Pac-12 Won’t Announce New Rights Deal This Week, but Will in the ‘Near Future’; Broadcast, Cable, Streaming Options on the Table
The last college football media rights domino to fall apparently won’t tumble this week, but will in the “near future.” According to ESPN and Yahoo Sports!, the Pac-12 college athletic conference will not announce a media rights deal at this week’s football conference media days, but will do so in the “near future.” The new broadcast agreement is expected to include a mix of streaming and linear offerings that will be on par with what the ACC and Big 12 recently received from various
It has been a long year for the Pac-12 both in the conference and in its quest for a new media rights deal. The conference may finally have a deal on the horizon but it won’t be able to sell tentpole schools like USC and UCLA, which are leaving the conference for the green pastures of the Big Ten. Despite that fact, a source gave ESPN an optimistic look at the future that should make the remaining schools very happy.
“Our 10 schools have been ridiculously patient,” ESPN’s source said, adding that the league’s patience to make a deal has led to more bidders coming to the table. “That patience is about to pay off.”
A rights deal on par with the Big 12 and ACC would breathe new life into the Pac-12, but those two deals are admittedly very different. The Big 12 agreed to a six-year, $2.2 billion deal with ESPN and FOX that includes linear and streaming broadcasts. The deal gives the conference a hefty raise from $220 million per year to $380 million and also puts more sports like women’s soccer and volleyball onto national networks.
Meanwhile, the ACC just agreed to a deal with The CW that will run through the 2026-27 season, but no financial details have been revealed. This is a side deal that takes the place of a previous agreement between Raycom Sports and the conference. Raycom sold its rights to The CW to sublicense games from ESPN, which has a deal still in place with the ACC through the 2035-36 academic year. While The CW is a national broadcast network with a number of affiliates rivaling FOX, nobody will confuse the network for a sports juggernaut in the way they see FOX and ESPN. The ACC will continue to air games on ESPN linear and streaming outlets.
In an ideal world, the Pac-12 deal falls somewhere in the middle of these two, where the conference manages to secure rights with a major broadcast network (or two), but offers streaming options, especially for non-football and basketball sports, to give the student-athletes an opportunity to showcase their abilities for a wider audience. Both Apple and Amazon have been rumored to be interested in securing part of the conference's media rights and in the spring, insiders noted that it was unlikely that any traditional broadcaster would end up securing more than 50% of the rights.
We don’t foresee the conference attracting major money without USC and UCLA, but we know football is king in America, so it should not be a surprise that multiple media companies are willing to pony up for Pac-12 football.