The SEC is “weeks away from restructuring its media rights deal with its current partners, CBS and ESPN,” and conversations have included increasing rights fees and "more talk about a conference channel that could be ready for launch in time for the 2014 football season,” according to sources cited by Ourand & Smith of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The bigger negotiation is with ESPN, and talks “appear to revolve around an SEC-branded cable channel that could launch as early as 2014.” ESPN’s current arrangement with the SEC -- negotiated in ‘08 -- “pays an average of $150 million a year over 15 years.” Now, discussions on a conference channel, “of which ESPN would be a partner, are running concurrent with the rights fee negotiations.” It is still to be seen if the SEC "will be an equity partner in the channel, like the Big Ten, or if the conference will simply sell the rights to ESPN for an additional fee.” Any channel “couldn’t be launched until 2014 at the earliest, when ESPN gets back syndication rights it sublicensed to regional sports networks operated by Fox Sports and Comcast.” A decision on whether to go forward with a new SEC-focused network “would be made by the SEC-member university presidents and ESPN.” But sources think that the conference “will reach an agreement with CBS first.” Those sources predict that CBS will "wind up paying a prorated increase or slightly more to the SEC.” Sources said that the net “has balked at paying any type of significant increase … arguing that the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M does not change its deal.” CBS’s deal with the SEC, also negotiated in ‘08, “pays an average of $55 million a year to the SEC over 15 years.” A prorated increase “would take the value of that deal up to $65 million a year.” The SEC could generate “additional revenue by adding more years on the end of the contract” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 5/21 issue).
BONUS FOR THE BIG EAST: In Tampa, Greg Auman writes the Big East “won't begin formal negotiations on a lucrative new TV contract until the fall,” but the conference at its annual meetings yesterday let NBC and Fox "offer preliminary presentations on why they'd like to showcase Big East games.” Auman notes that interest, “combined with the existing audience on ESPN, should create competitive bidding in the fall.” That could be “a windfall if conference members can stay together long enough to see the stability of a new deal” (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 5/22). In Orlando, Iliana Limon Romero writes despite “instability among its members and the recent termination of Commissioner John Marinatto, Big East leaders suggest the television network attention shows the league still has the ability to land a lucrative contract that justifies a reformed lineup stretching from California to Connecticut.” NBC and Fox reps “outlined the value they see in the Big East, noting the league will have teams in 13 of the top 50 media markets spanning four time zones in 2013.” The two nets are “trying to expand their college lineup and the unprecedented competition for live events could drive up the value of the Big East’s new TV deal” (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 5/22).
