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Big Ten Media Rights Deal Announced
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Big Ten completes $7B deal with Fox, CBS, NBC
The Big Ten has completed a new seven-year media rights agreement with Fox, CBS and NBC that is set to bring in more than $7 billion to one of the nation's most powerful athletic conferences.
All games broadcast by CBS will also stream on Paramount+, all games broadcast by NBC will also stream on Peacock. Eight games will be exclusive to Peacock.
- Starting in 2024, CBS will televise up to 15 regular-season football games per season, including an annual Black Friday game in the afternoon
- NBC will televise 16 Big Ten football games annually in 2023-2029, including primetime games on Labor Day Sunday and Black Friday. All of NBC's games will be simul-streamed on Peacock
- Starting in 2024, CBS will televise up to 15 regular-season football games per season, including an annual Black Friday game in the afternoon
- NBC will televise 16 Big Ten football games annually in 2023-2029, including primetime games on Labor Day Sunday and Black Friday. All of NBC's games will be simul-streamed on Peacock
BIG TEN CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES GROUNDBREAKING MEDIA RIGHTS AGREEMENTS PROVIDING FANS UNPRECEDENTED ACCESS AND STUDENT-ATHLETES GREATER EXPOSURE THAN ANY OTHER COLLEGIATE SPORTS CONFERENCE IN HISTORY
The Big Ten Conference announced today that it has reached distribution agreements with CBS, FOX, NBC and NBCUniversal's Peacock.
bigten.org
Big Ten Conference Announces Groundbreaking Media Rights Agreements Providing Fans Unprecedented Access and Student-Athletes Greater Exposure Than Any Other Collegiate Sports Conference in History
BigTen.org
The Big Ten Conference announced today that it has reached distribution agreements with CBS, FOX, NBC and NBCUniversal's Peacock. The breadth of new partners, in addition to Big Ten Network (BTN) and FOX Sports 1 (FS1), will place conference football, women's and men's basketball and Olympic sports student-athletes on the biggest stage and provide fans with the most exciting matchups across traditional over-the-air linear television and direct-to-consumer streaming. These landmark media rights agreements are the most comprehensive in all of college sports and further strengthen the tradition of the Big Ten Conference.
Big Ten Conference football will dominate Saturdays, beginning in the fall of 2023 on the largest broadcast platforms from morning to night, with FOX at Noon ET, CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET and NBC in Prime Time. With the addition of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) in August 2024, the conference, its student-athletes and member institutions will breach the broadest audience in the country, coast-to-coast, including the top three media markets in the country in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The media rights agreements will begin July 1, 2023, and run through the 2029-2030 season.
“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,” Big Ten Conference Commissioner Kevin Warren said. “We are very grateful to our world-class media partners for recognizing the strength of the Big Ten Conference brand and providing the incredible resources we need for our student-athletes to compete at the very highest levels, and to achieve their academic and athletics goals.”
“The Big Ten has been a valued partner for more than three decades and we are thrilled to expand that relationship by adding Big Ten football to our portfolio of marquee properties,” said Sean McManus, Chairman, CBS Sports. “The combination of CBS Sports’ proven record in elevating college conferences to new heights, our standard of excellence and the strength and reach of Paramount Global’s linear and digital platforms, will create a powerful showcase for the Big Ten and its student-athletes. Together with Kevin Warren and the team at the Big Ten, we look forward to growing the conference to the highest of levels, reaching the widest audience.”
“We are proud to expand upon our long-standing partnership with the Big Ten Conference and further bolster our position as the premier rights holder of the conference,” said FOX Sports Chief Executive Officer and Executive Producer, Eric Shanks. “Commissioner Warren’s leadership and vision have resulted in the growth and recent market expansion of the Big Ten Conference. In an ever-evolving landscape, the Big Ten remains the most storied collegiate athletic conference in the country.”
“We are incredibly excited to be partnering with Kevin Warren and the Big Ten Conference on this robust package of sports,” said Pete Bevacqua, Chairman, NBC Sports. “With Big Ten Saturday Night and Sunday Night Football headlining each fall weekend in primetime on NBC and Peacock, along with our historic Notre Dame Football partnership, NBC Sports will be the home of premier games in college football and the NFL. In addition, with the rights to a wide range of Big Ten events, Peacock and NBC Sports will be a year-round destination for the best in college sports.”
“The new rights agreements are an incredible achievement for our entire conference and a true testament of what can be accomplished with teamwork,” stated Commissioner Warren. “I am incredibly grateful for collaborative efforts and hard work of our conference staff, specifically Laura Anderson, Anil Gollahalli, Kerry Kenny and Adam Neuman, our presidents and chancellors, athletics directors, coaches, student-athletes, and 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.”
The Big Ten Conference new media agreements grant the following rights to their partners:
BTN
Big Ten Network will maintain its strong position as the home for Big Ten fans, as the network will continue to televise a full slate of football, basketball and Olympic sport competition throughout the year.
CBS
CBS's initial season in 2023 will include seven football games and both regular season and postseason men's basketball action, along with the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament final appearing on CBS for the first time. The Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament semifinals and finals will continue the tradition of airing on CBS, which they have done for 25 years. Every CBS Big Ten football and basketball broadcast will also be streamed on Paramount+. Paramount Global's direct-to-consumer streaming service.
