Pitt athletic director touts ACC Network, its potential revenue

There was no clock dangling over Heather Lyke’s head Wednesday, counting down the time until the ACC Network’s formal launch, because there was no need for one. At this point, she’s well aware of it.

78 days.

It’s a date that is rapidly approaching, one almost certain to arrive in what feels like a flash. For that reason and many, many others, Lyke, the Pitt athletic director, and others in the conference are doing everything they can to prepare for its impending debut, an event that’s hotly anticipated for the league, but not without some questions.

Lyke spent part of her morning Wednesday making radio appearances and meeting with reporters, her message tinged with what amounted to a call to arms — if your cable company doesn’t offer the ACC Network, don’t just call them to ask for it, but demand it (a plea also stated on the network’s website).

With the ESPN-partnered network set to launch Aug. 22, there’s an urgency to how conference and school officials work in advance of that looming date, especially with a degree of uncertainty still attached to it.

In the Pittsburgh area, Xfinity (formerly Comcast) and Dish Network don’t have the ACC Network as part of their lineups, although others like DirecTV, Verizon Fios and Google Fiber do.

It’s something Lyke and other administrators hope can be changed with enough of a push from fans and customers.

“ESPN, they’re doing a terrific job, but it will be very intense between now and Aug. 22 to see which cable companies pick it up,” Lyke said.

“We feel like we’re in a really good position.”

The ACC’s predicament isn’t unusual. Lyke said the Big Ten Network — the standard-bearer of conference-centric channels that has helped make the Big Ten, by far, the most profitable league in college athletics — wasn’t picked up by Comcast until 18 months after its launch in 2007 (the two sides also settled a carriage dispute in September).

The fact those questions exist makes it difficult to predict accurately how valuable the network might be to the conference and its members in the coming years.

“Right now, it’s dependent on distribution,” Lyke said. “Certain cable companies will drive that number significantly. It’s just a matter of who signs on and at what point.”

If all goes as planned, the network will help close — and, in other cases, eliminate — the financial gap between the ACC and the other major athletic conferences.

According to tax returns from the 2017-18 fiscal year, the ACC paid its schools an average of $29.5 million, tied with the Pac-12 for last among the Power Five, with the Big 12 at $34.7 million, the SEC at $43.7 million and the Big Ten at $54 million.

Two of the three leagues ahead of it have networks — the Big Ten and SEC Networks will turn 12 and 5 years old, respectively, in August — so the ACC is catching

getting up to speed.

“We’re behind, frankly, at the ACC up until this point,” Lyke said. “Obviously, we’re going to catch up pretty quickly with a successful launch.

“All of [ESPN’s] data and information shows that there’s a huge demand for live sporting events still on the live, tUrruagduaiytional, linear networks.”

The revenue-related reasons that give birth to such networks also come, for conference members, with a certain level of exposure they might not otherwise receive.

This upcoming season, the network will broadcast 40 football games and 150 men’s and women’s basketball games, according to Lyke, along with 78 events that will be produced from Pitt Studios, a $12 million project the university unveiled in October.