Monday, May 17, 2010

ACC and ESPN reach TV deal

I'll post more details and thoughts later today but the good news is that ESPN and the ACC agreed to a new deal worth a reported $155 million per year.

11 comments:

Erik said...

"ESPN fends off Fox for ACC rights"

Let us rejoice! Let us be glad!
Fox the THE WORST! Thank you ESPN, thank you thank you thank you.

I hate Fox. Joe Buck is awful. End of story.

Lally said...

Fox bludgeoning ACC football on TV would be a step up from watching games on a laptop.

Galvin said...

Very true, my laptop cannot take many more alcoholic drinks spilled into it. I wish the ACC had simply paired up with the PAC-10 and had its own TV network. bah.

mod34b said...

Does this mean no more Raycom football games?

Raycom's game presentation (# of cameras and announcers) was usually much better than the ESPNU and ESPN360 offerings -- which is, I am sure, where most of the BC games will be broadcast.

I particularly like the Raycom game analyst Doc Walker. Guy is good, funny and tells it like it is.

Also, how does this money compare to SEC, B10, BE?

Erik said...

Well, maybe, but I'm going in with the assumption that they aren't paying $155M to show many games on ESPN360.

Brian said...

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2010/05/17/daily3.html

Raycom will probably still be showing a lot of the games.

This may be a stupid question, but would there be less competition for air time on Fox or other networks besides ESPN?

mod34b said...

here is an interesting post from blogger Adam on BCI:

"ACC made a huge jump. Putting us pretty near the SEC and coming in way above what most were expecting (thanks Fox for bidding us up!).

Current TV revenue:

Big Ten = $242 million/year
SEC = $205 million/year
Big 12 = $78 million/year*
ACC = $67 million/year
Pac 10 = $58 million/year*
Big East = $33 million/year*

*does not split revenue evenly among members "


I wonder if the SEC and Big Ten numbers include football + basketball or are just football numbers. I assume the ACC deal is football and basketball.

But it seems like the ACC has done well for itself. bravo!

(anyone still pining for the BE!!)

Eagle in Brighton said...

Actually moderately pleased with the reported deal (ESPN has yet to confirm anything). 75% of the SEC deal is not too shabby. Is it enough to keep a team from jumping to the SEC in a worst case scenario? No, but makes ACC memebership a more than decent alternative.

Consequences of the deal: marginally less incentive for ACC teams to jump ship; more incentive than ever for BE schools NOT selected by the Big 10 to actively pursue an ACC invitation; no chance during the life of the ESPN contract for the creation of a self-sustaining ACC network.

Unknown said...

"I wonder if the SEC and Big Ten numbers include football + basketball or are just football numbers. I assume the ACC deal is football and basketball."

I am pretty sure that the numbers listed for the SEC and Big Ten include both football and basketball.

Great news. BC will now receive nearly $13 million a year in TV revenue, a nice bump from the $6+ million we were receiving before.

So now let the record show:

BC in the ACC: Roughly $13 million a year in TV revenue

BC if they were still in the Big Least: $3.67 million a year in TV revenue

Scott said...

The nice part is that ESPN owns all of the rights, meaning it will actively auction off any games it cannot televise on ABC, ESPN 1, 2, or game day.

Given the size of the Boston market, I doubt BC will ever again be relegated to 360 when playing a conference or BCS school. At worst we'll end up in regional syndication, but we could even end up on Fox.

Scott said...

BTW, I think this deal eliminates the possibility of the SEC poaching the ACC. ABC/ESPN essentially owns both conferences now, will it really want (i.e., allow) the SEC to damage it's near $2 billion investment in the ACC brand? No way. I'm sure ABC/ESPN will tell the SEC to steal from Fox or CBS, and pluck from the Big 12. And if the SEC deal value is locked in (regardless of expansion), that would mean adding 2 more teams would take $40 million out of the pot, reducing the SEC per team payment to nearly $17MM. Would an ACC team leave $13MM to pursue $17 mil, when doing so comes with a (1) huge exit fee, (2) a big buy-in fee to the new conference, and (3) forced forfeiture of profit points earned in the last 2 years of NCAA B-Ball tourney?