Starting in 2024, CBS will televise up to 15 regular-season football games per season, including an annual Black Friday game in the afternoon. CBS is America's most watched network for the past 14 years and the highest-rated college football network.
FOX
FOX has renewed its agreement to televise football and men's basketball games each season, with the opportunity to carry additional sports throughout the year. The Big Ten Conference's partnership with FOX reached its high point during the 2021-22 year, as FOX captured the #1 time slot in college football for the first time with its Big Noon Saturday platform that featured 10-14 games involving a Big Ten team, and a men's basketball season that ended with the top three most watched games in the history of FS1 all featuring Big Ten programs.
NBC
Will produce 14-to-16 games on broadcast television each season as it introduces college football fans to Big Ten Saturday Night. Each Big Ten game on NBC broadcast will also be simul-streamed on Peacock, NBCUniversal's direct-to-consumer streaming service. NBC Sports has established the most dominant primetime franchise in television history, as its Sunday Night Football has been primetime's No. 1 show for an unprecedented 11 consecutive years -- a streak that is currently active.
Peacock
NBCUniversal's direct-to-consumer streaming service will deliver exclusive Big Ten football and basketball games each season, as eight regular season football games will 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).
CBS, FOX and NBC will combine efforts to televise the seven Big Ten Football Championship Games during the term.
CBS: 2024, 2028
FOX: 2023, 2025, 2027, 2029
NBC: 2026
All of the Big Ten’s network partners, with the exception of NBC, will televise Big Ten men’s basketball games. The majority will be on the Big Ten Network (126 men’s basketball games) followed by Fox and FS1 (45 games), Peacock (32-to-47 games) and CBS (9-to-15 games).
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From Brett McMurphy' story:
The deal with FOX, CBS, NBC, Peacock and FS1 is for seven years from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2030, and network sources told Action Network it's worth between $7 billion and $8 billion.
The contract includes an escalator clause, meaning the deal could approach nearly $10 billion if the Big Ten's membership increases, network sources said. Even after adding USC and UCLA, the Big Ten "is not done" expanding, sources told ACtion Network.
Last month, Action Network reported the Big Ten would expand beyond 16 schools and was targeting Notre Dame, along with Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal from the Pac-12. Those plans have not changed, sources said this week.
Regardless of whether Notre Dame joins the Big Ten or remains independent, the league still wants to add more Pac-12 schools to help reduce potential travel concerns for USC and UCLA, sources said.
The Big Ten's new media rights agreements are backloaded in part because CBS is limited on how many Big Ten games it can show in 2023, which is also the final year of that network's SEC contract.
In 2023-24, the league's schools will receive the same conference distribution as they did in 2022-23 (nearly $60 million per school). The league's payouts will increase slightly in Year 2 (2024-25) before drastically increasing the final five years of the deal from 2025 to 2030, growing to about $100 million per school, including revenue from the College Football Playoff, bowl games and the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
The deal with FOX, CBS, NBC, Peacock and FS1 is for seven years from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2030, and network sources told Action Network it's worth between $7 billion and $8 billion.
The contract includes an escalator clause, meaning the deal could approach nearly $10 billion if the Big Ten's membership increases, network sources said. Even after adding USC and UCLA, the Big Ten "is not done" expanding, sources told ACtion Network.
Last month, Action Network reported the Big Ten would expand beyond 16 schools and was targeting Notre Dame, along with Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal from the Pac-12. Those plans have not changed, sources said this week.
Regardless of whether Notre Dame joins the Big Ten or remains independent, the league still wants to add more Pac-12 schools to help reduce potential travel concerns for USC and UCLA, sources said.
The Big Ten's new media rights agreements are backloaded in part because CBS is limited on how many Big Ten games it can show in 2023, which is also the final year of that network's SEC contract.
In 2023-24, the league's schools will receive the same conference distribution as they did in 2022-23 (nearly $60 million per school). The league's payouts will increase slightly in Year 2 (2024-25) before drastically increasing the final five years of the deal from 2025 to 2030, growing to about $100 million per school, including revenue from the College Football Playoff, bowl games and the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
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Edit: Nevermind just saw the article wjth escalators for increased membership.
BingoDingo
Absolute Idiot
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That's a lot of money...
Big Ten signs TV rights deals worth over $7 billion
The Big Ten announced new media rights agreements on Thursday morning that stand to make it the top-earning conference in college sports. The league unveiled seven-year agreements with Fox/FS1, CBS, NBC and the Big Ten Network, which will take the Big Ten through the 2029-30 academic year. The...
theathletic.com
Big Ten announces TV rights deals totaling over $7 billion with FOX, CBS and NBC
by Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic
The Big Ten announced new media rights agreements on Thursday morning that stand to make it the top-earning conference in college sports.
The league unveiled seven-year agreements with Fox/FS1, CBS, NBC and the Big Ten Network, which will take the Big Ten through the 2029-30 academic year. The conference also announced a deal with Peacock, the direct-to-consumer streaming platform from NBCUniversal. Peacock will exclusively stream four conference football games per year in addition to four nonconference games involving Big Ten teams.
