Starting in fall 2023, Big Ten starts a new 7-year media rights deal with Fox, CBS, NBC/Peacock. ESPN no longer affiliated but they could become involved picking up basketball games it sounds like. Payout will combine to be over $1 billion annually. Reports also indicate this amount could increase if the Big Ten adds more schools before the package expires in 2030.
How it affects women's basketball:
- Fox/FS1 - "Select" women's basketball games - no mention of how many - BTN - Minimum of 49 games per season. Big Ten Tournament games through the semifinals - CBS - Big Ten Tournament Championship game. Should also be available to stream on Paramount+ - Peacock - 30 games a season, 20 of which are conference games - NBC - no games will appear on main channel
Couldn't find anything yet about BTN+. Hoping it goes away and everything just becomes available on Peacock.
The reality is that women's basketball does not deliver the ratings that other sports do (I think women's gymnastics might do better).
That, in the brave new world of professional college sports, may mean fewer games on TV. There's less leverage, it seems, for women's basketball than in the past, but of course if ratings go up, we'll see more coverage.
The key is for people to be interested enough to watch games when they're shown. It's feedback loop that can go either way ...
It appears the Big 12 will be starting new media negotiations with ESPN & Fox next week. More bad news for the Pac-12. If the Big 12 signs a new deal before the Pac does, that should spell the end of the Pac.
The fact the Big 12 said it's negotiating doesn't mean the Pac-12 isn't. The Pac-12's biggest advantage is the late game slot in football -- which the fans hate but networks love.
One factor not discussed much so far: California has a ballot measure in November that would allow sports betting from phones. If so, expect a lot more betting action on Pac-12 football and basketball games, and likely, a bump in ratings. When someone's money is on the line, they tend to pay more attention.
The Pac’s overall value is already hampered by its instability. If the conference is gonna be stuck in this purgatory caused by Oregon & Washington only agreeing to stick around if they can secure unequal revenue sharing in the next Pac media rights deal that more of the other teams than not object to (and sensibly so), then the Pac just isn’t going to survive that. Other schools will eventually just leave for their other options.
Unless both the Big Ten and the Big 12 definitively reject Oregon & Washington and the two schools have nowhere else to go but to stay in the Pac – or unless the other Pac schools give in to the two’s hostage demands for whatever reason – there’s no reason to think the Pac can overcome this particular impasse to even be able to sign a new deal. ESPN amongst various streaming services would have to fork over a substantial amount of money, which I’ve heard the network is hemorrhaging these days even if it wanted to overpay for the Pac.
Good points. The big boosters on the Cal message board say that it's clear to all in the know (and I'm not one of them) that Cal's future must be in the B1G. The Pac cannot survive as a viable big-time college league unless USC and UCLA come crawling back -- and that's not going to happen.
The teams left out are WSU, Oregon State and the four outliers, Arizona, ASU, Utah and Colorado. That leaves a six-team West Coast B1G pod: USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Washington and Oregon.
Of course, no one knows, not even those in the know. The consensus does seem to be, though, that nothing will happen soon. It may take a couple years to sort all this out.
I was a little surprised the Big 12 cancelled the merger talks so quickly with the Pac back in July. On one hand, no, the remaining schools particularly without OR & WA don’t add any value. On the other hand, the Big 12 would be acquiring the Pac-12 Network, which would be huge for them. I think if all four of OR, WA, Stan, and Cal (probably has to be those specific schools) do in fact leave for the Big Ten, the Big 12 would then come back to the negotiating table to merge with the Pac. I’ve heard the Big 12 is potentially negotiating escalators into their next media deal for any Power-5 conference addition. That would change the equation a bit regarding adding schools for the sake of adding – the bigger, the better nowadays. Even without that escalator, six schools – even having to include WSU & Oregon State – would dilute the payouts a lot less than 7-10 schools.
Last Edit: Sept 2, 2022 10:38:38 GMT -5 by Deleted
—ICYMI: Big 12 finalizing new 6-yr $2.28B deal with current partners Fox & ESPN in which the (soon-to-be) 12 schools would get $31.6M per school per year on average
—Deal would expire in 2031, after Big Ten's (2030) but before SEC's (2034) and ACC's (2036)
—Pac-12 has been talking to primarily Amazon and ESPN, but has also talked to Fox, Apple, and Warner Bros. Discovery – expect a streaming service like Amazon to contribute heavily to a new deal
—Pac-12 overall is said to be optimistic that its new deal can surpass Big 12's $31.6M per school per year
—Most likely remaining FBS realignment movement on the west coast in this round would then just be San Diego State to either the Pac-12 or Big 12, though that of course is no guarantee either