Learfield Sports and ISP Sports are pushing back against IMG in the college sports space with the joint acquisition of Action Sports Media.
Action’s assets include all of the non-human signs at
South Carolina’s football stadium.
Action, based in Alcoa, Tenn., holds the rights for 10 universities and 22 collegiate venues, including storied Rupp Arena. The acquisition will provide new university relationships or enhance existing ones for Learfield and ISP, each of which owns the multimedia rights to more than 40 schools.
It also comes at a time when competitor IMG has been in an aggressive acquisition mode, scooping up Collegiate Licensing Co. and Host Communications to form IMG College Sports last year.
“It’s definitely a very competitive landscape,” said Kyle Wray, director of university marketing at Oklahoma State, a client of Action’s. “There are a lot of lucrative contracts out there right now and several multimedia rights companies competing for business. It’s an interesting time.”
Action plans
Action Sports Media’s
collegiate partners
• Alabama
• Elon
• Kansas State
• Kentucky
• Mississippi
• Oklahoma State
• Portland
• Purdue
• South Carolina
• South Florida
Source: Action Sports
Media
Repeated attempts to reach officials at Learfield and ISP were unsuccessful. Action CEO Gordon Whitener said via e-mail that he could not comment.
Action put itself on the market last year when the company retained a consulting firm to field inquiries. Terms of the acquisition were not available, and details of how Learfield and ISP will split Action’s assets remain in the works. Learfield and ISP are separate companies, but some of their collegiate properties are joint ventures, such as Alabama, Clemson and South Carolina, where they share revenue.
The majority of Action’s assets involve signage at university arenas and football stadiums. The inventory ranges from simply the scoreboard signage at Mississippi to all of the signage at South Carolina’s football stadium and basketball arena.
Most of Action’s clients have been notified of the acquisition and many are awaiting more details, such as who their primary contact will be and whether the sales staffs will change. In some cases, like at Kansas State, the scoreboard inventory from Action will simply roll into Learfield’s inventory as the multimedia rights holder there.
At other schools, such as Oklahoma State, where Action had rights to the stadium scoreboard and signage, Learfield and ISP will have to co-exist with IMG, which owns the Cowboys’ multimedia rights. Oklahoma State’s deals expire in another year, so all of that inventory will likely be bundled when the rights go up for bid.
At municipally owned Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., home of Kentucky’s basketball team, Action holds the rights to the signage inside the arena, as well as the inventory in the adjacent Lexington Center. The rights for Rupp Arena have already been assigned to Learfield, according to Bill Owen, president and CEO of the Lexington Center.
“We’ve been assured that it will be business as usual,” said Owen, who has already met with a Learfield representative.
Action owns the full multimedia rights to two universities, Elon and Portland. Elon Athletic Director Dave Blank said his sports property has been assigned to ISP Sports, but he has not yet met with anyone from the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based rights holder.
Portland has initially been told that its multimedia rights will go to Jefferson City, Mo.-based Learfield.