The Athletic has confirmed that CBS and NBC are each paying around $350 million per year for their Big Ten packages, and sources said that the Big Ten’s new rights agreements are worth more than $7 billion over the seven-year term. That would make it the largest rights deal ever for a college athletic conference. Each contract is for seven years, which means the Big Ten will go to market again before the SEC’s new contract with ESPN expires in 2034.
For the first time in 40 years, ESPN will not broadcast home Big Ten football and basketball games. The network officially pulled out of negotiations last week.
Fox landed the Big Ten’s premier package of games, which it will carry in the noon ET window. Starting in 2024, CBS will broadcast a Big Ten game at 3:30 p.m. ET, followed by a Big Ten game on NBC in primetime. Fox has increased its number of top selections in the football games draft in addition to maintaining the first overall selection for the next seven years; Fox will also broadcast four Big Ten championship games during the term.
“It was really important for us to build something unique in college athletics — to have specified windows,” Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told The Athletic. “Our fans around the world will know that, from a Big Ten standpoint, we’ll kick off the day on Fox with their Big Noon show, and then we’ll roll right into all nationally televised games. We’ll roll (from Fox at noon) to a game on national TV with CBS at 3:30, which is a critical time period. And then, we’ll go right into primetime with NBC.”
The deal is backloaded: CBS will not carry as many games in 2023 as it will for the duration of the contract, so the network will pay more in later years, and USC and UCLA will not join the Big Ten until 2024, so the added payments from then on reflect the increase in inventory.
“The Big Ten is going to be on three major television networks from noon until 11 o’clock at night every Saturday — that is unprecedented,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus told The Athletic. “That’s never happened before. The way that each of the three broadcast partners are going to feed into each other and cross-promote each other throughout the day is going to be very beneficial for all.”
CBS, FOX and NBC will each televise designated Big Ten football championship games during the term of the agreements. Fox will broadcast the league’s title game in the odd years (2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029), while CBS will broadcast it in 2024 and 2028, and NBC will air it in 2026.
Fox/FS1 will carry up to 27 regular-season football games in 2023, then up to 32 games per year from 2024 onward. BTN will broadcast up to 41 games in 2023 and a maximum of 50 games per year afterward.
NBC will broadcast 16 regular-season Big Ten games in 2023 and then 15 games per year from 2024 onward. Games on NBC will simultaneously stream on Peacock. NBC will carry a primetime game on Black Friday as well.
Because the SEC will remain on CBS through the end of the 2023 season, the Big Ten will have a partial schedule on the network its first year. CBS will carry seven Big Ten football games as well as regular season and postseason men’s basketball as well as, for the first time, the women’s basketball tournament final. Starting in 2024, CBS will broadcast up to 15 Big Ten football games per season, including an afternoon game on Black Friday. All of those games will be broadcast on CBS, and every game CBS airs will also stream on Paramount+.
“Ever since we didn’t renew our SEC rights, we’ve been focused on the Big Ten,” McManus said. “It was a huge priority of ours. We forged a really good relationship with Kevin Warren, and Kevin understood the value of being on CBS at 3:30. The national footprint that the Big Ten has lines up with our owned and operated stations. So, it’s really a match made in heaven.
“We’re thrilled with the deal. It means that CBS Sports is still in the business of big-time college football at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon.”
The 2024 season will also mark a historic first: The first time in 40 years that ESPN will not broadcast home Big Ten football and basketball games. The network pulled out of its negotiations with the Big Ten after saying no to the conference’s final offer of a seven-year deal worth $380 million per year, sources told The Athletic last week. ESPN had looked at the Big Ten’s primetime package that NBC ended up getting.
ESPN’s exclusive 10-year deal with the SEC, starting in 2024-25, is believed to be in the $300 million per year range. That deal includes both 3:30 p.m. ET and primetime windows for the conference’s premier games.
News of the Big Ten and ESPN going their separate ways stunned many throughout the industry. ESPN has played a major role in college football’s growth from a regional sport into one with national interest. ESPN also has exclusive rights to the College Football Playoff through 2026.
“I never looked at any potential partners as, ‘We could do something without them,’” Warren said. “I look at it more so, at this point in time, that the most powerful and positive fit for us right now, as we go forward for the seven-year agreement, was with Fox, CBS and NBC.”
Warren said that while he respects the Big Ten’s 40-year relationship with the network, he also understands that change is part of the business.
“There’s always movement in this industry, and I still consider them colleagues, friends and business partners,” Warren said. “You’ll see things evolve, even after deals with Fox, CBS and NBC are finalized. There’s constantly movement in this area. I look forward to determining if there are other ways that we can work with other major players in this business.”
As for basketball, CBS will broadcast up to 11 regular-season men’s basketball games in 2023 and will carry 15 games (13 of which will be conference games) from 2024 onward; CBS will continue to carry the Big Ten tournament semifinals and the championship game, which leads into the CBS Selection Sunday show each March.
Peacock will stream 32 regular-season men’s basketball games (20 conference games) in 2023-24 and 47 games (32 conference games) from 2024-25 onward as well as the Big Ten tournament’s opening night doubleheader. Peacock will also stream 30 regular-season women’s basketball games (20 conference games) per year starting in 2023-24.
