Sunday, April 17, 2011

Pac-10 Optimistic About Future Television Rights


The process of securing television contracts for NCAA conferences deals with big money.

To put this in perspective, the Big 12 conference recently made news when they reached a deal with Fox Sports for $90 million annually for the next 13 years. This deal coincides with their $130 million annually between ABC/ESPN and the Big 12.

The Big 10 conference holds the largest television contract of $220 million while the SEC conference has a slightly smaller contract of $205 million.

Where does the Pac-10 fit in this equation?

The Pac-10 has an annual contract with television networks of $60 million. This is obviously pretty low in comparison to other conferences. However, Pac-10 officials are working to expand their contracts.

Negotiations will be finalized by 2012 between Pac-10 schools and television executives. Fans are optimistic that the measly $60 million will be greatly expanded.

The reason for the optimism?

With the expansion of the Pacific Conference from 10 teams to 12 teams next season, the viewing market will also be larger. That makes the Pac-12 conference much more attractive to television networks.

Furthermore, television executives are trying to get more football games on their networks.

The president of Fox Sports Networks, Randy Freer said college sports “is undervalued compared to other content in the marketplace.”

No comments:

Post a Comment