US collegiate sport’s Big Ten conference has concluded its lucrative new long-term domestic TV rights deals with major national networks Fox, CBS, and NBC.
The conference has agreed a seven-year deal with the broadcasters worth around $7.5 billion.
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The deal, understood to be a record in college sports, will begin on July 1, 2023, and run through the end of the 2029-30 athletic year.
This year’s Big Ten – which features college basketball and American football most prominently – begins on August 27.
As recently reported, major sports broadcaster ESPN has not been included as a Big Ten domestic rights partner for the first time in 40 years.
ESPN ended discussions with the organization over a contract renewal after rejecting the conference’s offer of a seven-year extension worth in the region of $380 million.
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By GlobalDataThe three aforementioned networks that will offer coverage of Big Ten college football in the future will do so with the following split in fixture coverage on a Saturday: Fox at 12PM, CBS (Paramount) at 3:30PM, and NBC during an evening primetime slot.
All three networks will carry future Big Ten football championship games.
Fox, which will remain the Big Ten's primary broadcast partner and has carried the title game since its inception in 2011, will broadcast the championship in 2023, 2025, 2027, and 2029 (in addition to the 2022 game). CBS will carry the game in 2024 and 2028, and NBC in 2026.
Big Ten games will also appear on Peacock, NBC's direct-to-consumer streaming platform.
Fox will air 24 to 32 football games per season during the agreement, while NBC will carry 14 to 16 games on its linear network and eight games per year on Peacock. Beginning in 2024, CBS will carry 14 to 15 Big Ten games per season.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten Network, the conference’s in-house offering, will continue to air football games – up to 50 per year from 2024 through 2029 – as well as most of the league's men's and women's basketball games and Olympic sports.
Turner, Apple, and Amazon are also understood to have held talks with the conference about its new media rights deal.
Paramount-owned CBS's initial season in 2023 will include seven football games and both regular season and post-season men's basketball action, along with coverage of the Big Ten women's basketball tournament final for the first time.
The Big Ten men's basketball tournament semi-finals and final will continue to air on CBS, while every CBS Big Ten football and basketball broadcast will be streamed on Paramount+ too, the media giant’s streaming service.
From 2024, CBS will televise up to 15 regular-season football games per season, including an annual Black Friday game in the afternoon.
NBC will show up to 16 games on its linear channel each season, while each Big Ten game on the network will also be streamed simultaneously on Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming platform.
In addition, Peacock will show exclusive Big Ten football and basketball matches, with eight regular season football games to appear on the platform along with as many as 47 regular season men's basketball games (32 conference and 15 non-conference) and 30 regular-season women's basketball games (20 conference and 10 non-conference) each year.
Through the new rights agreement, the Big Ten is projected to eventually distribute $80 million to $100 million per year to each of its 16 members. The league distributed around $54 million to most of its members during the most recent fiscal year (2019-20) not impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
It was recently announced that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Southern California (USC) will join the Big Ten in August 2024.
Kevin Warren, commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, said: "The Big Ten Conference media rights agreements are more than just dollars and deals. They are a mechanism to provide stability and maximum exposure for our student-athletes, member institutions, and partners during these uncertain times in collegiate athletics.
"We are very grateful to our media partners for recognizing the strength of the Big Ten Conference brand and providing the incredible resources we need.
"The new rights agreements are an incredible achievement for our entire conference. "I am incredibly grateful to our partners at CBS, NBC and FOX Sports for solidifying unprecedented Big Ten access across transformative media companies for our fans to tune-in and follow the Big Ten content they love."
Last August, the Big Ten, Pac-12, and ACC conferences announced a collaborative alliance, that has now brought together 41 college institutions and was unanimously supported by the presidents, chancellors, and athletics directors of the respective schools.
The alliance focuses on multiple issues such as NCAA governance and an expansion of the College Football Playoff.
The partnership also includes a scheduling component for American football and women’s and men’s basketball designed to create new inter-conference games and enhance opportunities for student-athletes.
Last year, the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 conferences featured over 27,000 student-athletes competing on 863 teams in 31 sports.
