Thread: Pac-10 seeking richest TV contract in history

The Pac-10, deep into its talks with ESPN and Fox, is seeking the richest media contract among all college conferences, according to industry sources.

The conference, which is expanding to 12 teams next season with the addition of Colorado and Utah, has been in exclusive negotiating windows with both networks. Sources said the Pac-10 has told the media companies that it wants considerably more than the $205 million per year that the SEC got combined from CBS and ESPN for an all-in package.

Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott has said in the past that his priorities, in addition to the additional revenue, are to start a conference channel and to significantly boost the conference’s national exposure.
The league currently receives about $54 million annually in media rights fees from ESPN and Fox, which is the lowest of the six major conferences.

The Pac-10 allowed its exclusive negotiating window with ESPN to lapse earlier this month. ESPN was negotiating for a 20-game football package. The conference also is expected to let its exclusive negotiating window with Fox lapse without a deal at the end of the month. Fox is negotiating for a package that includes both football and basketball games.

If the Pac-10 enters open market, package will include football, basketball, online and marketing rights.
The conference would then go to an open market in April with a comprehensive package of rights to sell, which would include football and basketball, online and full marketing rights.

The most likely new bidder would be Comcast, which is interested in acquiring sports content in markets where it runs cable systems. Now that its NBC acquisition is complete, sports rights holders are hoping that the company becomes more aggressive in acquiring rights.

Turner Sports also has made inquiries about the Pac-10’s media rights and would present a fourth bidder, which would be a best-case scenario for the conference. The Pac-10’s negotiations are being led by Scott, with Chris Bevilacqua of Evolution Media Capital consulting.

The Pac-10’s pursuit of the richest media deal of all the conferences was emboldened, sources say, when it learned how much the Big 12 was expecting to make from its rights deals. Fox is close to a deal that will be worth an average of $90 million a year for the Big 12’s cable TV football rights.

Each new media rights deal seems to reset the market in the college landscape. Fox’s Big 12 deal would represent a 350 percent increase over its current fee of $20 million per year. Fox, though, would wind up with much more content than it currently has, doubling the number of football games it is allowed to carry, from 20 to more than 40, as well as all digital and mobile rights to those games. No basketball was included in the deal and the Big 12 got the raise despite having two fewer teams with the defections of Colorado to the Pac-10 and Nebraska to the Big Ten.

The Big 12’s $90 million figure also represents an increase from the $60 million that Fox suggested it would be willing to pay last summer as part of a new cable rights deal. Those talks surfaced as the Big 12 attempted to hold its conference together during realignment.

During its negotiation with ESPN, the Pac-10 was seeking to get more than four times the $25 million the network currently is paying for its package of football games, sources said.

As part of the exclusive negotiating windows, the Pac-10 must come back to ESPN and Fox if the conference winds up accepting a bid that is lower than the last price the conference offered during the window. Such terms are standard in many media rights contracts.

Pac-10 officials have been open about their desire to launch a channel, akin to the Big Ten Network. The difference is that the Big Ten sold broadcast rights to ESPN for $100 million a year and a smaller basketball-only package to CBS. The Pac-10’s first option appears to be combining the national broadcast rights and the channel into a single deal.

ESPN and CBS convinced the SEC to shelve its plans to launch a channel when they agreed to pay a combined $205 million per year for the rights to SEC content in 2008.

Last year, ESPN agreed to pay the ACC an average of $155 million per year for an all-in deal that included all sports and online

Git er dun, Larry, you risk-taking son-of-a-biaaaaatch!

Where did this come from? Probably better to cite sources rather than just copy and pasting someone else's work.

Originally Posted by nmkorn

Where did this come from? Probably better to cite sources rather than just copy and pasting someone else's work.

Haha that came out harsher than I meant, I really just wanted to know who wrote it. Thanks for the call out, JP

Originally Posted by nmkorn

Where did this come from? Probably better to cite sources rather than just copy and pasting someone else's work.

Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury News. Before this article came out I heard a rumor of what Fox was offering monetarily and it's WOW money and yes it would put us ahead of the SEC.

IMO what it'll end up being is Fox & ESPN again, with ESPN/ABC setting up all Thursday/Friday football games that they want and Fox's main network showing the headliner football game(s) on Saturday, with the lesser tier games going to the Pac 12 Network, FX, and FSN. As far as basketball goes it'll be FSN, FX, and PAC 12 Network with CBS and ESPN buying whatever games they want just as they do now. Fox College Sports Pacific will be retooled and become the Pac 12 Network to save on start up fees. One of the other FCS channels will be used for the Big 12 Network as well likely.

Hell yeah. You got your article, Wize!

Originally Posted by Esq

Hell yeah. You got your article, Wize!

Hahaha this is actually a different article, obviously same topic, but with less details. My new favorite Canadian (sorry Apps), Ampers, got me the one I really wanted.

Originally Posted by Wize

Hahaha this is actually a different article, obviously same topic, but with less details. My new favorite Canadian (sorry Apps), Ampers, got me the one I really wanted.

Now there's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one.

