South Carolina last week announced a nine-year multimedia rights renewal with ISP Sports worth $50.6 million, but the total value will be closer to $60 million when ISP and Learfield complete their joint acquisition of Action Sports Media.
Action owns the rights to the signage at South Carolina’s football stadium and basketball arena, a deal that pays the Gamecocks about $1 million annually in guaranteed revenue. The rights to that signage will eventually roll into ISP’s multimedia deal and give South Carolina one rights holder for all of its inventory, Athletic Director Eric Hyman said.
“With ISP’s ability now to bundle all of that together, they’ll get a lot more mileage out of it in the marketplace,” Hyman said. “The timing is phenomenal.”
Having one rights holder also will relieve any confusion in the marketplace, Hyman said. With two rights holders, Action and ISP were sometimes competing for marketing dollars. ISP, with all of the rights going forward, will be able to bundle advertising, sponsorships and stadium/arena signage in its deals.
The Action contract and the new ISP deal are timed to end at the same time, 2017. Hyman said he was not previously aware of ISP’s plans with Learfield to buy Action and it did not play a role in the bidding process.
