Tag: Media Rights

Could Apple TV land the Pac-12’s college football rights?

One report states that Apple TV+ is the favorite to land the media rights to Pac-12 football. But is it enough?

The Pac-12’s current TV deal with ESPN and Fox Sports is set to expire following the 2023 season. So where does commissioner George Kliavkoff turn to next?

According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, Apple TV+ could end up as the new landing spot for the Pac-12’s college football rights. Apple TV recently landed a deal with the MLS, and perhaps they want to sink their teeth in college football.

The ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC all have long-term deals. The last remaining conference without a long-term deal might need to pull a rabbit out of their hats to keep their 10 remaining schools happy.

Per Marchand:

With ESPN, Amazon Prime Video and Fox Sports lukewarm on the league, Apple could end up being the platform for the Pac-12, according to sources.

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff could present Apple as a possibility to his schools soon, according to sources. If the universities will be interested in a potential all-streaming deal and if the terms will end up being good enough to prevent schools departing to other conferences are yet to be determined.

The heat is on for the Pac-12. Currently, the Big 12 has been reported as interested in the four corner schools. Would landing Apple keep Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah from joining? That remains to be seen and it is unlikely that an all-streaming service would keep everyone happy.

The longer that the Pac-12 goes without a long-term deal, the more likely that we could see schools entertain other conferences.

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Statements from OU, Texas, SEC, and the Big 12 on early exit agreement

Big 12 statement on the early exit agreement to allow Oklahoma and Texas to leave for the SEC in time for the 2024 season.

The long-awaited early exit agreement came to fruition on Thursday afternoon. The Big 12, Oklahoma, Texas, and their broadcast partners were able to reach an agreement to let the Red River Rivals depart for the SEC in time for the 2024 season.

The agreement, which will pay the Big 12 a $100 million exit fee was reached after months of negotiations that began to heat up in recent weeks. Now Oklahoma and Texas can begin preparations in earnest for the SEC after their final year in the Big 12 this fall.

The Sooners and Longhorns will become the 15th and 16th members of the expanding SEC in the same year that the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams. All that awaits is a format for the 16-team league, which appears to favor a nine-game non-divisional schedule.

The Big 12 released the following statements from the powers that be in reaction to the agreement.

Oklahoma, Texas reach early exit agreement with Big 12 to leave for SEC in 2024

According to a report from Ross Dellenger of SI, the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns have reached an early exit agreement to leave the Big 12 for the SEC in 2024.

According to a report from Ross Dellenger of SI.com, the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns have reached an early exit agreement that will allow the Red River Rivals to depart for the SEC in time for the 2024 season.

Since the initial announcement back in the summer of 2021, speculation ran rampant about when the two schools would leave the conference they’ve called home since 1996. In the last couple of months, negotiations between Oklahoma and Texas and the Big 12 began to heat up, with an actual offer being presented to the conference in the last couple of weeks. The Big 12 rejected that offer at the time.

Late last week, it was reported that the talks between the departing members and the conference had stalled. Apparently, that was only temporary.

According to the report, Texas and Oklahoma will pay a combined $100 million exit fee to the Big 12 conference. The fee helps offset the loss in media revenue the remaining eight schools took when they admitted BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF.

The general feeling around college football was that Brett Yormark and the Big 12 were motivated to come to a win-win agreement with Oklahoma and Texas. However, Fox, one of the networks that held the Big 12’s media rights, was less likely to relent, seeking equitable value to offset the loss of OU and Texas to its competitor, the SEC.

Now with the Sooners and the Longhorns heading to the SEC in 2024, the next question is, what will the conference schedule look like? The SEC is looking at a non-divisional format that will have the league playing nine conference games.

With the agreement, everyone can begin to move forward and plan for the future. Brett Yormark and the Big 12 can work to feature their conference as it will be without so much discussion about if and when an early exit might occur. Oklahoma, Texas, and the SEC can begin planning for what will be an incredibly fun conference slate.

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Big 12 agrees to new TV deal with ESPN, Fox

The Big 12 has signed a massive extension for their media rights agreement with ESPN and Fox. From @BenDackiw

Brett Yormark has come to play. The Big 12 has reached an agreement with ESPN and Fox on its new media rights deal. The extension will begin following the conclusion of the 2024-25 season and run through 2030-2031. Yormark recently said Oklahoma and Texas will not leave for the SEC until after the 2024 football season.

The conference will earn, on average, $380M per year according to Sports Business Journal.That will earn the Big 12 more than $2 billion during the agreement

This is a massive win for the Big 12. More specifically, it’s a massive win for new Big 12 Commisioner Brett Yormark. When Oklahoma and Texas announced their intention to leave their longtime home, the future of the conference was in question. The Big 12 not only didn’t lose money on this new deal, they gained a significant increase.