Originally Posted by Wize

Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury News. Before this article came out I heard a rumor of what Fox was offering monetarily and it's WOW money and yes it would put us ahead of the SEC.

IMO what it'll end up being is Fox & ESPN again, with ESPN/ABC setting up all Thursday/Friday football games that they want and Fox's main network showing the headliner football game(s) on Saturday, with the lesser tier games going to the Pac 12 Network, FX, and FSN. As far as basketball goes it'll be FSN, FX, and PAC 12 Network with CBS and ESPN buying whatever games they want just as they do now. Fox College Sports Pacific will be retooled and become the Pac 12 Network to save on start up fees. One of the other FCS channels will be used for the Big 12 Network as well likely.

Wize, I know there are tons of details to be hashed out and information is incomplete but what you have described seems a bit disappointing. I understand the potential windfall for the PAC-12 but other than their own network how does this deal improve the league's exposure around the country when it sounds like once again the bulk of the games are on Fox networks? Or is there likely to be an expanded opportunity for buy-ins by CBS, ESPN, etc.? Thanks

Originally Posted by SCDave

Wize, I know there are tons of details to be hashed out and information is incomplete but what you have described seems a bit disappointing. I understand the potential windfall for the PAC-12 but other than their own network how does this deal improve the league's exposure around the country when it sounds like once again the bulk of the games are on Fox networks? Or is there likely to be an expanded opportunity for buy-ins by CBS, ESPN, etc.? Thanks

I assume you're saying it's disappointing on the basketball front and not the football. ESPN and Fox national would carry roughly 40 football games a year...that's pretty good. For our league exposure in bball every game is for sale for whoever wants to buy the rights to show it (From most likely Fox) and the difference is expect the Thursday/Saturday routine to go out the window. We will play games whenever and wherever. If ESPN wants to air a UW/AZ game on a Monday night then you bet your ass it's going to happen. The reason we'll be able to do this is because making over 200 million a year on a TV deal provides all 12 teams the ability to charter every single flight, which is not a luxury we have with the current 54 million a year we make now. For what it's worth, in that scenario I laid out about a UW game on a Monday, we wouldn't necessarily have to play Wazzu either later in that week, we could play @UW and then home against Colorado.

Details are obviously not done as you pointed out, but Scott will be doing everything it takes to insure we expand our league's exposure, while making the highest dollar figure possible. As Wilner pointed out in that article, Fox just paid the Big 12, with two less markets, $90 million for cable rights (second tier games). That translates into ridiculous amounts of money coming the Pac 12s way.

Fox NOOOOOO!!!!!

Originally Posted by Wize

I assume you're saying it's disappointing on the basketball front and not the football. ESPN and Fox national would carry roughly 40 football games a year...that's pretty good. For our league exposure in bball every game is for sale for whoever wants to buy the rights to show it (From most likely Fox) and the difference is expect the Thursday/Saturday routine to go out the window. We will play games whenever and wherever. If ESPN wants to air a UW/AZ game on a Monday night then you bet your ass it's going to happen. The reason we'll be able to do this is because making over 200 million a year on a TV deal provides all 12 teams the ability to charter every single flight, which is not a luxury we have with the current 54 million a year we make now. For what it's worth, in that scenario I laid out about a UW game on a Monday, we wouldn't necessarily have to play Wazzu either later in that week, we could play @UW and then home against Colorado.

Details are obviously not done as you pointed out, but Scott will be doing everything it takes to insure we expand our league's exposure, while making the highest dollar figure possible. As Wilner pointed out in that article, Fox just paid the Big 12, with two less markets, $90 million for cable rights (second tier games). That translates into ridiculous amounts of money coming the Pac 12s way.

Yes, I was referring to basketball. I appreciate your response.

This is awesome! Can we say facility improvements and guarantees we can pay the coaches what we need to in order to keep them around?

Originally Posted by Wize

I assume you're saying it's disappointing on the basketball front and not the football. ESPN and Fox national would carry roughly 40 football games a year...that's pretty good. For our league exposure in bball every game is for sale for whoever wants to buy the rights to show it (From most likely Fox) and the difference is expect the Thursday/Saturday routine to go out the window. We will play games whenever and wherever. If ESPN wants to air a UW/AZ game on a Monday night then you bet your ass it's going to happen. The reason we'll be able to do this is because making over 200 million a year on a TV deal provides all 12 teams the ability to charter every single flight, which is not a luxury we have with the current 54 million a year we make now. For what it's worth, in that scenario I laid out about a UW game on a Monday, we wouldn't necessarily have to play Wazzu either later in that week, we could play @UW and then home against Colorado.

Details are obviously not done as you pointed out, but Scott will be doing everything it takes to insure we expand our league's exposure, while making the highest dollar figure possible. As Wilner pointed out in that article, Fox just paid the Big 12, with two less markets, $90 million for cable rights (second tier games). That translates into ridiculous amounts of money coming the Pac 12s way.

I was disappointed until you gave this response. I'm really excited now and hope this can get done.

Here is the latest, nothing major just some thoughts:

Pac-12 football (and basketball): Update on the TV negotiations | College Hotline