It will cost you about $40 to watch the telecast of Mizzou's football game Saturday night against McNeese State, and the same price for their meeting next week against San Diego State, as the contests are being shown only on a pay-per-view basis.
The steep fee for the telecasts that are produced and distributed by Fox Sports Midwest has caused some grousing, but FSM general manager Jack Donovan said he didn't think sales would go up significantly if the price was lower. MU had two games on pay-TV last year, with an average of about 6,500 purchases. That translates into about $260,000 in revenue per telecast, before expenses that include production costs and the fee to the cable/satelllite companies. After that there is the cut for FSM and the schools.
"Nobody's making a lot of money with these pay-per-view games,'' Donovan said, adding that the productions are done primarily as a service to the school and viewers.
The pay-per-view contests weren't picked up by any of the networks that televise Big 12 games, so the only way they can be shown is on PPV because the conference's TV contracts prohibit its members from placing games on stations that compete with the league's TV partners. That negates the possibility of KPLR (Channel 11) airing some MU games, as it used to do.
Donovan said there hasn't been a price increase since FSM started doing pay-per-view in 2002 and that if sales continue at about the same rate as last year, MU pay-per-view will continue to be utilized but that if sales lag the option could be discontinued.
Dan McLaughlin does the play by play for both pay-TV games. D'Marco Farr is the analyst this week, Richard Baldinger next week.
The list of where Saturday's production will be available:
• Charter cable, Channels 835 and 836
• AT&T U-verse, Channel 104.
• Fidelity, Channel 605.
• Mediacom, Channel 181.
• DirecTV, Channels 787 and 787-1.
• Dish Network, Channel 456.
Meanwhile, MU drew its highest rating ever for a game televised by FSM last weekend when the game against Illinois was seen in 8.9 percent of area homes with a TV according to The Nielsen Co. That beat the 8.8 rating for the Tigers' game against Oklahoma in 2007.
- Dan Caesar
