The ACC Digital Network surges in popularity. Is it a future revenue generator?

There have been a couple of things I’ve kept an eye on all year that are under the radar but bode well for the ACC’s future. One is football recruiting, where the ACC by most any measure is 2nd to the SEC in football this year. More than half the conference including Louisville is the top 40 in recruiting, with 6 teams in the top 25. The other thing that is quietly going very well for the ACC is the ACC Digital Network.

Twice this year I’ve given progress of the ACCDN. Back in March  I wrote how the ACCDN was leading the way in online content for college athletics.  At the time this how the ACCDN compared to the other power 5 conference digital networks.

ACC Digital Network – 4,238,061 views 5,024 Subscribers

Big 10 Network – 3,645,477 views 2,763 Subscribers

SEC Digital Network – 3,320,081 views 4,549 Subscribers

Big 12 Digital Network – 714,060 views 836 Subscribers

Pac 12 Network – 496,870 views 1,673 Subscribers

Then in June there we looked at again how the ACCDN was doing. There had been a good solid increase in video views, but nothing earth shattering. The ACCDN continued to be the most popular power 5 conference digital network.

ACC Digital Network – 5,012,301 views

SEC Digital Network – 4,324,381 views

Big 10 Network – 4,167,846 views

Big 12 Digital Network – 787,349 views

Pac 12 Network – 511,747 views

After the first week of the football, I decided to again check on the ACCDN. How was it doing? Maybe the other digital networks had surpassed or closed the gap with ACC Digital Network. Not only was this not the case, but the ACCDN has for a lack of a better term “exploded” in popularity to open the season. Don’t believe me here are the numbers right here for you.

ACC Digital Network – 10,262,718 views 9,652 Subscribers

SEC Digital Network – 5,376,238 views 8,089 Subscribers

Big 10 Network – 4,743,280 views ? Subscribers ( Not shown on YouTube Channel Page)

Big 12 Digital Network – 840,009 views 1,068 Subscribers

Pac 12 Network – 528,487 views 1,976 Subscribers

What does it mean? It’s clear the investment in the ACCDN, has resulted in by far the most popular YouTube collegiate athletic conference channel in the country nearly outpacing the next 4 conference YouTube channels combined, and people are beginning to notice.

I found this piece from a technology/online content blogger – ACC Digital Network: Standing Out Creatively. 

Here is a release on the ACC Digital Network recent agreement with ROKU.

From that article.

The number of TV connections to the Internet will reach nearly 600 million by 2017 — the U.S. will contribute to more than 1/3 of that with 147 million by 2017. The key driver: viewers being able to watch what they want, when they want, and reporting high satisfaction rates (Digital TV Research Report). Moreover, the Connected TV viewer represents the most engaged, content-inquisitive, media savvy consumer ready to discover and consume new content.

ACC sports fans with a Roku streaming player can access the channel by simply going to the Roku channel store, browsing under the sports category and then adding The ACC Digital Network channel.

I know everyone is thinking, well how much does the ACC make off of this because it sounds pretty good.

On that, what I said in March remains the same today.

I have not seen any hard revenue projections, but there are already corporate sponsorships in place from the likes of Ruby Tuesday for example. 

There is a caveat to this since that time, that I think is rather significant.

From theconvergence.TV, this is a snippit as they analyzed the ACC’s deal with ROKU.

Global online ad spending is forecast to exceed $100 billion in 2013, driven primarily by spending on online video and social media. Overall ad spend in 2012 was up 3% to $462 billion, and it should grow to 4% in 2013 to $500 billion.

Online video is the fastest growing segment of the market, with year-over-year increases of 38% globally. The segment has more than doubled over the past four years.

Online video ad spending in the U.S. is expected to increase 31% from 2012 to 2013, Europe could rise 35% and Central and Latin American spending is expected to increase 55%.

A near doubling of subscribers and a more than doubling of video views in 6 months? No one else is coming close to those numbers. The monetary growth potential seems to be there, and the ACC is at the fore front of this emerging revenue generator.

We’ll check on the ACCDN down the road. I believe the ACC is on to something here…

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