ESPN Negotiating to Keep Exclusive College Football Playoff Rights as CFP Readies for Expansion
Getting exclusive rights to the expanded CFP would be a huge win for ESPN as it prepares to launch a new streaming platform.
ESPN isn’t done bolstering its inventory of college sports. A week after inking a new deal with the NCAA that will see 40 men’s and women’s championship events air on ESPN every year for eight years, reports have emerged that indicate the channel is nearing an agreement that will see it retain exclusive broadcast rights to the College Football Playoff (CFP), which is set to expand from four teams to 12 in 2024.
- The new proposal would see ESPN extend its exclusivity with the CFP for six years past its current deal, which ends in 2025.
- The proposal would allow ESPN to sublicense games to Fox or other broadcasters.
- Apple, Amazon, NBCUniversal, and Warner Bros. Discovery have all reportedly expressed some level of interest in CFP rights in the past six months.
ESPN and the CFP, Together Forever?
The expansion of the playoff will create a good-sized amount of new inventory for broadcasters to bid on, but a report from ESPN indicates that this new inventory might all end up in the same place that every CFP game to date has aired. The network is still negotiating with the playoff committee, and no deals are final, but if they do agree to terms it would keep CFP rights solely in the hands of ESPN through 2031, six years past the expiration of its current deal in 2025.
ESPN’s report indicates that the 10 FBS commissioners along with Notre Dame’s athletic director Jack Swarbick originally wanted to sell the expanded CFP rights to multiple broadcasters. Front Office Sports reported last week that Fox, which already airs a wide selection of college football games preceded by its “Big Noon Kickoff” show, was ready to put a “massive” bid on the table.
The contract currently under discussion between the CFP and ESPN includes a sublicensing provision, which means that the network could sell some CFP games to outlets like Fox if it chose. Under the terms of the deal, ESPN would pay as much as $1.3 billion to maintain its CFP exclusivity.
Is Extension Best for ESPN, College Football?
ESPN would be in a fantastic position if it were able to lock up the CFP exclusively for another six years past 2025. That’s the year that Disney has circled on its calendar for launching a streaming version of ESPN that would theoretically carry all of the sporting events and programming on its cable channels. Being able to offer the entire CFP when it expands to 12 teams would obviously be a huge draw for customers who have cut the cord and can’t otherwise watch those games.
Whether keeping the CFP exclusive to ESPN would be good for college football is another question. Engaging with more than one potential partner could have induced a bidding war for CFP rights, which could bring in more money for the schools involved. Such a bidding war is still not out of the question; ESPN is no longer in its exclusive negotiating window with the CFP, so other outlets can still swoop in with competitive bids if they choose. In addition to Fox, NBCUniversal, Apple, Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery have all reportedly shown some level of interest in acquiring at least one CFP game.
The sublicensing agreement discussed in ESPN’s potential extension with the CFP could be the key. It may even be accompanied by a proviso that ESPN has to license a select number of games per season, though that’s purely educated conjecture. Having ESPN license some games to other broadcasters would allow the channel to collect a handsome fee, and it would allow the CFP to realize its goal of having multiple broadcast partners for the larger inventory of games.
ESPN drew 22.6 million viewers on average between this year’s CFP semifinal games alone, so it’s clear that whichever outlet gets the rights will have a ratings cash cow on its hands. But media companies like Fox, NBCU, WBD, and tech firms will have to come up with some serious money if they want to compete with ESPN’s $1.3 billion bid to retain exclusivity for the CFP.
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