New broadcast facility key to Y.'s TV dreams

PROVO — It sits on a hill, its tall glass facade gleaming in the sunlight, a modern tower housing a state-of-the-art TV studio that rivals anything in the industry.

This 100,000-square-foot building, filled with enough soundproof walls to build another complete building, has a giant belly filled with complicated cables, wires, high-definition production wares and state-of-the art technology that feeds a modern TV studio.

Next to it is a sports studio. All of this can split off four BYU-TV broadcasts simultaneously and is rigged for digital media operations and Internet streaming. This tower of glass and mortar is hard-wired with video and audio HD capability direct to LaVell Edwards Stadium and the Marriott Center, reducing the need for one of those giant TV trucks.

And a truck? BYU owns the best HD production truck in the West.

This network, with its capabilities and instant access to DirecTV and Dish Network's basic platform and 200 cable companies in North America, is at the center of the national story that caught the attention of the college football world this past week.

Yet, few still have caught on.

And this isn't really a new story. It is a chapter in an ongoing saga.

Since the inception of the Mountain West Conference deal with Comcast and creation of the league's network, The mtn., in partnership with Versus and CBS C, BYU's administration has spoken frequently and loudly on how restrictive aspects of the deal were unacceptable.

Part of the complaint is freedom to retain some broadcast rights, while another part is replaying games on BYU's own systems. But nobody listened, until this week.

There is a huge difference between reaching 4 million households as opposed to an estimated 50 million in North America and another 60 million to 70 million in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of South America and parts of Polynesia. That is what BYU's facilities can provide the school and its owner, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who'd love to couch sports with other programming.

Exposure.

This week, we saw the hammer hit the nail as folks outside BYU's campus — entities like the MWC, the nation's media, the WAC and others — learned that BYU's administration has been exploring options, finding out who its allies are and working to see how it may ply its technology and facilities. Going independent in football was one of many options.

Now, BYU's future remains uncertain as it moves closer to Sept. 1 deadline for the university to decide if it will remain in the MWC or leave. BYU might just continue to study this for another year. It has already done so for nearly four seasons with complaints ignored.