Sun Belt schools can expect $300,000 to $400,000 per year with annual increases.Getty Images
Conference USA cut its media rights deal with CBS, Stadium and Facebook just days after a rights deal was announced by the Sun Belt, a peer conference a notch below the power five. While their timing was similar, the two deals are markedly different, with Conference USA opting for three partners compared to the Sun Belt’s all-in arrangement with ESPN.
The Sun Belt signed its deal with ESPN and will provide significant programming on ESPN’s soon-to-launch over-the-top product, ESPN+. As part of the deal, ESPN committed to carry a handful of regular-season football games on one of its linear TV channels, mainly in a midweek time slot.
Wasserman’s Tag Garson consulted with Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson on the new arrangement.
The league still had two years remaining on its existing ESPN deal. In fact, its exclusive negotiating window to talk to other media companies wasn’t scheduled to come up until next year, which means that talks with Facebook or other non-linear platforms never came into the picture.
Sun Belt schools will see an increase in annual revenue well above the current $100,000 per school, sources said. Under the new deal, Sun Belt schools can expect $300,000 to $400,000 per year with annual increases.
Each athletic department will take on more of the production responsibilities for the games going on ESPN+, but the network is expected to offset some of those costs with an upfront payment.
Some schools expressed concern about sending most of their games to a pay channel — ESPN+ will cost $4.95 a month. But sources said Benson and conference leaders preferred a model that keeps almost all of its games on one channel instead of selling a more fragmented package of games.