Fox/FS1 will carry a minimum of 45 regular-season men’s basketball games per year, while BTN will carry a minimum of 126 men’s games per year. BTN will air the four Thursday games and four quarterfinal games of the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament.
by Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic
The Big Ten announced new media rights agreements on Thursday morning that stand to make it the top-earning conference in college sports.
The league unveiled seven-year agreements with Fox/FS1, CBS, NBC and the Big Ten Network, which will take the Big Ten through the 2029-30 academic year. The conference also announced a deal with Peacock, the direct-to-consumer streaming platform from NBCUniversal. Peacock will exclusively stream four conference football games per year in addition to four nonconference games involving Big Ten teams.
The Athletic has confirmed that CBS and NBC are each paying around $350 million per year for their Big Ten packages, and sources said that the Big Ten’s new rights agreements are worth more than $7 billion over the seven-year term. That would make it the largest rights deal ever for a college athletic conference. Each contract is for seven years, which means the Big Ten will go to market again before the SEC’s new contract with ESPN expires in 2034.
For the first time in 40 years, ESPN will not broadcast home Big Ten football and basketball games. The network officially pulled out of negotiations last week.
Fox landed the Big Ten’s premier package of games, which it will carry in the noon ET window. Starting in 2024, CBS will broadcast a Big Ten game at 3:30 p.m. ET, followed by a Big Ten game on NBC in primetime. Fox has increased its number of top selections in the football games draft in addition to maintaining the first overall selection for the next seven years; Fox will also broadcast four Big Ten championship games during the term.
“It was really important for us to build something unique in college athletics — to have specified windows,” Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told The Athletic. “Our fans around the world will know that, from a Big Ten standpoint, we’ll kick off the day on Fox with their Big Noon show, and then we’ll roll right into all nationally televised games. We’ll roll (from Fox at noon) to a game on national TV with CBS at 3:30, which is a critical time period. And then, we’ll go right into primetime with NBC.”
The deal is backloaded: CBS will not carry as many games in 2023 as it will for the duration of the contract, so the network will pay more in later years, and USC and UCLA will not join the Big Ten until 2024, so the added payments from then on reflect the increase in inventory.
“The Big Ten is going to be on three major television networks from noon until 11 o’clock at night every Saturday — that is unprecedented,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus told The Athletic. “That’s never happened before. The way that each of the three broadcast partners are going to feed into each other and cross-promote each other throughout the day is going to be very beneficial for all.”
CBS, FOX and NBC will each televise designated Big Ten football championship games during the term of the agreements. Fox will broadcast the league’s title game in the odd years (2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029), while CBS will broadcast it in 2024 and 2028, and NBC will air it in 2026.
Fox/FS1 will carry up to 27 regular-season football games in 2023, then up to 32 games per year from 2024 onward. BTN will broadcast up to 41 games in 2023 and a maximum of 50 games per year afterward.
NBC will broadcast 16 regular-season Big Ten games in 2023 and then 15 games per year from 2024 onward. Games on NBC will simultaneously stream on Peacock. NBC will carry a primetime game on Black Friday as well.
Because the SEC will remain on CBS through the end of the 2023 season, the Big Ten will have a partial schedule on the network its first year. CBS will carry seven Big Ten football games as well as regular season and postseason men’s basketball as well as, for the first time, the women’s basketball tournament final. Starting in 2024, CBS will broadcast up to 15 Big Ten football games per season, including an afternoon game on Black Friday. All of those games will be broadcast on CBS, and every game CBS airs will also stream on Paramount+.
“Ever since we didn’t renew our SEC rights, we’ve been focused on the Big Ten,” McManus said. “It was a huge priority of ours. We forged a really good relationship with Kevin Warren, and Kevin understood the value of being on CBS at 3:30. The national footprint that the Big Ten has lines up with our owned and operated stations. So, it’s really a match made in heaven.
“We’re thrilled with the deal. It means that CBS Sports is still in the business of big-time college football at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon.”
The 2024 season will also mark a historic first: The first time in 40 years that ESPN will not broadcast home Big Ten football and basketball games. The network pulled out of its negotiations with the Big Ten after saying no to the conference’s final offer of a seven-year deal worth $380 million per year, sources told The Athletic last week. ESPN had looked at the Big Ten’s primetime package that NBC ended up getting.
ESPN’s exclusive 10-year deal with the SEC, starting in 2024-25, is believed to be in the $300 million per year range. That deal includes both 3:30 p.m. ET and primetime windows for the conference’s premier games.
News of the Big Ten and ESPN going their separate ways stunned many throughout the industry. ESPN has played a major role in college football’s growth from a regional sport into one with national interest. ESPN also has exclusive rights to the College Football Playoff through 2026.
“I never looked at any potential partners as, ‘We could do something without them,’” Warren said. “I look at it more so, at this point in time, that the most powerful and positive fit for us right now, as we go forward for the seven-year agreement, was with Fox, CBS and NBC.”
Warren said that while he respects the Big Ten’s 40-year relationship with the network, he also understands that change is part of the business.
