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Home > How Teddy Greenstein Determines TV Revenue Numbers, and Why It Doesn’t Matter

How Teddy Greenstein Determines TV Revenue Numbers, and Why It Doesn’t Matter

April 20, 2010 by Matt Q. (DMQ)

On Saturday, Teddy Greenstein published this in the ChicagoBreakingSports.com website of the Chicago Tribune.

By joining the Big Ten, the Irish could increase their annual TV revenue from roughly $12 million to $22 million per year, get a national TV platform (the Big Ten Network) for its top-notch Olympic sports and decrease travel costs for its teams.

And pretty much ever since, various ND forums have gathered in discussion trying to figure out what source or math helped produce the numbers Teddy’s reporting as fact.

We went ahead and asked him and his publisher.

@TeddyGreenstein / @ChiTribSports what’s your src for the 12MM vs. 22MM ND television revenue numbers? (RT this until he answers).

We don’t expect a response.

To be clear, we’re not accusing him of lying. We just don’t know where he’s getting the numbers, and we find the rather common journalistic habit of stating such facts without citation to be extremely annoying and tired. We as a populace are far too eager to accept facts of any sort so long as they’re in print, and in particular from a “trustworthy” news source. So We’re simply asking him and his publisher for a source. We can’t imagine that such numbers are of such sensitivity that the source need be protected. Heck, Teddy doesn’t even bother with a quotation from a “source who wished to not be named.” He just states the numbers as if they’re available in public records. But they’re not. At least, the dollar amount ND currently makes isn’t publicly available and probably never will be.

So I’m sorry for misleading you with the title of the post. Fact is, I’ve no idea where Teddy gets his numbers. I welcome anyone who might want to take a gander at how he formulated 12 million to leave their guess in the comments, but I really don’t think a rational explanation will be delivered. And it doesn’t matter. Made up or not, they’re probably not presented to serve ND’s interests at all. Multiple people have expressed that it’s absurd to think that such numbers would be made up because it makes no sense to write something to justify Notre Dame making a move that would improve ND’s financial situation if that writer really had it out for Notre Dame. True, and I don’t think Teddy really has it out for Notre Dame. I tend to think Greenstein is too lazy to have it out for anyone or anything. Such behavior requires passion, and I think of Greenstein as more of a soulless automaton driven by corporate will than a human with an internal locus of self-control. But I do think that the “Notre Dame has Reason to Join A Conference” angle is a valuable one in the bland, uninspired arsenal of the typically mediocre journalist, and by establishing that ND could gain financially from joining the Big Ten, Greenstein establishes a motive for ND taking such action, and thus guarantees himself easy storylines into perpetuity. If ND still hasn’t joined a conference by 2020, Teddy can continue to write about how they just might sometime soon.

So are the numbers made up? No idea. But Greenstein has managed to feed the media machine by being the first journalist of the Spring to put those numbers out there. And we’ve noticed that fellow corporate automatons have since quoted him (or hell, just lifted the numbers and didn’t even bother to attribute them to Teddy. He must be pissed.)

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Matt Q. (DMQ)
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Comments

  1. SDI

    April 20, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    Does anyone know where the Big Ten Network is available? Just a guess, but I would think that ND fans and alums on the West Coast might be bummed if they had to subscribe to some extended satellite tv service just to watch ND home games. I think it might be a stretch to call it a “national TV platform”.

    • EJ

      May 10, 2010 at 6:06 pm

      Aside from the extra $7-$9 million a year in tv revenue, ND will also get more money in grants (ND isn’t even an Association of American University) just for being in the Big Ten

  2. The Biscuit

    April 20, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    not 100% sure, but it’s definitely not available out here in LA. national my ass.

  3. The Biscuit

    April 20, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    By the way, ND’s take isn’t likely fixed either. Nor is the Big Ten’s. ND’s changes based on NBC’s ratings and ad sales rate. If NBC gets re-transmission fees as Fox and ABC are getting, ND stands to make more from the NBC relationship. Similarly, the Big Ten Net’s ability to pay its member schools is based on its ability to get into homes – the footprint – so citing a single number is pretty much BS anyway – cuz they likely change

  4. Pat

    April 20, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    There’s some accurate estimates on the value of the football contact with NBC, no? And then factor in Big East basketball. $12 mil doesn’t sound absurd. Not sure how he extrapolates the $22 mil though.

    If Notre Dame joined the Big Ten, the Big Ten Network would jump in value overnight and probably get a lot wider distribution.

  5. Craig

    April 20, 2010 at 9:10 pm

    Pat, there have been numbers closer to $15 MM thrown around for the NBC contract. The basketball money from the Big East is purported to be $2 MM/yr.

  6. Pat

    April 21, 2010 at 7:34 am

    Does the opponent get any share of revenue? Also, what about games on ABC, ESPN or elsewhere?

  7. The Biscuit

    April 21, 2010 at 11:29 am

    Precisely. We don’t know what the terms of the deals are. And how do you know the estimates are accurate? Without actually knowing how the deal’s structured, I dont know how folks can even guesstimate. For instance, it was reported in ’91 that the deal was 5 years at 38M. That’s a little over $7M per year. Do we really think that the numbers haven’t increased much in 20 years? Granted, we havent had the greatest product, but everything in sports has ballooned in that time period. It’s not unreasonable that ND might get a lot more than 12-15M. Again, no way to know.

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