STEPHENVILLE, Texas - The impetus behind the PBR was to create a sport that was easy for fans to follow.

PBR co-founder Ty Murray said that with the PBR's recent multi-network television deal, longtime fans and newcomers alike will have an easier time following the sport of professional bull riding than at any other point in history.

He also noted the television deal didn't come easily.

"Television is not an easy landscape," explained the nine-time World Champion in his weekly podcast. "I know a lot of our fans who are not familiar with the challenges think you just say, 'Hey, XYZ network, how about you broadcast bull riding?'

"It's a very competitive market, and the saying in television is, if Jesus needed 2 minutes on television he probably couldn't get it. It is very tough, and the PBR is working very hard to have a followable sport for the fans to watch all year long and see the top guys, and see their race toward a World Championship."

He added, "I feel like it's gotten better this year than it's ever been."

This coming season, which starts Friday in New York at Madison Square Garden, will be broadcast on CBS, NBC, CBS Sports Network and the newly branded NBC Sports (formerly Versus), and will include several live YouTube streams.

The 2012 package provides more network time than any of the previous 18 seasons.

'I'm very proud of the job that the PBR has done this year in providing a good, followable sport this season for our fans.'

By comparison, the NFL is broadcast on five different networks, and teams only play 16 regular-season games. The PBR has upwards of 30 events, including the World Finals in October.

In addition to the NFL, the PBR is broadcast alongside other sports like the NBA, NHL and PGA. As a result, Murray said the PBR will become an integral part of the entire sports landscape.

"When you're talking about the NFL, you're talking about the biggest sport in the United States," Murray said. "I'm very proud of the job that the PBR has done this year in providing a good, followable sport this season for our fans. If you're a true fan and you really love the sport and you want to see the march toward to the World Championship, you're going to get a great view of that this year."

Ty Murray sees Silvano Alves at or near the top again this year.

Murray will again join play-by-play broadcaster Craig Hummer in the booth as an analyst. Justin McBride and J.W. Hart will also provide color commentary, while Leah Garcia and Marty Snider will report from behind the chutes.

Two noticeable changes to the format include the fact that for several of the network telecasts, the first short round will be replaced with a Top 15 round that features the top riders in the world standings matched up against the top bulls at the event.

Following the fifth BFTS event of the year, which will take place in Baltimore, the draw will be cut back from 40 to 35.

"That's what every sport does," said Murray. "It's a bracketing down or a march to who's best. That's the question and we're no different.

"There's only one World Champion. That's why it's so coveted and that's why it's so hard to get."

Murray said he's again looking forward to seeing the season unfold.

Without predicting a winner, he sees the bulls dominating the riders, a contingency of Brazilian riders led by the past two World Champions - Silvano Alves and Renato Nunes - atop the standings, and the PBR continuing to grow in popularity.

'Every year it continues to get tougher, but it also continues to get easier from the standpoint that it's become a true sport, a true competition. It just comes down to who rides the best - period, end of story.'

With a season that kicks off in New York that is highlighted by a four-stadium tour, the sport is growing into the dream that the 20 founders had 20 years this April when they met in a Scottsdale, Ariz., motel room.

"In the old days there was so much luck involved in where you got up and what rodeo, if you drew a couple of good bulls that might be there," he said. "You might have had to ride in 2 feet of mud, and the guy that won rode on perfect ground. There are all those variables and luck that would go into it."

With luck out of the equation it becomes, in Murray's words, "a riding contest."

Still, it's tougher than it's ever been with a bull pen that is as deep as ever.

Most long-round bulls today would have been short-round bulls in any other era of bull riding.

"Every time you nod your head at a Built Ford Tough Series event, you're getting on something that really bucks, and you're going against the guys that ride the best," Murray said. "Every year it continues to get tougher, but it also continues to get easier from the standpoint that it's become a true sport, a true competition. It just comes down to who rides the best - period, end of story."