“There’s always movement in this industry, and I still consider them colleagues, friends and business partners,” Warren said. “You’ll see things evolve, even after deals with Fox, CBS and NBC are finalized. There’s constantly movement in this area. I look forward to determining if there are other ways that we can work with other major players in this business.”
As for basketball, CBS will broadcast up to 11 regular-season men’s basketball games in 2023 and will carry 15 games (13 of which will be conference games) from 2024 onward; CBS will continue to carry the Big Ten tournament semifinals and the championship game, which leads into the CBS Selection Sunday show each March.
Peacock will stream 32 regular-season men’s basketball games (20 conference games) in 2023-24 and 47 games (32 conference games) from 2024-25 onward as well as the Big Ten tournament’s opening night doubleheader. Peacock will also stream 30 regular-season women’s basketball games (20 conference games) per year starting in 2023-24.
Fox/FS1 will carry a minimum of 45 regular-season men’s basketball games per year, while BTN will carry a minimum of 126 men’s games per year. BTN will air the four Thursday games and four quarterfinal games of the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament.
Per Sports Business Journal, still a opening for ESPN to get a small package of games
Big Ten officially agrees to new media deals with CBS, FOX, NBC
by Michael Smith, Sports Business Journal
The Big Ten has finalized media contracts with CBS, FOX and NBC that will total more than $8 billion over seven years, making it the most lucrative conference rights deal in the history of college athletics. The three deals combined will pay the conference over $1.1 billion per year and put the Big Ten's schools well ahead of their peers in revenue.
The conference in its previous media rights deals with FOX and ESPN was making $440 million per year, meaning the new deals will provide the Big Ten with nearly a three-times increase starting with the 2023-24 season and going through the 2029-30 fiscal year.
FOX has the premier package with 30-plus football games, while CBS and NBC will have 15-16 games each.
The most notable absence in this set of deals is ESPN, which had a 40-year relationship with the Big Ten, but couldn’t come to terms with the conference during the most recent negotiations. ESPN’s current rights with the Big Ten go through 2022-23, however sources indicated there’s a possibility that talks could re-open to bring ESPN back to the table for a smaller package of games than what they originally negotiated.
Even without ESPN, the Big Ten’s new set of partners will provide a powerhouse lineup of college football on Saturdays in the fall. It will start with FOX’s “Big Noon Saturday” at noon ET, followed by CBS’ 3:30 p.m. window and NBC’s new “Big Ten Saturday Night” game in prime time.
The FOX-CBS-NBC triumvirate will provide the Big Ten with an NFL-like lineup of games on over-the-air TV.
“The goal was to own each of these windows,” said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren, the former Vikings COO who used the NFL as a model for the Big Ten’s own rights negotiations. “To capture the hearts and minds and the fan avidity, I think you’ve got to make it very simple for your fans. So, I always had this visual, especially coming out of the NFL, that we’d have partners in each one of those windows. And then we’d have some special events, like two games on Black Friday.”
FS1 and Big Ten Network also will carry a heavy dose of college football across its airwaves.
Big Ten schools will benefit financially from the rights fees increases, but not right away. The conference has paid out right around $50 million per school under its current terms. That per-school average is not expected to change much in 2022-2023, the final year of the current deal.
Key Power FIve media-rights deals
The first few years of the new deal, which kicks in during the 2023-24 year, has a slight slope, meaning revenues will increase gradually. Like many media rights deals that are backloaded like this one, the more drastic increases are in the second half of the deal.
With annual revenue reaching more than $1.1 billion, divided by 16 schools, including new additions USC and UCLA in 2024, the per-school payouts could reach $70 million or more.
That’s well ahead of the other member of the Power Two in college athletics, the SEC, which distributed $55 million per school in fiscal 2021. The SEC also has an extended rights deal with ESPN for $300 million a year that will begin after the 2023 football season.
In addition to the football lineup, Warren added some pieces to the deals, like putting the women’s basketball tournament championship on CBS for the first time.
“That’s big,” Warren said.
NBCUniversal’s direct-to-consumer product, Peacock, will be the conference’s streaming home. NBC’s Saturday night games will simul-stream on Peacock and the service will have its own selection of eight games as well.
The conference will conduct a draft among the three networks to determine who gets which games.
Among the other unique elements in these deals, NBC has committed to a $100,000 advertising budget with each conference school to promote their academic missions. Warren said it’s similar to Notre Dame’s “What would you fight for?” two-minute video series that runs on NBC during the Fighting Irish’s football games.
The chief complication the Big Ten had to work through with CBS was its contractual commitment to the SEC for 3:30 p.m. games during the 2022 and 2023 seasons, meaning there is a one-year of overlap for CBS between the two leagues in 2023.
CBS will fulfill its SEC contract in 2023 before shifting over to the Big Ten in that window in 2024.
“That 3:30 window is the best showcase in college football,” CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus said.
That juggling will leave CBS with a reduced package of seven Big Ten games for the 2023 season, compared to 14-15 games in subsequent seasons.
Those Big Ten games on CBS mostly will be games early in the season before its SEC schedule begins.
CBS’s presentation of Big Ten games will look and sound like its SEC games, from the announcers to the music and overall production. Warren said the long-term benefit of having CBS as a partner was easily worth navigating the short-term conflict.
