SEC Will Have Own TV Network Starting in 2014
The long-anticipated 20-year SEC Network deal, announced at a news conference in Atlanta, was a 10-year extension of ESPN’s existing SEC deal. The original contract, signed in 2008, guaranteed the SEC $2.25 billion over 15 years.
The extension will provide a significant financial boost to the conference, but the figures were not disclosed. The SEC, which will receive profits from the channel, will be tied to ESPN through 2034, the latest example of ESPN’s desire to lock up rights for as long as possible to provide continuity for its businesses and to keep the programming from rivals. “There’s a lot of discussion about new competitors for ESPN, and I’m going to invite all my competitors to take out the actuarial tables and look at the year 2034,” John Skipper, ESPN’s president, said at the news conference, which was attended by 32 SEC coaches. “I believe it’s the longest agreement in all of sports.” CBS Sports’s relationship with the SEC has 10 years left and remains unchanged. CBS gets the first choice of football games on Saturdays, which it televises at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, and one prime-time game during the season. The addition of the SEC Network means ESPN will have yet another channel it can use to present the conference’s games, beyond ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. The SEC Network will carry three football games a week, including one opposite CBS’s. “We can sit down and discuss what’s the best presentation of the day’s games,” Skipper said. An SEC channel was originally discussed during the talks that led to the 2008 deals with ESPN and CBS. But a provision for a “look-in” in the ESPN contract allowed talks to resume. “As time went on, we watched the evolution of technology and other events,” said Mike Slive, the SEC commissioner, “and we knew that we were going to find a way to enhance what we had already done.” ESPN must negotiate with cable, satellite and telephone companies to distribute the SEC Network. ESPN has already signed AT&T U-verse but will need to add other companies in the conference’s 11-state footprint, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Bright House, Cox, DirecTV, Dish Network and Verizon FiOS. Those deals are not always easy to make, but ESPN is relying on fan fervor to persuade carriers to add the channel to their expanded basic lineups. ESPN will also be able to put marquee matchups on the SEC Network to demonstrate its importance to consumers. ESPN is looking to get 25 million to 30 million subscribers in the conference’s 11-state territory and millions more outside those states, a strategy like the Big Ten Network’s. According to the research firm SNL Kagan, the Big Ten Network has just over 50 million subscribers, subscriber revenue of $234.3 million and net advertising revenue of $41.5 million. But Kagan said that the network lost money in the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, according to the conference’s Internal Revenue Service filings.View the original article here
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Malaysian voters have a historic opportunity to throw out the long-ruling National Front.
A co-creator of “Game of Thrones” on Caesar, songs about killers and compost cookies.
Malaysian voters have a historic opportunity to throw out the long-ruling National Front.
A co-creator of “Game of Thrones” on Caesar, songs about killers and compost cookies.
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