Michigan, Big Ten part of historic TV deal with Fox, NBC, and CBS

It’s official — Michigan and the rest of the Big Ten have broken from ESPN and partnered with FOX, CBS and NBC for football broadcasting rights starting in 2023. The deal is worth a reported $8.05 billion over seven years and extends through the 2029-30 season.

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FOX, which has been a conference partner the last several years, is still the conference’s primary partner. They’ll continue to show their Big Noon game on Saturdays, only now it will be an exclusive broadcast window for the conference. They’ll also continue air games on FS1 and the Big Ten Network — FOX owns a 60 percent stake in the latter.

Overall, a reported 24 to 27 conference football games will air on Fox and FS1 on 2023. That will increase to 30-32 games from 2024-29. The Big Ten Network will air at least 38 to 41 games each year.

CBS, NBC will get Big Ten national broadcasts

In addition to the games on the FOX networks and BTN, CBS and NBC will also broadcast Big Ten games on their national networks each week. The 3:30 p.m. CBS time slot will become an exclusive broadcast window for conference games in 2024 after the contract with the SEC ends. The SEC will partner exclusively with ESPN and ABC beginning starting that season.

CBS will air seven Big Ten games in 2023 and 14 or 15 regular-season games from 2024-29, including an annual Black Friday afternoon game.

NBC will continue to air Notre Dame games but will now add national primetime Big Ten games to its slate, 14 to 16 each season. That will include Black Friday primetime games and a Labor Day Sunday primetime game, along with eight regular-season conference football games that will be streamed exclusively on its Peacock Network.

There have been reports that the Michigan – Notre Dame series, set to resume in the early 2030s, will now pick up earlier as a result.

The Big Ten championship game, meanwhile, will air on Fox in 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029, on CBS in 2024 and 2028, and on NBC in 2026.

On the basketball side, FOX and FS1 will broadcast at least 45 Big Ten men’s basketball games each season. They’ll also have the right to televise women’s basketball games and Olympic sports competitions. CBS will continue to air up to 15 regular season men’s basketball games, the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament semifinals and final. They’ll also get the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament championship game.

The Big Ten Network will televise a minimum of 126 men’s basketball games and the first two rounds of the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament. They’ll also have 49 women’s basketball games and the first three rounds of the women’s conference basketball tournament. Peacock will exclusively stream 47 regular-season men’s basketball games beginning in 2024 (32 in 2023) and 30 women’s basketball games each year.

Last season was huge for Michigan football on TV

Last year’s Michigan – Ohio State game was the top college football regular season audience in more than two years, topping an 8.0 rating and 15 million viewers on FOX, per Sports Media Watch. 

Fox Sports reported the 15.893 million viewers were the network’s “most-watched college football game ever.”  Sports Media said it was the most watched game in the rivalry since 2016 (9.4 rating, 16.84 million viewers), third to 2006’s No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup (13.0, 21.0).

The Big Ten Championship Game against Iowa, a 42-3 Michigan win, was viewed by 11.7 million people. That was second only to the SEC Championship Game that weekend.

In 2023, Michigan and the rest of the conference will have even bigger platforms for their products.

“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 commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement. “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 2023 season will mark the first time ESPN has not broadcast Big Ten football games since 1982. It will be the first time ABC has not carried a conference football game since 1966.