“I made up my mind early on that I was not going to put CBS in a position where they had to say no because they had to break the SEC contract,” Warren said. “That wasn’t the right thing to do. So, we just had to get creative. You’ve got a partner you’re excited about and you don’t want to lose that, so they’re going to have half of a package in that first year.”
NBC’s football inventory will be 16 games per season in prime time.
Fox’s package will range from 24-27 games in 2023 to 30-32 games through the 2029 season. The network is coming off a banner season in which its “Big Noon Saturday” time slot was the most-watched window in all of college football with an average audience of 5.7 million viewers.
Fox, which has a deeper relationship with the Big Ten than other networks, has been in business with the conference since 2007 when they teamed up to form the Big Ten Network. Fox owns 61% of BTN now and Fox will take the majority of the football and men’s basketball inventory as part of their new agreement.
Each of the three networks will have a Big Ten football championship game — Fox will have four, CBS two and NBC one.
NBC’s lineup on linear TV will tout Notre Dame in a 3:30 p.m. window, followed by the Big Ten game on Saturday night, providing the network with a hefty 1-2 college football punch.
NBC’s longstanding relationship with Notre Dame also could create more matchups between the Fighting Irish and Big Ten schools, like Michigan, which has fallen off Notre Dame’s schedule in recent years. The two rivals have played just twice since 2014 and aren’t scheduled to play again until 2033.
NBC might be in a better position to facilitate some of those games, depending on how aggressive the Irish want to schedule in the future.
“To be able to create this lineup of games on linear channels — the word that comes to mind is home run,” said former Fox Sports President Bob Thompson, who now runs a media consultancy. “It’s like the anti-streamer package.
“This is huge for all of these local stations. Then you’ve got the ability to promote and cross-promote these games across the channels.
“When you think about who the competitors will be to bid on the College Football Playoff, it used to be just ESPN and Fox. Now, with NBC a player and CBS still involved, who knows if they might go shopping for something else.”
The Big Ten’s negotiations, which began soon after Warren arrived in 2019, finally ran its course last week when the commissioner made his presentation to the conference’s presidents and chancellors and athletic directors. They voted to approve last Friday.
“We are proud to expand upon our long-standing partnership with the Big Ten and further bolster our position as the premier rights holder of the conference,” said Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks. “Commissioner Warren’s leadership and vision have resulted in the growth and recent market expansion of the Big Ten. In an ever-evolving landscape, the Big Ten remains the most storied collegiate athletic conference in the country.”
"Working with Kevin Warren and his team on this deal was rewarding on both a personal and professional level," said NBC Sports Chair Pete Bevacqua in a statement through the network. "We are all excited to be partners with Kevin and the Big Ten Conference for these upcoming seven years, and hopefully, well beyond."
Warren, whose background in the NFL exposed him to some pretty complicated deals, such as construction of U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, called the Big Ten’s talks “the most complex I’ve ever worked on. It was a combination of working with multiple parties and just the marketplace we’re in now, with everything going on in college athletics. Over the course of negotiations, the Big Ten had to put things on hold because USC and UCLA applied to become members.
“We had already put expansion in the term sheets when USC and UCLA came along,” Warren said. “We had been talking about expansion since I was hired in 2019. … But it truly was seven, eight, nine, 10 dimensional chess at all times. It was demanding spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally. Starting around the first of this year, there was something to do literally every day on this.”
Unlike most other commissioners, Warren didn’t use a traditional media consultant. Instead, he relied on his legal background and a team of internal experts: Senior Vice President, Television, Kerry Kenny; General Counsel Anil Gollahalli; Deputy General Counsel Adam Neuman; Deputy Commissioner Diana Sabau; and CFO Laura Anderson.
Warren was comfortable with the staff he has built in the Big Ten’s front office, not to mention the hundreds of thousands, maybe more, the conference saved by not hiring a consultant.
Another media expert, Len DeLuca, the former CBS, IMG and ESPN executive who now teaches at New York University’s Stern College of Business, said the Big Ten benefitted from three major factors: the evolution of these mega-deals in college athletics; the structure of the deals that put games on over-the-air TV; and perhaps most importantly, timing. NBC and CBS both found themselves with needs and resources at a time when college football is flourishing.
“This was inevitable,” DeLuca said. “This is the evolutionary process of college football reaching its next level. … The surprising piece for me has been NBC and the fact that they’ve been this active.”
While the Big Ten did not hire a media expert in the traditional sense, Warren did lean on two consultants at times in the negotiations -- Proskauer’s Joe Leccese and Endeavor’s Karen Brodkin.
Big Ten officially agrees to new media deals with CBS, FOX, NBC
by Michael Smith, Sports Business Journal
The Big Ten has finalized media contracts with CBS, FOX and NBC that will total more than $8 billion over seven years, making it the most lucrative conference rights deal in the history of college athletics. The three deals combined will pay the conference over $1.1 billion per year and put the Big Ten's schools well ahead of their peers in revenue.
The conference in its previous media rights deals with FOX and ESPN was making $440 million per year, meaning the new deals will provide the Big Ten with nearly a three-times increase starting with the 2023-24 season and going through the 2029-30 fiscal year.
