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ESPN's Skipper Confident New ACC Network Will Have Full Distribution By '19 Launch Date

ACC and ESPN officials this morning officially announced the creation of the conference’s digital and linear networks, with ESPN President John Skipper saying the company is confident it will be fully distributed by ‘19. The announcement was made during the ACC’s football kickoff event in Charlotte. The digital network, ACC Network Extra, launches next month to coincide with the start of the football season, while the television network will debut in three years. Content on ACC Network Extra will be accessible through WatchESPN and the ESPN app. “We’re aware of the value of sports content and the current environment,” Skipper said. “This will be a significant asset to ESPN. We’ll be able to have good discussions with our distributors.” Neither Skipper nor ACC Commissioner John Swofford would discuss financial details of the deal, but financial implications for a conference are significant. Big Ten Network, for example, provided around $8M per school in ‘15, while the ESPN-owned SEC Network gave about $7.5M to member schools in its first year. ACC Network likely will be based in Charlotte, which is where ESPNU and the SEC Net both are based, but Skipper said ESPN would spend the next 12-18 months deciding on where to put ACC Network studios. The new channel will not be modeled after the two-year-old SEC Net, Skipper said. “I don’t want to take anything like this and say we’re going to take something from another network and transform it. This will be a unique creation and we will do this together with the ACC,” he said. One parallel with the SEC Net, however, is that member schools will be asked to upgrade technologies and production centers in conjunction with the launch.

TIME NEEDED TO PLAN: ESPN announced the creation of the SEC Network in May ‘13 and launched just over a year later. Skipper said the three-year delay for the ACC Net is to give ESPN time to plan. “We wanted to provide ourselves with some runway to plan the network, to get the distribution deals done and figure out staffing,” he said. He also noted the ACC’s syndicated content on Raycom Sports will continue through ‘19. Swofford called today one of the most important in the history of the conference. “This would have to rank way up there given the times we’re in and the landscape we’re dealing with on both the TV side and college athletics,” he said.

HOOP IT UP
: Swofford this morning also announced each ACC men's basketball team will play a 20-game conference schedule beginning with the '19-20 season. Raleigh-based WCMC-FM's Joe Ovies on Twitter wrote, "RE: ACC Network in ’19. They’ll have 20 basketball games. ESPN knows that’s the bread & butter, like SEC football." Freelance college sports writer Patrick Stevens: "ACC clearly all about creating as much high-end inventory as possible with its new network. A logical next step? 9-game league FB schedule." Greensboro News & Record's Brant Wilkerson-New: "20 game basketball schedule for ACC in 2019 is big. Adds a ton of inventory for new network." Fayetteville Observer's Bret Strelow: "So for people wanting programs to beef up noncon skeds, even less likely once ACC gets to 20 league games." Scout.com's Jody Demling: "ACC women's schedule right now is 16 games; they didn't mention women's games so I assume they stay at 16. Will ask." Burlington Times-News' Bob Sutton: "So at the ACC Football Kickoff, the buzz is about a 20-game ACC men's hoops schedule coming in a few years."

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