Pac 12 Commissioner Larry Scott was "hopeful the conference could reach a carriage agreement" with DirecTV after AT&T merged with the satellite distributor earlier this summer, but talks "broke down about a week ago, and there's no timetable for them to resume," according to Michael Lev of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. Scott on Saturday said, "There’s no discussions ongoing, so I’m not anticipating that we’ll have a deal with them. I’m disappointed. We have a comprehensive partnership with AT&T, plus they’re carrying (Pac-12 Networks on) U-verse. I was hopeful that a reasonable deal could be done. I’m certainly disappointed that wasn’t possible. When I teed up what it would have taken to do a deal and brought it back to our schools, they just weren’t comfortable with it.” Scott said that the league’s members "unanimously declined AT&T’s proposal." While he did not get into specifics, Scott said, "We’ve got partnerships (for distribution) with over 70 different companies that pay the same rates and give us a lot of exposure. I think our schools have a lot of confidence in the model that we have, the service that we’re providing, and can’t do something dramatically different for one that we’re not doing for the 70 other partners.” Lev noted Scott "remains confident that the business model for the network -- the Pac-12 has complete ownership -- is in the best long-term interest of the league." Scott: “Even if we’re frustrated right now, three years from now, I think the industry’s going to look very different from where it is today" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 9/20). Arizona AD Greg Byrne said, "We certainly have heard from some of the fans who are disappointed, and we sympathize with them. We want to have DirecTV carry the Pac-12 Networks but it has to be within a framework that can fit the working model for Pac-12 schools" (ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 9/19).
