Daily Newsletter

25 June 2024

Daily Newsletter

25 June 2024

Report: Big East close to agreeing new rights deals with Fox, TNT, NBC

Fox will remain as an incumbent while CBS will drop out of the broadcast mix.

Alex Donaldson June 25 2024

US collegiate sports’ Big East conference is reportedly closing in on a trio of new long-term domestic media rights agreements.

The college conference, which most prominently organizes Division 1 basketball, looks set to see a marked increase on the $41.6 million it has received annually from media giant Fox during its current deal, a 12-year $500 million contract inked in 2013.

Fox Sports is the incumbent broadcaster of Big East action and will reportedly stay on as part of the conference’s broadcast mix - alongside the new additions of NBCUniversal-owned NBC, and Warner Bros. Discovery-owned TNT. US media has reported this could take place this week.

The lucrative new deals are said to be for a six-year term, beginning with the 2025-26 season.

Meanwhile, Paramount Global-owned CBS will drop out of the Big East domestic broadcast mix having held rights to its competitions for over a decade through a series of sub-licensing deals, the most recent of which came in 2019 when it began a new sub-contract with Fox for 20 games per season ending in 2025.

The additions of NBC and TNT mean that CBS’ omission is likely due to an inability to find a suitable broadcast package of games.

TNT’s interest in Big East basketball probably stems from the fact it is set to lose its rights to professional basketball’s NBA, while NBC is looking to bolster its basketball lineup as the broadcaster that is set to gain the NBA rights from TNT, and is seeking to bring more viewers to its Peacock streaming service.

Alongside fellow media giant Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Fox Corp will jointly operate the upcoming Venu Sports streaming venture set to control over 50% of live sports broadcasts in the US. Should Fox and WBD seal the broadcast deal with Big East, there would seem a strong chance that a majority of the conference’s games each season will be covered by the streaming service.

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