Could baseball deal land BYU football in Big East?

[Hueyhog20]

The best part about it? No more Thursday night games.

[Gismo]

fingers crossed that we get away from espn

[Skingraft]

This guy is what the BE needed

[Bulls1181]

Seems like ND is headed in the right direction for NBC. If they start competing for the NC then ratings will be off the charts. The BE should gain some extra viewership from ND

[Bulls1181]

http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/10/08/Media/Sports-Media.aspx

Time to look forward to next round of sports media deals

Published October 8, 2012

Now that Major League Baseball has completed media rights deals with ESPN, Fox and Turner, I am turning my attention to the next batch of sports TV negotiations. In the next six months, U.S. TV rights deals for the Big East, English Premier League, BCS and NASCAR should be complete or nearly finished.

The most interesting part of these deals is to see what NBC gets. The network has been active in every negotiation over the past couple of years and is looking to land at least one big fish to bring more viewers and advertisers to NBC Sports Network.

It also will be interesting to see whether any new networks swoop in to try to pick up sports rights. Everyone is waiting to see if Al Jazeera’s BeIN Sport will bid high enough to get EPL rights.

I asked four of the country’s top sports media consultants to handicap how they see these negotiations playing out. Most thought Fox would be more aggressive as it looks to rebrand its motorsports channel Speed into an all-sports channel. Most didn’t consider NBC to be a front-runner for any of the available packages.

â–  Big East: The majority believes ESPN and Fox will split the package.

Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media: “ESPN [will win because of] the advantages of incumbency plus the desire to retain an important part of the network’s heritage.â€

Len DeLuca, founder of Len DeLuca & Associates: “While NBCU should be favored, a split deal like the Pac-12 or new Atlantic 10 deal is possible, with ESPN and Fox the likely partners.â€

Ed Desser, president of Desser Sports Media, “CBS [will win] due to history, Fox and ESPN deals with other conferences, and a desire to use CBS Sports Network on a package that isn’t what it used to be.â€

Joel Lulla, professor at the University of Texas: “The Big East will be shared between Fox and ESPN. Notre Dame leaving the Big East could dampen NBC’s appetite to pay a premium for the product.â€

â–  EPL: Consensus is that Fox gets it.

Berke: “Fox has the networks in place to fully commercialize all EPL matches.â€

DeLuca: “Fox has momentum in fútbol acquisitions. NBC Sports Network and ESPN will try to break that. Too close to call.â€

Desser: “Al Jazeera. They have huge resources and a motivation a la BeIN to capture must-have programming. The financial pressures of EPL may lead them to take the money rather than go a traditional route, especially with the recent decisions on exclusivity in Europe.â€

Lulla: “EPL will go to Fox. Soccer is a programming cornerstone of Fox’s cable and international properties.â€

â–  BCS: The panel believes ESPN will keep the BCS; two of the four predict that ESPN will share it with Fox.

Berke: “ESPN and Fox [will share it]. Maximizing both revenues and exposure, BCS rotates the playoffs and the championship between college football’s two biggest media partners and helps establish what will become the Super Bowl of college football.â€

DeLuca: “Exclusivity will be prohibitive, so look for an ESPN and Fox split. But don’t discount Turner Sports’ appetite for championships (see NCAA basketball).â€

Desser: “ESPN [will win] due to deepest pockets, number of platforms and greatest strategic benefit from existing college football and bowl games packages.â€

Lulla: “BCS will stay with ESPN. ESPN has already proven its willingness to pay a premium for the Rose and Champions bowls, in large part to obtain rights to the semifinals hosted at those sites. I believe ESPN will likely pay whatever is necessary for the Orange Bowl, the other semifinal sites as well as the national championship game.â€

â–  NASCAR: The panel believes Fox will stay in the NASCAR business. Two believe Fox will share rights with ESPN and Turner; two think Fox will split rights with NBC.

