Tuesday, August 12, 2008

IMG locks up Michigan media for $86M; Changes for Football TV show

IMG College has announced that it has officially secured a University of Michigan package of media rights for 12 years and an estimated 86 million dollars . A new deal was rumored to be in the works for some time, with details of a possible deal becoming steadier throughout last week. It is the first time Michigan has packaged its media rights like this and also represents the continuing trend of big market schools like Texas, Florida, and Nebraska hiring large agencies/businesses to handle marketing strategies or negotiate broadcast deals.

The deal includes giving IMG control over some corporate sponsorships, and it also leaves the company in charge of the coaches' radio and TV shows. With regards to Michigan, the most prominent of these shows is the former "Michigan Replay," which used to be filmed at Crisler Arena on Saturday night following the afternoon games. However, after being on the air for 30 years, Michigan Replay will no longer air on CBS Sunday mornings in favor of a new preview show that will be recorded on Thursday and shown on FSN the same night (with late night re-airs rumored to be shown on ABC-Ch.7 in Ann Arbor). The show, like Michigan Replay, will still be hosted by Jim Brandstatter.

(Note: Michigan Replay was usually aired around 11 AM Sunday mornings, so I'm not sure how much this will affect all our student fans out there... if at all)

The changes to the TV show were reportedly done by Head Coach Rich Rodriguez. Coach Rod did not like the idea of filming the show on Saturday night after games, saying that those evenings are to be dedicated to his family and/or new recruits. The idea of doing the show without first reviewing the game by himself didn't sit well with the new head coach and the show was scrapped.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This blog is like, really bad.

Matt Boyer said...

Sorry... August is slow because no teams are actually playing and I (unlike most UM blogs right now) don't feel the need to update you three times a week on what the team's recruits had for breakfast that morning. If that makes me a bad blogger, then so be it.