FOX has the premier package with 30-plus football games, while CBS and NBC will have 15-16 games each.
The most notable absence in this set of deals is ESPN, which had a 40-year relationship with the Big Ten, but couldn’t come to terms with the conference during the most recent negotiations. ESPN’s current rights with the Big Ten go through 2022-23, however sources indicated there’s a possibility that talks could re-open to bring ESPN back to the table for a smaller package of games than what they originally negotiated.
Even without ESPN, the Big Ten’s new set of partners will provide a powerhouse lineup of college football on Saturdays in the fall. It will start with FOX’s “Big Noon Saturday” at noon ET, followed by CBS’ 3:30 p.m. window and NBC’s new “Big Ten Saturday Night” game in prime time.
The FOX-CBS-NBC triumvirate will provide the Big Ten with an NFL-like lineup of games on over-the-air TV.
“The goal was to own each of these windows,” said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren, the former Vikings COO who used the NFL as a model for the Big Ten’s own rights negotiations. “To capture the hearts and minds and the fan avidity, I think you’ve got to make it very simple for your fans. So, I always had this visual, especially coming out of the NFL, that we’d have partners in each one of those windows. And then we’d have some special events, like two games on Black Friday.”
FS1 and Big Ten Network also will carry a heavy dose of college football across its airwaves.
Big Ten schools will benefit financially from the rights fees increases, but not right away. The conference has paid out right around $50 million per school under its current terms. That per-school average is not expected to change much in 2022-2023, the final year of the current deal.
Key Power FIve media-rights deals
| Property | Media Partner(s) | Years | Expires | Total | Average Value |
| Big Ten (starts 2023) | FOX/NBC/CBS | 7 | 2030 | $8.05 billion | $1.15 billion |
| College Football Playoff | ESPN | 12 | 2025-26 | $7.3 billion | $608.33 million |
| SEC (starts 2024) | ESPN | 10 | 2034 | $3 billion | $300 million |
| Pac-12 | FOX/ESPN | 12 | 2024 | $3 billion | $250 million |
| Big Ten | FOX | 6 | 2023 | $2.64 billion | $250 million |
| ACC | ESPN | 20 | 2036 | $4.8 billlion | $240 million |
| Big 12 | FOX/ESPN | 13 | 2025 | $2.6 billion | $200 million |
| Big Ten | ESPN | 6 | 2023 | $1.14 billion | $190 million |
| SEC | CBS | 15 | 2023 | $825 million | $55 million |
| Notre Dame (football) | NBC | 10 | 2025 | $150 million | $15 million |
| Big Ten (basketball) | CBS | 6 | 2023 | $60 million | $10 million |
The first few years of the new deal, which kicks in during the 2023-24 year, has a slight slope, meaning revenues will increase gradually. Like many media rights deals that are backloaded like this one, the more drastic increases are in the second half of the deal.
With annual revenue reaching more than $1.1 billion, divided by 16 schools, including new additions USC and UCLA in 2024, the per-school payouts could reach $70 million or more.
That’s well ahead of the other member of the Power Two in college athletics, the SEC, which distributed $55 million per school in fiscal 2021. The SEC also has an extended rights deal with ESPN for $300 million a year that will begin after the 2023 football season.
In addition to the football lineup, Warren added some pieces to the deals, like putting the women’s basketball tournament championship on CBS for the first time.
“That’s big,” Warren said.
NBCUniversal’s direct-to-consumer product, Peacock, will be the conference’s streaming home. NBC’s Saturday night games will simul-stream on Peacock and the service will have its own selection of eight games as well.
The conference will conduct a draft among the three networks to determine who gets which games.
Among the other unique elements in these deals, NBC has committed to a $100,000 advertising budget with each conference school to promote their academic missions. Warren said it’s similar to Notre Dame’s “What would you fight for?” two-minute video series that runs on NBC during the Fighting Irish’s football games.
The chief complication the Big Ten had to work through with CBS was its contractual commitment to the SEC for 3:30 p.m. games during the 2022 and 2023 seasons, meaning there is a one-year of overlap for CBS between the two leagues in 2023.
CBS will fulfill its SEC contract in 2023 before shifting over to the Big Ten in that window in 2024.
“That 3:30 window is the best showcase in college football,” CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus said.
That juggling will leave CBS with a reduced package of seven Big Ten games for the 2023 season, compared to 14-15 games in subsequent seasons.
Those Big Ten games on CBS mostly will be games early in the season before its SEC schedule begins.
CBS’s presentation of Big Ten games will look and sound like its SEC games, from the announcers to the music and overall production. Warren said the long-term benefit of having CBS as a partner was easily worth navigating the short-term conflict.
“I made up my mind early on that I was not going to put CBS in a position where they had to say no because they had to break the SEC contract,” Warren said. “That wasn’t the right thing to do. So, we just had to get creative. You’ve got a partner you’re excited about and you don’t want to lose that, so they’re going to have half of a package in that first year.”
NBC’s football inventory will be 16 games per season in prime time.
Fox’s package will range from 24-27 games in 2023 to 30-32 games through the 2029 season. The network is coming off a banner season in which its “Big Noon Saturday” time slot was the most-watched window in all of college football with an average audience of 5.7 million viewers.
