Big 12 reaches $2.28 billion TV deal with ESPN, Fox

The Big 12 Conference has reached a six-year media rights agreement with ESPN and Fox, according to multiple reports. The deal is worth $2.28 billion for an average of $380 million per year.

The deal is an extension of their current one, which runs through the 2025 football and basketball seasons. Now, that will be extended through 2031 while making $160 million more than their current deal ($220 million).

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

The deal is a big move for the Big 12, who by the time the deal renews, will have lost Texas and Oklahoma and gained Cincinnati, UCF and Houston. Now, the conference’s media rights deal makes them worth more than ever, and is another step in the right direction following the Big Ten and SEC with their own massive TV deals.

George Kliavkoff says Pac-12’s next media deal will have streaming

After USC and UCLA announced they were going to leave the PAC-12 for the Big Ten, conference commissioner George Kliavkoff announced that the conference was going to start renegotiating its media. This was important for a couple of reasons. First, the PAC-12’s old media deal was a huge issue and part of why USC and UCLA left. Second, a new deal could help prevent other conferences from poaching member schools. 

George Kliavkoff was asked if the next PAC-12 media deal would include a streaming service, or if it would have a more traditional model. He confirmed that the next media deal is going to have a streaming component to it.

“Well, almost all of the existing media companies have streaming services that they’re trying to promote,” Georgia Kliavkoff said. 

“So streaming will be part of the deal, whether it’s from a traditional linear network that has streaming services or whether it’s a new streaming service, don’t know, can’t tell you. All of those bidders are in front of us, and we’re looking at all those opportunities.”

It’s hard to ignore how many people are moving on from cable to only having streaming services. Meanwhile, live sports are still one of the most valuable properties that a cable channel or streaming service can have. So, as streaming services look to grow, sports are becoming an important property to have. 

As far as the PAC-12 is concerned, streaming services offer another bidder to help raise the price that the conference gets for its deal. On top of that, this is a way of making sure anyone has access to watch a team’s games. It’s an option that George Kliavkoff seems committed to going forward. 

“But I don’t see any scenario where we don’t end up streaming some of our games,” George Kliavkoff concluded.