The Pac-12 has "completed a complex six-month negotiation to acquire key TV, digital and sponsorship rights previously held by multimedia rights holders IMG College and Learfield Sports," according to Michael Smith of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The deal, which will require the conference to "pay IMG College and Learfield roughly $15 million a year for the rights, clears the way for the launch of the Pac-12 TV channel next year, while also putting the conference in control of vital distribution categories, including wireless and multiplatform video distributor." The new arrangement "positions the conference to put all TV, digital and sponsorship rights owned by the conference under the Pac-12 Enterprises banner, making it the first league to control and bundle all of those rights." Pac-12 Enterprises President Gary Stevenson "will oversee the integration of those rights" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/7 issue).
CALLING AN AUDIBLE: SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said that the conference "will exercise one of its options to adjust the current ESPN contract." CBSSPORTS.com's Dennis Dodd reported the conference is "expected to ask for an increase in the rights fees on the current 15-year, $3 billion deal after the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri." Also, there "has long been industry speculation that the SEC would bundle some non-conference football games as a foundation for a separate network." Slive said that SEC schools currently are "allowed to show one non-conference football game per year on a pay-per-view basis," though none of the schools do so. Bundling 14 non-conference games -- one for each team -- and "forming a network around the programming could create another windfall stream of revenue for the SEC" (CBSSPORTS.com, 11/5).
NETWORKING GROUP: Interim Big 12 Commissioner Chuck Neinas said that the conference is "considering whether it could create a network that would be a collaboration of the schools other than Texas and Oklahoma." Texas already has its own Longhorn Network, and Oklahoma is "planning one of its own." Neinas said that the league is "not contractually allowed to call its channel the Big 12 Network but it could find another name for it." It is also "unclear what, if any, content related to Texas and Oklahoma could appear on the channel" (AP, 11/6).
