Obviously, there’s an intention to showcase Peacock with some of the big rivalry games being on there. Peacock (no the) has done the same thing in the EPL.
To me, I think the quality of the product will really shape how well it works. If you have Hummel and Tirico doing a game and it is a quality broadcast, people will come back to it because it will be an enjoyable experience.
I don’t think that people are just going to forget that Big Ten basketball exists because a game is on a streaming channel, though.
This past years game seemed like a good crowd given it was a Sunday afternoon game with two middling teams. Although, I believe the students were on spring break?
I just have a feeling noon on a Monday, holiday or not, won’t have the best of crowds for one of the games people circle on the calendar every year. Other factors may change that between now and then though.
Ah, well it is a national TV slot on the schedule and has been for a while – at least since FOX has been involved I think. There was a great Purdue/Illinois game two years ago on MLK Day, I think the Purdue/MSU game last year was on MLK as well.
My biggest issue with the scheduled Peacock games is how often I like to watch games on delay and only catch up toward the end (it also keeps me away from the live threads on this site which break my brain). I have to imagine there is a decent amount of viewers who watch on delay, though certainly not a majority.
Regardless, Peacock’s fast-forward functionality was awful during week 1 of college football. That obviously isn’t as much of a thing with EPL, as I don’t imagine many want to fast forward during the streaming of that sport… but they need to get that sorted for the sports that have this many commercial breaks. Otherwise, I accept that this is the future and we’re just in the transition phase right now.
This is a fair point and a use case I rarely use (usually rewatch games on Synergy if I’m watching them), so I will admit to not knowing how Peacock performs there.
I think they, as a company, are taking a pretty big hit on their Ryder Cup coverage across platforms (it was all NBC produced). So hopefully they are thinking across-the-board improvements.
People who aren’t primarily B10 basketball fans will… Will a Kansas or Kentucky fan watch a single one of these Peacock games? Hell, what about a casual Michigan hoops fan who is primarily a football fan? It seems pretty clear that it will destroy the national reach of the B10.
It’s not that many games being moved to Peacock. Your prognosis makes it seem like all the B10 games are moved… it’s less than 20%, and it’s not like 100% of games were broadcast in most prior years. Sucks that a few of the BIG games are shifted that way, but the schools must have ALL of the money (and share none of it with the players). Must!
Doesn’t need to reduce viewership 100% to sizeably damage the B10 brand. Absolutely insane that UM-MSU and IU-PU (the biggest rivalries in the B10 and consistently some of the highest rated games of the season) are on a 5th tier streaming app. Probably under 500k people will watch those games.
