DRC: UNT announces deal with Learfield (updated with info on impact on BTG, radio talent)

emmitt01 · April 7, 2017

5 hours ago, MeanGreen_MBA said:

When is WB going to do something?????

Nothing has changed sincd RV left. Nothing at all.

Move along folks, nothing to see here.

BTG_Fan1 · April 7, 2017

44 minutes ago, dmaxel said:

As far as I was aware (pretty recently), NTtv was still a thing. If for whatever reason it did shut down, that must've been VERY recent.

http://www.northtexastelevision.com/

It was just never an "over the air" station. Cable-only.

NTTV is still on, and my only thought on why they don't have it on NTTV is likely to encourage students to go to the game instead of staying home...

But I would like to see them have it on the Local city govt channels (City of Denton, along with other cities as well)

Also, its interesting the 500k we will make from it off-sets the cost of GM Buyout.

BTG_Fan1 · April 7, 2017

1 hour ago, UNTFan23 said:

I believe First Tier rights belong to ESPN and CBS, Second Tier rights I think belong to BEIN Sports and perhaps College Insiders, who would fill in for the now defunct American Sports Network (and possibly ESPN3?).

I know the College Insiders was a solid broadcast, but how was the BEIN broadcast?

UNTFan23 · April 7, 2017

1 minute ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

I know the College Insiders was a solid broadcast, but how was the BEIN broadcast?

BEIN Sports is also solid. They did a good job with CUSA hoops.

UNTLifer · April 7, 2017

58 minutes ago, emmitt01 said:

Nothing has changed sincd RV left. Nothing at all.

Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Just collectin' dust and a paycheck.

TheWestie · April 8, 2017

KNTU is not a public radio station.

I was only ever able to get NTTV while I lived on campus. I could never get it from any cable company when I lived in the rest of Denton.

As for if they showed games, I dunno, I was always at the games and never home to see.

El Paso Eagle · April 8, 2017

10 hours ago, UNTFan23 said:

BEIN Sports is also solid. They did a good job with CUSA hoops.

Understatement - They actually treated UNT/CUSA with respect and didn't act like they had to be there.

MeanGreenTeeth · April 9, 2017

Does this outsourcing mean that the AD staff will be thinned out any? I don't like anyone to lose their job, but Lord, look at the Athletics site and see how bloated the AD staff has gotten. Between the coaches salary increases and the staffing increases, where is all the money coming from?

Edited April 9, 2017 by MeanGreenTeeth

BTG_Fan1 · April 9, 2017

13 hours ago, MeanGreenTeeth said:

Does this outsourcing mean that the AD staff will be thinned out any? I don't like anyone to lose their job, but Lord, look at the Athletics site and see how bloated the AD staff has gotten. Between the coaches salary increases and the staffing increases, where is all the money coming from?

I would think that WB isn't likely to fire anyone during his 1st year here, even as the sports year slows down. No idea if people are on contract here or if they are renewed annually, or if people are just in hourly spots, but I would think some people will be slowly phased out and others reshuffled.

Something that other schools are doing to cut some costs are getting different students involved.

Southern Miss has it set up that students actually do the ticket office work with them being overseen by a manager, with the students getting paid via Work Study, fulfills a class they are taken, and real-world experience. I've brought it up and would like to see WB and the staff, and the school use the students here.

Marketing students to design and develop marketing promos, graphic design students for the recruit cards and game highlights, the post game/ weekly interviews should have more student that are interested in sports journalism, student reports could do more 1 on 1 interviews with coaches as well, etc... that would promote students being involved and connected with UNT/UNT Sports and given students real world experience to add to their portfolios/ resumes as well.

UNTFan23 · April 9, 2017

1 hour ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

I would think that WB isn't likely to fire anyone during his 1st year here, even as the sports year slows down. No idea if people are on contract here or if they are renewed annually, or if people are just in hourly spots, but I would think some people will be slowly phased out and others reshuffled.

Something that other schools are doing to cut some costs are getting different students involved.

Southern Miss has it set up that students actually do the ticket office work with them being overseen by a manager, with the students getting paid via Work Study, fulfills a class they are taken, and real-world experience. I've brought it up and would like to see WB and the staff, and the school use the students here.

Marketing students to design and develop marketing promos, graphic design students for the recruit cards and game highlights, the post game/ weekly interviews should have more student that are interested in sports journalism, student reports could do more 1 on 1 interviews with coaches as well, etc... that would promote students being involved and connected with UNT/UNT Sports and given students real world experience to add to their portfolios/ resumes as well.

Many times when you cut costs you also cut quality. It's a difficult balance you have to maintain.

FirefightnRick · April 9, 2017

Good news. Almost fantastic news.

Rick

meangreen16 · April 10, 2017

On 4/7/2017 at 9:13 PM, TheWestie said:

KNTU is not a public radio station.

I was only ever able to get NTTV while I lived on campus. I could never get it from any cable company when I lived in the rest of Denton.

As for if they showed games, I dunno, I was always at the games and never home to see.

KNTU is a public radio station. They get funding from UNT to basically keep the lights on. The rest of the money to operate the station comes from listeners giving money, and a pretty limited amount of underwriting.

