from the FSU board, but I found this interesting. There is a large camp out there that says, what exactly did Swofford do that was so bad? This might answer that question. First let's look at the acc's product in terms of TV viewers:

The Raycom deal is awful, but I doubt it had much to do with his son. With his connections, John Swofford could get his kid a well paying job somewhere.

Thanks for posting though. Reading complaints here about FSU has to be frustrating. Then you get to go to FSU boards and read how much Syracuse sucks and should never have been invited (or similar complaints). You have a far different perspective on this whole mess that I enjoy reading.

 

[cusenole9]

The Raycom deal is awful, but I doubt it had much to do with his son. With his connections, John Swofford could get his kid a well paying job somewhere.

Thanks for posting though. Reading complaints here about FSU has to be frustrating. Then you get to go to FSU boards and read how much Syracuse sucks and should never have been invited (or similar complaints). You have a far different perspective on this whole mess that I enjoy reading.

Thanks for the kind words, certainly an interesting position to be in as a fan. Yeah I'm not sure how much I buy all this either. The main reason for my skepticism is the fact that John Swafford still has a job. Surely someone would have seen what was going on a couple years ago and gotten pissed. But still, why givet a no-bid for tier 2 rights in order get Raycom in on Tier 3? That's just crazy!