By DAVE GUFFEY for GoGriz.com
All 12 of The University of Montana’s football games in 2013 will be televised by either Max Media of Montana or ROOT Sports, announced UM Athletic Director Kent Haslam.
Learfield Sports, the athletics multimedia rights holder for the university, reached an agreement with Max Media to be the exclusive local telecast sponsor for Grizzly football.
Max Media will not only produce and telecast the Grizzlies’ four non-league football games in the 2013 season, but they will also televise four Big Sky Conference games per a contract with the league. (The Big Sky holds the television rights to all conference games).
“I am thrilled that all 12 Griz football games will be televised,” Haslam said. “I know how important television coverage is to Griz fans everywhere and appreciate the partnership with Max Media of Montana and ROOT Sports. There has been a lot of hard work by many including Learfield Sports, the Big Sky Conference office and our television partners to get this done.”
Per Learfield Sports’ agreement with Max Media, the Grizzly athletic department will retain exclusive streaming rights to those four non-league games to ensure fans can watch games on its official athletic website (GoGriz.com).
Through regional distributors, Learfield Sports and Max Media also will aggressively collaborate to expand distribution for UM beyond state lines in order to reach a larger fan base.
Per the agreement, Max Media can distribute its rights to its ABC and FOX stations in Missoula, Kalispell, Butte, Bozeman, Great Falls, Helena and the Billings’ NBC affiliate, in addition to stations in home viewing areas in close proximity to UM.
The eight Griz games Max Media will distribute are Montana vs. Appalachian State (Aug. 31), Montana at North Dakota (Sept. 14), Montana versus Oklahoma Panhandle State (Sept. 21), Montana at UC Davis (Oct. 12), UM versus Cal Poly (Oct. 19), the Griz at Sacramento State (Nov. 2), Montana at South Dakota (Nov. 9), and the Griz-Weber State contest (Nov. 16).
ROOT Sports will be televising four league games: Montana at Northern Arizona (Sept. 28), the Griz versus Portland State (Oct. 5), Eastern Washington at Montana (Oct. 26), and the 113th Griz-Cat game (Nov. 23) in Bozeman.