At last check, NTTV was on Verizon and Charter -- but only in Denton County. They have started to do a lot more shows centered around UNT sports. When I was there, they could only broadcast the games that weren't already being televised. They aired the Portland State game. I helped on Mac's final Spring Game broadcast on NTTV.

TheWestie · April 10, 2017

13 hours ago, meangreen16 said:

KNTU is a public radio station. They get funding from UNT to basically keep the lights on. The rest of the money to operate the station comes from listeners giving money, and a pretty limited amount of underwriting.

At last check, NTTV was on Verizon and Charter -- but only in Denton County. They have started to do a lot more shows centered around UNT sports. When I was there, they could only broadcast the games that weren't already being televised. They aired the Portland State game. I helped on Mac's final Spring Game broadcast on NTTV.

KNTU is not a public radio station as in they are not an NPR affiliated station and doesn't get funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

VideoEagle · April 10, 2017

8 minutes ago, TheWestie said:

KNTU is not a public radio station as in they are not an NPR affiliated station and doesn't get funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

There are a lot of non-NPR public stations. Most either create much of their own programming or carry from alternate sources like American Public Media. A few years back, KERA Fm was pushing some of the less popular public syndicated programs toward KNTU as KERA didn't have the air time but also didn't want another full NPR affiliate in the area.

There is also a whole category of non commercial radio stations that "serve the public interest " but aren't affiliated with NPR. For example, KCBI.

Cr1028 · April 16, 2017

I saw this and it causes me concern. Sounds like laziness in the athletic department.

Edited April 16, 2017 by Cr1028

xyresic · April 16, 2017

This is why trusting message boards and twitter can be misleading. People often have good info, but might not quite have the full picture.

Deals such as this one typically have a revenue sharing agreement once thresholds are hit. Ours is no different, it should include this revenue sharing.

I think the university admin and Wren did fine with this. It was in the works after RV and before Wren to help fill the gap in our ad sales. Wren took it on once it arrived. The real problem is that the existing folks doing corporate sales have been under performing. If they had been hitting it out of the park the deal wouldn't pencil at 500k annually. With the new agreement we will likely come out ahead by 200k annually in the first few years of this deal. With a school of our size in our market sales should have been much higher in my opinion.

I think over time our sales folks have built community ties, but fostered a culture of low payment for sponsorship that became standard in the community. Time to change that line of thinking and I hope this is a first step.

MCMLXXX · April 17, 2017

I assume that our deal with Apogee is independant of this deal. Does anyone know how much we are getting on the naming rights 6 years into that agreement?

Edited April 17, 2017 by MCMLXXX

UNTFan23 · April 17, 2017

22 minutes ago, MCMLXXX said:

I assume that our deal with Apogee is independant of this deal. Does anyone know how much we are getting on the naming rights 6 years into that agreement?

I believe the naming rights for the stadium was either $20 or 30 million over a 30 year time period. It is completely separate from the multimedia deal made with Leadfield.

MCMLXXX · April 17, 2017

21 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

I believe the naming rights for the stadium was either $20 or 30 million over a 30 year time period. It is completely separate from the multimedia deal made with Leadfield.

It was $20 million, but some of it was in kind. Most was payable at back end. I thought this year it was around $300,000 or so.

UNTFan23 · April 17, 2017

Just now, MCMLXXX said:

It was $20 million, but some of it was in kind. Most was payable at back end. I thought this year it was around $300,000 or so.

Thanks, I couldn't recall the exact amount. I knew some of it was "in kind" due to the fact we were already using them for resident hall internet service/management.

Cerebus · April 17, 2017

32 minutes ago, MCMLXXX said:

It was $20 million, but some of it was in kind.

Most of it is in kind. They are a ResNet provider, and provide that service to the campus. They granted us use of their service in exchange for the naming rights.

TreeFiddy · April 17, 2017

Sounds to me like underperformance in the athletic department is what brought this deal on in the first place.

I assume this means that at least some of the staff that was responsible for sales/advertising can be reassigned. This gives us a guaranteed floor from which to work and allows the staff to focus on other things like upgrading facilities, cultivating donors, selling tickets. etc...

Cr1028 · April 20, 2017

On 4/17/2017 at 9:34 AM, TreeFiddy said:

This gives us a guaranteed floor from which to work and allows the staff to focus on other things like upgrading facilities, cultivating donors, selling tickets. etc...

And a guaranteed ceiling....

TreeFiddy · April 20, 2017

1 hour ago, Cr1028 said:

And a guaranteed ceiling....

Isn't there typically a revenue share above a certain amount? Either way, our athletic department has shown for years that this is not a strength for us. If this number represents an increase over what we were earning by doing it ourselves, and it leaves room for someone who is good at it to earn a profit, then it sounds like the proverbial win-win.

Cr1028 · April 20, 2017

21 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

Isn't there typically a revenue share above a certain amount? Either way, our athletic department has shown for years that this is not a strength for us. If this number represents an increase over what we were earning by doing it ourselves, and it leaves room for someone who is good at it to earn a profit, then it sounds like the proverbial win-win.

See LaTechReport.com twitter posts above.