AAC Media Contract

[Lobot]

Memphis pres let it out that the Media contract renogotiations with ESPN have concluded and the contract details should be announced next week.

I’ve seen anything from 4M per school to 10M. Rumor has it that they asked for 10 and then couldn’t get it because they have no Grant of Rights deal. ESPN supposedly came back with 8. anything over 2 is an improvement.

[Gilenerm]

Memphis President said he was "pleased" with the contract. For whatever that is worth... I'm really hoping for 8, based on the same rumors you've probably heard, but I'm not giving up on the idea of 10.

[Lobot]

Here's more from the Memphis folks. Looks it's a sliding scale contract that starts at 5M in the first year and gets up to 8.5 in 2021-2023

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/sports/college/memphis-tigers/basketball/2019/03/02/memphis-aac-distributions-new-media-rights-deal/3036457002/

[Lobot]

It was pointed today by a Uconn Blogger (@Noescalators) that this was taken from a 3 year budget projection by the Memphis AD to the Memphis Board. It has no bearing on the actual length of the contract for the AAC. These numbers from the slides the Commericial Appeal got are estimates on the part of Memphis. They are not hard numbers from the AAC contract. It's a budget scenario, not facts. The CA screwed this up a bit.

[Gilenerm]

At this point, does anyone even know if the contract is done yet? If not, what might be holding it up? They way they were talking, we should have known the details last week.

[Lobot]

I’ll be honest with you. Based on some comments I’ve seen from other school’s sites, I don’t think it’s done. I cant verify one way or the other right now though.

[Lobot]

It's not done. Will be released somewhere around the end of the month.

[Lobot]

Details are rolling out now. 5M raise for UC in 2020. ESPN will have all but a few games in basketball and football including non rev sports.

Here’s the bad part. Games which do not land ABC, ESPN, 2, and U or a small package of games on CBS(Navy) will be pushed to ESPN+. This is a subscription streaming service currently at 4.99/month. So for those game that might have been on ESPN3 or CBSSN in the past, you now have to pay for.

[swilsonsp4]

I ponied up the fees so that I could watch other games of interest to me. At least ESPN+ includes premium article content that used to be in ESPN Insider, so there's that (not much, but beats a blank).

[Lobot]

Sports Business Daily is reporting the total deal is 1B and runs through 2032. Avg intake per school over the life of the deal is 6.9M per year. Year 1 starts at 5M per school.

[longtimefan]

Sports Business Daily is reporting the total deal is 1B and runs through 2032. Avg intake per school over the life of the deal is 6.9M per year. Year 1 starts at 5M per school.

"but the majority of basketball games and a significant number of the football games will go to ESPN+"


https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/...03/19/AAC.aspx

[Lobot]

Honestly we should have seen the ESPN+ move coming from miles away. I predict ESPN3/WatchESPN will die a quick death very soon. They're going to push all the non premium content to streaming because it's a big revenue source for them going forward. That's the only way they're going to dig ESPN out of the hole left by cord cutters ditching the cable business model they relied on for so long.

Disney is about to add a bunch of streaming options to the media pool beyond ESPN+ and Apple is getting into the streaming market on Monday as a competitor to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. I'm guessing that everyone will need a fast internet connection and a Live TV streaming service, Live Sports service and Movie/TV show service going forward plus premium add-ons like HBO, etc if you want them.

[made_hand]

Honestly we should have seen the ESPN+ move coming from miles away. I predict ESPN3/WatchESPN will die a quick death very soon. They're going to push all the non premium content to streaming because it's a big revenue source for them going forward. That's the only way they're going to dig ESPN out of the hole left by cord cutters ditching the cable business model they relied on for so long.

Disney is about to add a bunch of streaming options to the media pool beyond ESPN+ and Apple is getting into the streaming market on Monday as a competitor to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. I'm guessing that everyone will need a fast internet connection and a Live TV streaming service, Live Sports service and Movie/TV show service going forward plus premium add-ons like HBO, etc if you want them.

Very true; this move was inevitable as it is the only way ESPN can dig themselves out of debt.. As an out of state alumni, I would gladly pay $5/month to know I would get all basketball and football game. "Majority" is what they are offering, so who knows how this will play out.

Either way, the increase of revenue without the Grant-of-Rights has to be viewed as a win-win for the school\conference.

[Gilenerm]

Our current contract allowed for the home team to determine the game time if it was put on ESPN3. Do we know if this will be the case for the new contract?

[Lobot]

Our current contract allowed for the home team to determine the game time if it was put on ESPN3. Do we know if this will be the case for the new contract?

That's a really good question. I haven't seen enough of the details to answer that one. I'm going to guess yes because ESPN was able to operate this way for ESPN3 with regards to broadast crew assignments. At the same time I can definitely see ESPN trying to control those windows for logistics reasons. That's one to ask Ryan Koslen when UC is able to talk about it.