Ole Miss Gives The Longhorn Network Appeal, But More Is Needed

Dec 3, 2011; Waco, TX, USA; A Texas Longhorns helmet on the field before the game against the Baylor Bears at Floyd Casey Stadium. The Bears defeated the Longhorns 48-24. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The Longhorn Network finally has a marquee match-up worthy of viewers’ attention. But is it enough to build much needed demand? The motivation behind adding the Sept. 14 Texas Longhorns – Ole Miss Rebels game to the LHN docket is a tried-and-true formula for the television business.

Hot musical acts such as Billy Idol, Pat Benatar and Darryl Hall & John Oates repeated four simple words that became woven into the fabric of 1980s America: I Want My MTV.

The mantra laid the groundwork for how other outlets on the burgeoning medium known as cable television marketed to potential viewers. Call your local provider! It was grassroots before grassroots was all buzzword-y.

TV consumption in general has changed in these past three decades. There are literally hundreds of channels now available, the content of which is available at almost anytime.

Yet at its core, the basic principle of “I Want My MTV” still exists: have a product consumers want, let them know what they’re missing, and they will handle the rest. Negotiations through the masses. It’s genius, really. It’s also the apparent tactic ESPN is now employing to recoup the investment it made on the Longhorn Network.

Ole Miss and Texas is a game with national appeal. Both are likely to be ranked in the top 25 for their Week 3 date. A Big 12-SEC clash this early in the season is sure to command attention, and for that one week have football fans chant, “I Want My LHN.”

ESPN knows how to build an audience. Its growth coincided with the expansion of MTV into millions of homes. In a little over three decades, ESPN matured from a fledgling cable network to a globally-recognized entity. However in partnering with a single university’s athletic department, ESPN made a gamble.

The first two years of that gamble were reminiscent of other attempts ESPN has made to expand its empire, like Zone or Mobile. And yes, the Longhorn Network still faces significant challenges. One game of widespread appeal does not negate the 364 days a year the channel must fill from a limited pool, nor does it change the network’s truly niche nature. Football is the network’s lone draw, that special something LHN can offer that viewers will demand.

A considerable portion of Texas’ schedule is tabbed for LHN. Along with Ole Miss are games against New Mexico State and Kansas, accounting for a full 25 percent of the Longhorns’ slate. Still, NMSU and KU enter 2013 with combined 2-22 records — hardly the enticing offerings that will put fans without a vested interest in UT on the phone with their providers.
Sept 15, 2012; Oxford, MS, USA; Texas Longhorns quarterback David Ash (14) calls an audible at the line during the game against the Mississippi Rebels. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports
Ole Miss is the biggie. That’s the tangible offering ESPN can point to making LHN worthwhile for distributors.

ESPN is embarking on another college sports endeavor in 2014 when it launches the SEC Network. A conference network model is a safer bet than a single institution, as the prior success of the Big Ten Network proves. As proprietor of the SEC Network, the conference’s members and ESPN have a closer relationship than any athletic department and network, save Notre Dame and NBC. Texas is in that conversation as well, connected to…ESPN.

Texas and the SEC sharing a unique partnership with ESPN lends itself to speculation. How much can the network play intermediary in establishing a working relationship between the two sides? Texas’ non-conference slate for the 2014 and 2015 seasons is tentatively set, and is devoid of SEC opponents. But the operative word is tentative.

An new kind of home-and-home is not inconceivable (though not necessarily realistic, either): Texas travels to an SEC opponent in 2014, the SEC Network’s inaugural season. The game is a marquee offering viewers will demand in the channel’s early days. In 2015, that same SEC team travels to Austin and plays on LHN as Ole Miss is this September. Flip the order, change the opponent, and start the process anew.

Going outside of the Big 12 and exercising its other partnerships is ESPN’s most feasible path to generate LHN demand. UT’s conference mates are not on board. Texas Tech reportedly threatened to cancel a game before playing a third party game on LHN, and understandably so. TTU hosting a non-conference opponent under the LHN banner diminishes Tech’s brand, both to fans and recruits.

With the Big 12 largely staying off of LHN and the schematics of a non-conference partnership presenting challenges, the channel’s future might require a makeover to be salvageable. Even MTV, years after hooking in an audience with its revolutionary campaign, changed format to expand its appeal.