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Commissioner Kevin Warren places timeline on B1G’s new media rights deal
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The B1G is working on a new future media rights deal and a contract might be in place sooner than you think. Conference commissioner Kevin Warren is hopeful to having something done within the next month.
According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, Warren says he hopes to have the basic terms of the next agreement ready “in the next 30 days.” There has been speculation that the new deal could net the B1G upwards of $1 billion annually.
Earlier this year, Sports Business Journal reported on the conference’s potential to land an incredibly lucrative contract. A yearly $1 billion deal would be more than double what the current deals of FOX and ESPN pay, which is $440 million.
Per the report, CBS and NBC could be legitimate players in the next round of media rights negotiations involving the conference. From Sports Business Journal:
The Big Ten’s media contracts run through 2022-23. It has entered into an exclusive negotiating window with ESPN, but my colleague John Ourand doesn’t expect a deal to get done within this window because there is competing interest from other networks. The conference almost certainly will take its rights to the marketplace to have multiple bidders drive up the price. CBS and NBC are believed to have strong interest.
Warren says he’s hoping to expand the B1G’s reach on audience. The league is in talks with FOX, CBS, NBC, ESPN, TNT on the network side. There’s also interest through streaming services such as Apple and Amazon.
“There’s many, many hours left this month to make sure that we get everything negotiated properly and come to some term sheets or a memorandum of understanding,” Warren said. “That’s when the lawyers will get involved to start doing long-form agreements.”
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB