Hocutt is excited to see what digital players may enter the fray for Big 12 media rights in the near futureGETTY IMAGES
Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt this week gave a glimpse into some thinking around the Big 12’s media-rights future, saying the conversation "has to be focused on how do we best position ourselves" when the league's Tier 1 TV rights deal expires in '24-25. Appearing Wednesday on his eponymous radio show on Lubbock-based KTTU-FM, Hocutt said the expiration is "not too far away when you think about the process that goes into the negotiation process." Hocutt: "If anybody says they understand what the consumer behavior is going to be at that particular time, they’d be lying to you." He added, "While we’ve done a great job of evolving Texas Tech TV -- it’s available on Apple TV and Roku now -- to people in my age bracket, that’s scary to us, because we don’t understand that. To the younger generations, they’re growing up in this, and that’s going to be the way they consume their content." Hocutt said the conference has to look at how "we take our third tier rights -- that we’ve said all along separate us from the other leagues because we still own this third-tier inventory -- and package it and make sure when we go to the market in 2024-2025 that we have all of our inventory aligned, that we have our football championship game, that we have our Tier 1 and Tier 2 content available for the marketplace at that time." Hocutt: "Then, it’ll be exciting to see what players are in this space. The major players, as we know them today, I anticipate they’ll still be there. But will Google be there? Will Netflix be there? Will Apple TV be there? It’s an unknown, but it’s an exciting unknown."
HATS OFF: Hocutt said ESPN is the "best in the business" when it comes to digital, and they have been "thinking about this for a long time." Hocutt: "When you see their investment into ESPN+, they are cutting edge. The content they are putting onto their digital platforms is attractive. I will find myself, when I have some down time, gong to ESPN+ to watch some of their shoulder programming rather than watching TV at home” ("Kirby Hocutt Show," 3/20)