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With the Big 12 getting its new deal done before its competition out west, it’s easy to wonder if Yormark’s next call will be to the remaining members of the Pac-12.

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Big Ten closing in on $1 billion media rights deal

It would be the first deal of its kind in college sports!

On Monday night John Ourand of Sports Business Journal published a story entitled “Big Ten talks in the home stretch.” It reports that following the expiration of the current media rights deal in 2023, the Big Ten Conference’s football and basketball games will not air on ESPN for the first time in 40 years. Instead, CBS, FOX Sports, and NBC appear to be the leaders regarding a new media deal with the conference. The article further states,

Fox agreed to the “A” package months ago. As part of its deal, it will carry a football game on the broadcast network at noon ET, plus football games on its cable channels FS1 and BTN, in which it holds a 60% stake.

The deals with CBS and NBC are not yet complete, but Ourand reports that the “B” package would be divided between networks. CBS would receive the rights for the 2:30 pm central time kickoffs, while NBC and its streaming service Peacock would carry primetime broadcasts. It’s also reported that,

The Big Ten is expected to be the first college conference to eclipse $1 billion per year in rights fees once all is said and done.

Ourand notes that while ESPN is not officially out of the running, they would need help from parent company Disney to increase their bid. The report further states that Disney CEO Bob Chapek graduated from Michigan State and may have a personal interest in keeping the Big Ten part of the Walt Disney Company family. That combined with the fact that Disney’s broadcast network ABC has produced Big Ten games since 1966 and ESPN has had a relationship with the league since 1982. That history could see the “House of Mouse” increase its bid in the next couple of days.

The current media rights deal for the league will expire in 2023. Of course, anything can change, but it appears that the Big Ten will be working with new broadcast partners in the foreseeable future.

Scroll below to view social media reactions to the first-of-its-kind collegiate broadcasting deal.

Big Ten could be the first conference to reach mega deal for media rights

Big pay day coming for Nebraska and the Big Ten?

With the current media deal for the Big Ten set to expire, the conference is in line to get a new deal. They could be on the track to earning a record deal.

According to John Ourand, they could be the first to get $1 billion per year in media rights. He spoke on a podcast with Andrew Marchand. “From what I am told.” Ourchand said, “the Big Ten Conference is going to be the first college conference to earn more than $1 billion per year in media rights.”

That is quite a huge number to try and wrap our heads around. With the number of schools in the conference, that is a huge payout for schools. This could help close the gap with the SEC in terms of how much they can pour into their athletic programs in terms of facilities.

It remains to be seen which networks would line up to land this massive deal.

ESPN and University of Oklahoma announce multi-year agreement to launch ‘SoonerVision’ on ESPN+

The University of Oklahoma and ESPN have reached an agreement on a new partnership, which will launch “SoonerVision” for on the streaming platform ESPN+.

The college athletics landscape is forever changing and shifting in many ways from conference realignment to NIL to media rights.

The Oklahoma Sooners have been directly affected by all three in recent years and now they get to be a part of it once again.

After years with Bally Sports, the Sooners will enter a multi-year agreement with ESPN+ with an Oklahoma specific channel called “SoonerVision.”

The partnership with ESPN+ is the most expansive of its kind for a university athletics program. Oklahoma athletic director and Vice President Joe Castiglione in a release by the official athletics website says, “SoonerVision on ESPN+ builds upon our previous media successes by offering over 1,000 hours annually of live OU sports events and other programming to ESPN+’s growing subscriber base of more than 21.3 million. As a result, OU fans will now have an easily accessible year-round media home on all their screens.”

In many ways, it sets the stage for Oklahoma as it will make its way to the SEC in the coming years and become a part of the SEC Network also tied in a tight partnership with ESPN.

The infamous Oklahoma pay-per-view football game that’s become an annual occurrence will be no longer as that game likely slots into the “one regular season OU football game” category for those who carry an ESPN+ subscription.

The spring football game will also be accessible via ESPN+. The rest of Oklahoma’s football games will still be found on the ESPN family of networks or on Fox.

Oklahoma basketball will have 25 or more games found on ESPN+ along with other Olympic sports live games like track and field and more.

An ESPN+ subscription also includes access to professional sports like MLB, NHL, LaLiga, Bundesliga, and many other college sports competitions.

The deal allows the Sooner fans access to content from years past and also grants access to OU’s pro day, pregame shows, and a more immersive Sooner experience across the board.

Beginning in August, the content will be available on ESPN+ via the “SoonerVision” landing page, with live events beginning at the start of the fall athletics season.

