New ACC TV deal

[Hurricane Mutiny]

In case the BE-8 doubts the wisdom of 12 or more teams (even if you have to take UCF)...

And also, what you'll step into if the SEC adds 2-4 ACC teams...

http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/65729

By JOHN OURAND & MICHAEL SMITH

Staff writers

Published May 17, 2010 : Page 01

ESPN won the TV rights to ACC football and basketball in a bidding competition with Fox Sports that was surprisingly close, industry sources say, and as a result made the conference several million more dollars.

The back-and-forth bidding, which reached its final stages last week at the league’s spring meetings in Amelia Island, Fla., drove up ESPN’s rights fee from initial projections of about $120 million a year to $155 million, sources said, providing the ACC with more than double the revenue it was receiving from its previous football and basketball contracts.

ESPN’s increase was in response to an unexpectedly strong pursuit by Fox Sports and sources familiar with the negotiations say the bidding was neck-and-neck last week.

ACC TV rights revenue

Current deals:

Football: 7 years, $258 million with ABC/ESPN through 2010

Basketball: 10 years, $300 million with Raycom Sports through 2010-11

Average per year: $66.9 million

New deal:

Football/basketball: 12 years, $1.86 billion with ABC/ESPN through 2022-23

Average per year: $155 million

Sources: Conference Form 990 filed with the IRS, SportsBusiness Journal

The ACC broke from its spring meetings without announcing a new deal, and the conference said a formal contract had not been finalized. But industry sources pegged a pending deal with ESPN at $1.86 billion over 12 years.

That annual figure of $155 million dwarfs the average of $67 million the league was getting from its previous media deals, which expire at the end of the 2010-11 season (see chart), but falls well short of the $205 million a year that the SEC gets from its new 15-year deals with CBS and ESPN.

Raycom Sports, a 30-year partner with the conference, is expected to continue running the syndicated package of football and basketball by sublicensing those games from ESPN.

It is unclear what digital rights are included, but the deal is thought to be an all-encompassing arrangement between the ACC and ESPN that includes online and broadband.

With the new package, ESPN will continue to choose from the ACC’s full selection of football games for its Thursday night programming, as well as its Saturday afternoon and night games on ABC. The basketball package keeps the highly rated North Carolina-Duke game on ESPN, and the network typically broadcasts ACC action on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights during the week, in addition to Saturdays. It remains to be seen if FSN will continue its Sunday night basketball programming by purchasing those games from ESPN in the new contract.

The basketball package keeps the highly rated

North Carolina-Duke game on ESPN.

To win the rights, ESPN had to stave off Fox, which sent its big guns to Amelia Island to make its final bid. Fox was represented by Chase Carey, the chief operating officer for parent company News Corp.; Fox Sports President Ed Goren; and Fox Sports Networks President Randy Freer. Their bid included over-the-air and cable components, with a game of the week on Fox Sports and other games throughout the week on FX and FSN.

ESPN had executive vice presidents John Skipper and John Wildhack, and Burke Magnus, senior vice president of college sports, at the meetings for its final pitch.

Ken Haines, the longtime president of Charlotte-based Raycom Sports and a familiar figure around the ACC meetings, made his final presentation as well.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford and the ACC’s media consultant, IMG’s Barry Frank, led the talks on the conference side.

That Fox made such a competitive bid could be considered a heartening development for the Pac-10 and Big 12 conferences, which are next in line to negotiate new media contracts. Both have rights expiring in 2012.

Turner Sports, which recently acquired with CBS the NCAA’s rights to broadcast the men’s basketball tournament through 2024, could be a factor in future rights negotiations as it seeks regular-season college programming to go with its NCAA package.

Those networks might provide some much-needed competition in the college space for these conference deals, which have been dominated by ESPN.

The ACC’s new contract, which will take the league through the 2022-23 season, will be structured differently than its previous contracts. In the past, the ACC sold its football rights to ESPN, while Raycom bought the basketball rights. Other broadcasters who wanted ACC basketball, such as CBS, ESPN and FSN, acquired their games from Raycom.

The new deal puts the football and basketball rights in ESPN’s basket, from which Raycom, FSN and others will purchase their games.

[tampabull]

well that means espn will decide who the acc will take if they lose a team in expansion.

[Hurricane Mutiny]

well that means espn will decide who the acc will take if they lose a team in expansion.

I tend to agree with that.

That's what puts USF and UCF so high on the charts.  A couple of Top 20 TV markets.  That's a lot more than, say, Nebraska or WVU offer.

[cygnus34]

With this new tv deal I doubt any school will leave the A.C.C.!  I do NOT believe ESPN would have any say in what schools the A.C.C. would bring in for expansion.  Academics are as much apart of that as selection as athletics and  there is no way the A.C.C. will be told what schools to bring in.

[tampabull]

With this new tv deal I doubt any school will leave the A.C.C.!  I do NOT believe ESPN would have any say in what schools the A.C.C. would bring in for expansion.  Academics are as much apart of that as selection as athletics and  there is no way the A.C.C. will be told what schools to bring in.

unless there is a clause in the agreement that states if you lose any teams the total is subject to change.

[goodknightfl]

I think this likely bodes well for BE.  Acc is less likely to get raided and much less likely to expand.  Be may come out of this shake up in pretty good shape.

[Hurricane Mutiny]

With this new tv deal I doubt any school will leave the A.C.C.!  I do NOT believe ESPN would have any say in what schools the A.C.C. would bring in for expansion.  Academics are as much apart of that as selection as athletics and  there is no way the A.C.C. will be told what schools to bring in.

OK, let's clarify.

I'm not suggesting that ESPN is a voting member of the ACC expansion committee.  But to ignore its impact is just silly.  Currently, we have multiple ESPN requests that the ACC and/or specific teams have bent over for, such as scheduling the retarded Labor Day night games, too many Thursday games, and the idiotic scheduling of UM-USF over Thanksgiving weekend.  We also whore ourselves out to Nike and their ridiculous "secondary logo" (the clam), not to mention the stupid throwback jerseys.

I know you may not like to hear this, but if you compare the relative TV MERITS of, say, UCF and WVU, then the answer is not going to be what you think it should be.

And if the ACC just nailed down a brand new contract, and immediately loses 2-4 of its biggest draws, then the first, second, and third priorities are NOT going to be "let's pick the school with the most number of wins over the last XX years".  It's going to be media market driven.

Look, be honest.  Outside of the BE schools that are targets for the Big 10, the remainder of the BE football conference is not exactly filled with academic giants.  Louisville, Cincy, WVU, and USF are not exactly the cream of the academic crop, but they are certainly the most likely and available candidates if the ACC is forced into a defensive reaction to losing teams to the SEC.  Add UCF and Memphis to the mix too.

ESPN won't be the sole decision-maker, but to ignore their importance given our new TV contract is just wrong.

[South_Florida_Flip]

With this new tv deal I doubt any school will leave the A.C.C.!

If there are more dollars to be made elsewhere, then they would leave in a heartbeat.

[smazza]

big east with paul tagilbooo  remain eerily quiet

[tampabull]

big east with paul tagilbooo  remain eerily quiet

what do you want them to say smazza.  They are looking into different avenues in which to better the big east.  The big east problem was not addressing these issues years ago, and now it is coming back to haunt them.  It takes longer than a month to make big business changes.