Berke: “Fox/Turner/ESPN [will split the rights]. All three incumbents are motivated to retain perennial ratings performers with the auto industry on the rebound.â€

DeLuca: “NASCAR is a 10-month franchise. The new sports nets should be inspired. Fox Sports Group and NBCU should split the whole season, forcing ESPN and Turner out or to a digital-only status.â€

Desser: “Fox due to incumbency and new needs for their national sports cable net. Turner probably loses it. Maybe that’s what NBC takes.â€

Lulla: “NASCAR will remain with the incumbents Fox, Turner and ESPN. Those three media companies would like to re-up with NASCAR, whereas I don’t believe NBC will bid aggressively for NASCAR due to its ratings trajectory.â€

[Bulls1181]

http://www.bigeastcoastbias.com/2012/10/12/3493126/big-east-television-contract-industry-experts-predict-who-will-win

Big East Television Contract: Industry experts predict who will win the bidding

2

By Mengus22 on Oct 12, 10:17a

Michael Heiman - Getty Images

Sports Business Daily's John Ourand gathered a roundtable of industry insiders to predict which television network or networks, will win the bidding for the next set of important sports media rights deals, including the Big East television rights.

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The Big East is currently in a 60-day exclusive negotiating window with ESPN for its next media rights deal. Few expect a deal to be struck within that 60-day window, especially if it means a deal exclusively with ESPN. As has been widely reported, both Fox Sports and NBC Sports are anxious to get their hands on additional live sports programming. John Ourand of the Sports Business Daily gathered a roundtable of industry experts to get their opinions on which network or collection of networks will ultimately win the bidding for Big East sports. Here's what they had to say. Some of the answers might surprise you.

Big East: The majority believes ESPN and Fox will split the package.

Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Sports

, Entertainment & Media: "ESPN [will win because of] the advantages of incumbency plus the desire to retain an important part of the network’s heritage."

Len DeLuca, founder of Len DeLuca & Associates:

"While NBCU should be favored, a split deal like the Pac-12 or new Atlantic 10 deal is possible, with ESPN and Fox the likely partners."

Ed Desser, president of Desser Sports Media

, "CBS [will win] due to history, Fox and ESPN deals with other conferences, and a desire to use CBS Sports Network on a package that isn’t what it used to be."

Joel Lulla, professor at the University of Texas

: "The Big East will be shared between Fox and ESPN. Notre Dame leaving the Big East could dampen NBC’s appetite to pay a premium for the product."

First, I'm surprised to hear anyone indicate that CBS will be a major player for the rights. I haven't seen anything that gives me the impression that they'd be interested in it and I'm not convinced that just because the Big East hired Mike Aresco away from CBS, it'd be enough to make them commit that kind of money to the Big East. I'm also not convinced that the Big East would want to sell off those rights to play exclusively on the CBS Sports Network. If the deal included national broadcasts on CBS, before or after the typical Verne/Gary SEC game, well I'd be all in favor of that, but I don't think that's what Ed Desser has in mind.

Second, I'm surprised NBC isn't more of a player in the minds of the experts, but I think I can see why. The fact that Notre Dame is leaving for the ACC and will be exclusively on ESPN for its non-football sports likely dampens some of NBC's rumored plans to try and package Big East sports around its already established relationship with Notre Dame. Also, it'd be somewhat awkward to try and package Big East football and Notre Dame football together when there's no relationship between the school and the conference anymore.

Third, I'm not surprised to see increasing talk of a deal that involves Fox and ESPN together like the PAC-12 and Big 12 have. Despite how poorly ESPN has treated the Big East over the past two years, it will own all of the television rights for the expanded postseason format going forward, so there's value in retaining some working relationship with ESPN. A combination deal between the two networks would accomplish keeping NBC from expanding its college sports offerings while helping Fox Sports expand its coverage (which it has been doing aggressively, locking down the Tier 3 rights for virtually every Big 12 school) and thereby driving up the value of the contract. If Fox Sports is serious about converting the Speed Channel into a full sports channel, that'd be another outlet for Big East sports.

I don't think the Big East will reach an agreement on a television rights package any time soon, but it's still interesting to see what people in the industry think will occur. A more interesting and important question at this point is, how much will it be worth?

[slbpsi63]

my guess is 10-14 million per school. I have come to the realization that we will not see Acc type money.

[Bulls1181]

my guess is 10-14 million per school. I have come to the realization that we will not see Acc type money.

Sounds about right, 14 million would be a huge number considering who is left in our conference. Surprising to see that all the execs believe that ESPN will get a piece of the contract. ESPN has been killing us the past few seasons.

[slbpsi63]

We cant afford to loose the relationship with ESPN. Especially if they are the "unoffical College Football Commissioner"

[BDYZR]

What's the relationship of these execs and ESPN?