A 12- year
television contract has been formulated with Fox and ESPN. By: Kristina
Callahan
The Pac-12 did
what the Big East couldn’t. They formulated a television deal with major
networks ESPN and Fox. The deal will be worth $225 million a year or $2.7
billion over the 12 years. Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne, in an
interview with the Associated Press, praised the league for the contract:
“It
is a historic deal for the conference and our university. It gives us a
much-needed revenue stream and at the same time improves our ability to compete
on a national level for many years to come."
Both ESPN and
Fox will share the right to college football games. ESPN will air games on
their network along with airing games on ABC. Fox will show the games on their
broadcast network and their basic cable networks. For primetime football, Thursday
and Friday night games will be shown on ESPN along with Saturday games that
fall in the timeslot of 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT. At least five Saturday
night primetime games are guaranteed on ABC or Fox.
Men’s basketball
games will also be split between the two networks. ESPN has the right to games
on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. At the end of the season ESPN
will air the Pac-12 basketball tournament while Fox will show the first
football championship in 2012.
With other major
conferences making billion dollar television deals, the Pac-12 and commissioner
Larry Scott knew that they needed to make a deal.
"We are excited to become a more integral part of
the ESPN family. Long an innovator in sports programming, ESPN has truly earned
a reputation as a leader in college sports,” Scott said. “We look forward to
adding to that legacy for the benefit of Pac-12 fans everywhere, and in
providing dramatically enhanced national exposure for our institutions and
their outstanding programs."
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