Mountain West Sports: Network Deal Finalized with DirecTV

JeremyJun 6, 2008

Here is the long awaited news of the specifics of the Mountain West Sports Network deal with DirecTV—it has been finalized and is to debut on August 27th. The deal with DirecTV is to make The Mtn. available to a nationwide audience. Previously The Mtn. was only available in select areas with Comcast, Cable One, and Cox, among others.

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“The Mtn. will be available on channel 616 on DIRECTV CHOICE and above packages for the states servicing Mountain West Conference institutions (Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and the designated market areas of Dallas/Fort Worth and San Diego). Customers throughout the remainder of the country will be able to access The Mtn. with a subscription to DIRECTV’s Sportspack.”
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A novel idea which is what should have been done awhile back, and something that was suggested by many people. While the deal definitely benefits the fans in the regions of the conference, the deal is not as widely available as thought when this was originally announced. They do get major cities as Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Denver, but it's unclear what parts of San Diego and Dallas will get the channel.

The problem lies with fans and families who live in other parts of California, Texas, and all of Hawai’i, where a lot of the recruiting takes place—they still will not have full access to the channel. If you live outside of the areas that carry the channel you will have to buy the sports package from DirecTv, which can range from $9.95 to $12.95, or have the DirecTv package that includes every channel.

The BYU fan base, which is the largest by far of the league because of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, will still have to pay for the sports package if they live outside of the the coverage area.

Still, this is a huge improvement from before and will get the league more recognition on the national level, but until the channel is available without a subscription package, more work still needs to be done.

Now the league needs to get a deal done with Dish Network, which should happen soon if this deal goes the same way as it did with the Big 10 Network last year, and to get more cable companies involved.

This looks to be going in baby steps, and it is good that progress is being made for the league.