Pricing for ESPN+ is $6.99 a month (or $69.99 per year) at ESPN.com, ESPNplus.com, or on the ESPN App (mobile and connected devices). It is also available as part of The Disney Bundle that gives subscribers access to Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu for $13.99/month (Hulu w/ads) or $19.99/month (Hulu w/o ads). Subscribers to Hulu + Live TV also receive ESPN+ at no additional cost.

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Cornhuskers New $200 Million Media Right Deal Falls Through

The University of Nebraska athletic department is back at square one after the school’s new media rights deal fell through at the 11th hour.

The University of Nebraska athletic department is back at square one after the school’s new media rights deal fell through at the 11th hour. It was in early March that athletic Director Trev Alberts announced that the school had selected JMI sports to take over as the media rights holder for Nebraska athletics. Rumors had a deal pegged at about 12 years in length worth about $200 million. This was set to be Nebraska’s third media rights partner in the last three years as last year the Huskers ran the operation from within the school without a media partner and the year before was the final year of a 15-year relationship with Learfeild IMG College. The new deal with JMI was set to begin on July 1 following the approval of the Board of Trustees in early April.

The statement from Alberts talked about both short and long-term options for the Cornhuskers. I have to imagine that in the short term the school will simply continue to produce its content in-house as it’s been done that way for the past year. The long-term option leads me to believe that the two sides will continue to talk whether it’s officially or unofficially to try and find a way to work a deal that will be beneficial for both sides.
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Timing of TV contracts expiration could delay Oklahoma’s move to the SEC

Despite speculation that the Sooners could move to the SEC as early as 2022, television contracts for the SEC and Big 12 could slow it down.

Since the initial report broke that the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns were exploring a move to the Southeastern Conference, speculation has run rampant about when a move might occur for the Big 12’s premier programs.

Many believe the Sooners could be on the move as early as 2022 despite being bound to the Big 12 through their media rights agreement through 2024. The two schools would first have to get out of their current media rights agreements. That could result in a penalty for breaking the contract, or other legal ramifications were the two schools to break their agreement early.

Pete Thamel, who covers college football for Yahoo Sports!, provided further details into the SEC’s media rights agreement.

While the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns will be big draws in the SEC’s next media rights negotiations, the SEC is locked in through 2023. ESPN won’t have full broadcast rights for the SEC until the 2024 season, which happens to be the final year that the Sooners and Longhorns are contractually obligated to the Big 12.

As Thamel notes, the exit fees for the two exiting Big 12 schools is $150 million combined. That’s an amount of money that would make it very difficult for either University to justify giving the Big 12 to leave. Even with the promise of bigger revenues with the SEC, could they sell their boards and fans on the idea that in the long-term, they’ll make more?

That’s a difficult proposition.

Contracts can be renegotiated, though, again as Thamel notes, CBS, the current broadcast partner of the SEC, hasn’t shown a willingness to pay extra for big games in the past. So there’s a bit of uncertainty as to whether or not they’d give an expanded SEC more money to broadcast Oklahoma and Texas games. So the current 14-team SEC would have to be willing to share the money in their current agreement. It’s possible, but it would mean a smaller cut for each school in the short term.

Once the SEC’s current media deal is complete and the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns are officially a part of the SEC, it’s a whole new ball game. The future earnings in media rights deals will be astronomical. Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to broadcast Oklahoma vs. Alabama or Texas vs. Alabama every single year? That in addition to the already mammoth games the SEC puts on television on an annual basis. Then you throw in arguably the biggest rivalry in all of college football in the Red River Rivalry, and the SEC is going to be able to get whatever they want from the networks to broadcast their games.

Unfortunately, there’s no telling when this will all take place. There’s a lot of negotiating that will take place behind the scenes to make an Oklahoma and Texas exit more amenable for both the schools and the Big 12. But even after they come to an agreement that works for both sides, the SEC’s own media rights deal could prevent an OU-Texas migration to the Southeastern Conference.

Report: Oklahoma, Texas release joint statement on future with the Big 12

After reports surfaced Wednesday afternoon, the Sooners and Longhorns made their grant of rights plans official in joint statement.

What has been expected since Wednesday has come to pass. The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns are on their way out of the Big 12.

After several days of reports, the University of Oklahoma officially announced in a joint statement with the University of Texas that the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns will break with the Big 12 when their grant of media rights expires in 2025.

Though the Sooners “intend to honor their existing grant of rights agreement,” they believe that providing notice at this juncture was important “in advance of the expiration of the conference’s current media rights agreement.”

While both universities intend to honor the existing agreements, they did leave space for that to change as they “continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate landscape.”

College football as we know it has been upended over the last couple of months. Just as the name, image and likeness era has begun, two of the Big 12’s premier college football teams will be migrating to a new conference, presumably the Southeastern Conference.

Though nothing’s official at this stage, it’s expected the Sooners and the Longhorns will land in the SEC when it comes time to announce their new conference affiliation.