Mtn. woes? Try contacting Comcast direct

The Mountain West Conference will kick off the 2007 season with more planned TV games than any time in history. Even the old WAC didn't have this many TV games.

It is also a fact that these games will be limited in scope to who actually sees them.

And that's the bamboo shoot under the fingernails of league fans.

Over the summer, as the MWC has asked its fans to mount an assault on DirectTV and DishNetwork, there have been reams of outstanding fan e-mail darting back and forth over cyberspace.

In salute to devoted and committed MWC fans from around the country, in this first of the season prediction columns, here is one of the most recent commentaries, and likely the best I've seen, from a communications expert, who wants his identity withheld:

"I am disappointed that the media has let The Mountain and Comcast off so easy. Comcast has been able to play the Mountain West schools, the public and the media to perfection.

"I have been a senior executive in the communications industry; let me outline their marketing plan:

"First, cable subscribership is low in Utah compared to other markets. The conventional wisdom is that many of the conservative Utah public do not want to have the cable 'influence' in their homes.

"The answer to increasing subscribers was to enter into an exclusive agreement to broadcast BYU and U. of U. sports. Since there are many sports fans who watch those schools' sports (especially football), Comcast would be able to (and they did) increase their cable market penetration. BYU also made a huge mistake not keeping the rights to show rebroadcasts over KBYU.

"Since Direct TV has a monopoly on the NFL ticket and won't give Comcast a reasonable fee for those broadcasting rights, Comcast, in a small way, would be able to stick it to Direct TV with The Mountain network.

"Comcast aggressively marketed to the Utah market that their system would be the only one to offer BYU and the U of U sports. In fact, they were marketing that way up to a little over a month ago. After the fan outcry, they changed their marketing approach to having the fans call Direct and Dish TV directly. By calling the satellite customer care centers, it deflected attention to Comcast and was another advantage to Comcast because of the additional cost incurred by the satellite TV centers to take the calls.

"To generate additional income, Comcast required subscribers to take the upgraded cable package to get The Mountain. Additionally, Comcast is broadcasting some of the games on CSTV, which requires yet another upgrade (at least in Utah County) and additional cost.