... sponsorship ads had reached the neighborhood (or were expected to) of $2.5 million. It wasn't clear whether this was for sporting events only or for all programming. I've heard projections that BYUtv sponsorship revenues could reach $5 million eventually, but this will usually depend on the number of live football & basketball games broadcasted, matchups, etc.

You can't underestimate the value of having a station already in 50-60 million homes (and nearing 100 million internationally). While it's a non-profit station and will likely remain so, it is still a great source of both funding and exposure for the university and has an extremely positive impact on both recruiting and fan support.

Next up is to get DirecTV to show the channel in HD. The programming is steadily improving and becoming broader in its appeal. This, along with solid ratings for sporting events (especially basketball programming), should eventually convince DirecTV that the bandwidth is worth it. At some point, DirecTV risks losing significant subscriber numbers from BYU fans as technology allows for more and more creative ways to stream and watch BYUtv in HD.

Bottom line is that when you add the ESPN deal at $8 mil, the WCC deal at just over $1 mil, BYUtv revenues at $2.5 mil and additional income streams from local and satellite radio, you're approaching $12 million/yr in broadcast revenues. While these revenue numbers don't reach the $18 mil plus numbers from the big 5 conferences, they also dwarf any revenues that could be offered to BYU by other conferences. In addition, you have to take into account the value of the unprecedented exposure that the BYU athletic program receives compared to almost any program in the country. This is a big part of the reason why BYU won't easily be pried from its independent status.