ROOT SPORTS contract is a seven-year deal

Details of the Mountain West's latest television deal with ROOT SPORTS Rocky Mountain has been revealed, and the Albuquerque Journal was able to get some more insight of the deal. The agreement is a seven-year deal and worth approximately $2 million per year when including revenue and savings from production costs.

This time frame matches up with the deal that the Mountain West has with ESPN and CBS Sports, and having all of those deals line up for the same amount of time makes it much easier when it comes time to renegotiate their next contract.

The way the amount comes to $2 million is that ROOT SPORTS Rocky Mountain will be producing these games themselves, thus taking on the cost. Last season, some of these games were produced locally but picked up on ROOT SPORTS. The rights fees being paid are $500,000 per year but New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs estimates that the production savings are near $1.5 million, so that is where $2 million comes into play.

The other great news is that those who do not have ROOT SPORTS Rocky Mountain are able to access those games on the Mountain West's new digital platform at no cost. The extra viewers may not be all that many but it could work nice for those who want to watch a game who live out of the areas, or give people the option to watch online and TV as well.

Another positive note is that after ROOT SPORTS picks the 10 or so games it decides to broadcast, teams can still shop their remaining games to local providers. While ROOT SPORTS is the official regional television partner, the press release does not state it is the exclusive regional partner, so it could be possible for Altitude or TimeWarner SportsNet to pick up some games like those channels did last season.