Dukes Unveil TV Package

This comes after the Daily News-Record learned last month that JMU was working on finalizing its own traditional television deal following the Colonial Athletic Association’s failure to secure one.

The deal guarantees the Dukes will match a school record with seven regular-season games televised. Four of those will be shown on MASN or MASN2.

“I’m very happy with this package,” JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne said Tuesday. “It’s certainly good for our program and it’s great for our fans.”

Saturday’s home opener against East Tennessee State will be available on CSN Mid-Atlantic Plus at 6 p.m.

Home games against Norfolk State (MASN2) on Sept. 16, Maine (MASN) on Sept. 23, Villanova (MASN2) on Oct. 14 and Richmond (MASN2) on Nov. 11 are also slated to air.

Road games at Delaware (CSN Mid-Atlantic Plus) on Sept. 30 and at William & Mary (Cox Cable) on Oct. 21 will also be televised.

Cox will carry the game between William & Mary and JMU in the Hampton Roads area, but according to JMU’s release, the school is currently working with William & Mary and potential television outlets to air the game in the Shenandoah Valley.

Through Learfield Sports — JMU’s third-tier media-rights holder — the school worked with the leadership of its opponents and the networks to create the television package, Bourne said.

This wasn’t put in motion until league athletic directors learned the CAA would only have a digital contract through CBS Digital’s Game of the Week.

“We honestly weren’t sure until the later stages of July that some of the syndication options wouldn’t happen for the league,” Bourne said. “We already knew about NBC and the league not having the viability of being able to do something with Comcast. But there was another option the league had looked at that we were all hopeful would yield a pretty good package for us. But as discussions carried with that, we realized it wasn’t going to happen for this year.”

In addition to JMU, CAA members Delaware, Richmond and William & Mary have also announced their own television deals.

Delaware landed a deal for three of its games to air on television. Richmond will have five of its games air on television and William & Mary will have just the JMU game broadcast on television.

Delaware and Richmond will produce their own broadcasts for TV. Bourne said JMU would use MASN and CSN talent for their games.

CBS Digital will still stream JMU’s Oct. 14 home game against Villanova from Bridgeforth Stadium.

Bourne said CBS Digital only has exclusive digital rights, which is why MASN2 can televise it.

“You have the ability to carry a linear broadcast even though CBS has a digital package,” Bourne said. “That did help us significantly, but one of the things we did have to work through is sometimes when you’re negotiating a linear package, they will prefer that you not offer it digitally.

“You have to work through the nuances of that.”

Bourne said the toughest decision for him was financial.

JMU assistant athletic director for communications Kevin Warner said production cost per home game is $30,000, but that includes the production company and transmission fees.

“We hope to recoup some of that investment via commercial inventory,” Warner said. “The caveat to that is we are getting a late start on selling season-long sponsorship deals for TV, but we should be able to make some revenue.”

Through Learfield Sports, JMU can sell advertisements for the televised games.

“It is a significant cost for our program,” Bourne said. “And obviously we have to work with our budget and we have an authorized budget to live within for the year, so we have to make sure there are enough dollars allocated there to cover it.

“It’s a discussion that [JMU senior vice president] Charlie King and I have every time we talk about when there’s significant material to the athletic budget, but Charlie is very supportive of the television package to make sure we were in a position to do that.”

All of JMU’s home games aside from the Oct. 14 contest against Villanova will be available via MadiZone, as well.

According to the school’s release, MASN reaches 5.8 million households in the Mid-Atlantic region spanning from Harrisburg, Pa., to Charlotte, N.C. Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic airs in 3.4 million homes in a similar footprint. Both outlets are available nationwide on Dish Network and DirectTV.