Fox, which has a deeper relationship with the Big Ten than other networks, has been in business with the conference since 2007 when they teamed up to form the Big Ten Network. Fox owns 61% of BTN now and Fox will take the majority of the football and men’s basketball inventory as part of their new agreement.
Each of the three networks will have a Big Ten football championship game — Fox will have four, CBS two and NBC one.
NBC’s lineup on linear TV will tout Notre Dame in a 3:30 p.m. window, followed by the Big Ten game on Saturday night, providing the network with a hefty 1-2 college football punch.
NBC’s longstanding relationship with Notre Dame also could create more matchups between the Fighting Irish and Big Ten schools, like Michigan, which has fallen off Notre Dame’s schedule in recent years. The two rivals have played just twice since 2014 and aren’t scheduled to play again until 2033.
NBC might be in a better position to facilitate some of those games, depending on how aggressive the Irish want to schedule in the future.
“To be able to create this lineup of games on linear channels — the word that comes to mind is home run,” said former Fox Sports President Bob Thompson, who now runs a media consultancy. “It’s like the anti-streamer package.
“This is huge for all of these local stations. Then you’ve got the ability to promote and cross-promote these games across the channels.
“When you think about who the competitors will be to bid on the College Football Playoff, it used to be just ESPN and Fox. Now, with NBC a player and CBS still involved, who knows if they might go shopping for something else.”
The Big Ten’s negotiations, which began soon after Warren arrived in 2019, finally ran its course last week when the commissioner made his presentation to the conference’s presidents and chancellors and athletic directors. They voted to approve last Friday.
“We are proud to expand upon our long-standing partnership with the Big Ten and further bolster our position as the premier rights holder of the conference,” said Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks. “Commissioner Warren’s leadership and vision have resulted in the growth and recent market expansion of the Big Ten. In an ever-evolving landscape, the Big Ten remains the most storied collegiate athletic conference in the country.”
"Working with Kevin Warren and his team on this deal was rewarding on both a personal and professional level," said NBC Sports Chair Pete Bevacqua in a statement through the network. "We are all excited to be partners with Kevin and the Big Ten Conference for these upcoming seven years, and hopefully, well beyond."
Warren, whose background in the NFL exposed him to some pretty complicated deals, such as construction of U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, called the Big Ten’s talks “the most complex I’ve ever worked on. It was a combination of working with multiple parties and just the marketplace we’re in now, with everything going on in college athletics. Over the course of negotiations, the Big Ten had to put things on hold because USC and UCLA applied to become members.
“We had already put expansion in the term sheets when USC and UCLA came along,” Warren said. “We had been talking about expansion since I was hired in 2019. … But it truly was seven, eight, nine, 10 dimensional chess at all times. It was demanding spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally. Starting around the first of this year, there was something to do literally every day on this.”
Unlike most other commissioners, Warren didn’t use a traditional media consultant. Instead, he relied on his legal background and a team of internal experts: Senior Vice President, Television, Kerry Kenny; General Counsel Anil Gollahalli; Deputy General Counsel Adam Neuman; Deputy Commissioner Diana Sabau; and CFO Laura Anderson.
Warren was comfortable with the staff he has built in the Big Ten’s front office, not to mention the hundreds of thousands, maybe more, the conference saved by not hiring a consultant.
Another media expert, Len DeLuca, the former CBS, IMG and ESPN executive who now teaches at New York University’s Stern College of Business, said the Big Ten benefitted from three major factors: the evolution of these mega-deals in college athletics; the structure of the deals that put games on over-the-air TV; and perhaps most importantly, timing. NBC and CBS both found themselves with needs and resources at a time when college football is flourishing.
“This was inevitable,” DeLuca said. “This is the evolutionary process of college football reaching its next level. … The surprising piece for me has been NBC and the fact that they’ve been this active.”
While the Big Ten did not hire a media expert in the traditional sense, Warren did lean on two consultants at times in the negotiations -- Proskauer’s Joe Leccese and Endeavor’s Karen Brodkin.
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Wow, this really puts the SEC deal, which runs through freaking 2034 to shame. It’s also wonderful that this is only a 7-year deal so we can renegotiate after a relatively short period of time.
Th B1G absolutely OWNS college football from a business standpoint. I am so glad we are in this conference!
Th B1G absolutely OWNS college football from a business standpoint. I am so glad we are in this conference!
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Honestly I’d be happier if we were still winning games in the Toilet Twelve, but hopefully sometime in my lifetime this move ends up being good for us.
YankeesJunkie
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As much as I hate Kevin Warren, this TV deal is a massive win for the B1G in every conceivable way, the only gripe is possibly having to add Peacock Plus for a month or two, but this makes the SEC deal look like chump change and the B1G will have another go at it before the SEC hits the table again.
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If you want to maximize revenue in media rights at the moment you have to agree to let outlets put you on paid services.
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Someone else said it on this board but I guess this type of stuff is right up Warren's wheel house. And as much as we hated the way the fumbled covid...looks like this is a pretty damn good deal.
YankeesJunkie
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Personally it is a small gripe, but really the only thing you could even poke at really.
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