The 2023 season will be the final one with the SEC Game of the Week being televised on CBS by Gary Danielson and Brad Nessler.
Beginning in 2024, the new ESPN-ABC television rights deal goes into effect. Among the changes for the SEC include moving the top game to the 3:30 time slot on ABC.
While many fans are understandably sad about the change — and specifically, the loss of the iconic CBS theme music — commissioner Greg Sankey ardently believes the move is for the best.
“What that does, and it’s something about which I’ve spoken but gets lost, is when we move to the ABC-ESPN group, we have access to more broadcast TV opportunities than perhaps we’ve ever had, certainly in recent decades,” Sankey said on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on Friday. “In other words, 130-plus million households with access to broadcast TV, we could literally program an ABC game at noon Eastern, 3:30 Eastern and then, that primetime window on particular Saturdays. Now, ABC and ESPN have other contractual commitments. But that’s an illustration of the breadth of reach that we are about to experience.
“And we respect and appreciate our relationship with CBS, but our move to work under the Disney heading was about more than just revenue. It was about reach, so reach through broadcast TV, reach through cable and satellite, which obviously is a changing environment.”
The current agreement with CBS nets the league around $55 million per year. Under the new agreement, the SEC will reportedly take home $300 million annually in revenue to be divided between the member schools.
College football is set to undergo many changes in the next couple years, and a large shakeup to the current TV rights agreement structure is one of them. But if Sankey — and the reporting about the contract — are to be believed, it will be in the SEC’s best interest.
[mm-video type=video id=01gr2wm3bjz1tzmp08th playlist_id=01eqbz5s7cf4w69e0n player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gr2wm3bjz1tzmp08th/01gr2wm3bjz1tzmp08th-94ecac2c303bf0527e447a0c1ca9e9f6.jpg]
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1389 tag=1387]
Contact/Follow us @LSUTigersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Louisiana State news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno