NBC Has big plans for the Big Ten -

[Eurocat]

NBC Could Make Big Ten 'The NFL Of College Football Conferences'

NBC Sports is pitching a plan to air back-to-back Big Ten and NFL 'Sunday Night Football' games in prime time on Saturday and Sunday nights.

frontofficesports.com

 

[Catslash]

Wow this is a 180 from previous NBC college football coverage.

 

[NUCat320]

It’s really crazy that this money is being talked about, and the people providing the entertainment will receive nothing.

Yes, I realize the athletes can take money from Deep Pocketed donors, or negotiate with some random online nutrition brand, …but my math says this is $900mm/team (not school, but team) per year.

The NCAA has no power over major college football , and it is in the B1G’s interest to be a leader in this space.

(Half to the schools, half to the athletes. That’s a million per year per NU athlete, and I’m overestimating the number of athletes. That’s the right thing to do. Call ‘em employees, require them to file taxes and then they’ll be stuck with $400k per year. Darn.)

Ohio will love it when its highest paid state employees are its football coach, basketball coach, university president, women’s basketball coach, and then a whole bunch of football players, tied with a whole bunch of women’s volleyball players.

 

[GOUNUII]

It’s really crazy that this money is being talked about, and the people providing the entertainment will receive nothing.

Yes, I realize the athletes can take money from Deep Pocketed donors, or negotiate with some random online nutrition brand, …but my math says this is $900mm/team (not school, but team) per year.

The NCAA has no power over major college football , and it is in the B1G’s interest to be a leader in this space.

(Half to the schools, half to the athletes. That’s a million per year per NU athlete, and I’m overestimating the number of athletes. That’s the right thing to do. Call ‘em employees, require them to file taxes and then they’ll be stuck with $400k per year. Darn.)

Ohio will love it when its highest paid state employees are its football coach, basketball coach, university president, women’s basketball coach, and then a whole bunch of football players, tied with a whole bunch of women’s volleyball players.

Your math appears to need work. 900 million per team, per year? No.

GOUNUII

 

[NUCat320]

Your math appears to need work. 900 million per team, per year? No.

GOUNUII

Mea culpa!
$50k per player! Likely closer to 75 or 100 or more! After taxes!

 

[NJCat]

…but my math says this is $900mm/team (not school, but team) per year.

Your math needs serious work: $1,250,000,000/16 teams=$78 million/year/team

 

[zeek55]

I'd still be skeptical until we see NBC and CBS sign on the dotted line.

Both have had sweetheart cfb deals the past 30 years, both the SEC on CBS and ND on NBC deals have been undermarket for a while.

NBC's deal around 50% of its true value.

CBS has been paying SEC around 20% of the true value of their deal (and CBS' unwillingness to reopen that deal caused much anger to the point where the SEC didn't even let them bid again supposedly).

Let's see whether they'll actually pay up for cfb like they do NFL.

 

[NUCat320]

Your math needs serious work: $1,250,000,000/16 teams=$78 million/year/team

That’s practically *nothing*! Give it to the Pats!

(I divided by 12, but actually 1.2 at first…)
(16 is weird.)

 

[Katatonic]

Let's see whether they'll actually pay up for cfb like they do NFL.

Total $ CFB gets for broadcasting/streaming rights is something like 1/8th of what the NFL gets.

I'd say that there's a good bit more $ to be made by CFB (specifically the B1G and SEC), but would help if there were fewer B1G-MAC and the like matchups (there have been rumblings from the SEC of going to a 9 or 10 conference game schedule once UT/OU join).

 

[zeek55]

Total $ CFB gets for broadcasting/streaming rights is something like 1/8th of what the NFL gets.

I'd say that there's a good bit more $ to be made by CFB (specifically the B1G and SEC), but would help if there were fewer B1G-MAC and the like matchups (there have been rumblings from the SEC of going to a 9 or 10 conference game schedule once UT/OU join).

True but those 2 broadcasters have gotten by on the cheap for cfb.

Even though they're each getting ready to give the NFL more than $2bn each annually, they've gotten cfb rights for pennies comparatively.

CBS was paying $55m for SEC weekly game and NBC is paying around $25m for ND.

CBS would probably have to pay closer to $200 million for 2nd Big Ten selection and NBC would have to pay $140 million or so for 3rd.

That's not as great of a deal as what they've had before...

 

[Rebel II]

Your math appears to need work. 900 million per team, per year? No.

GOUNUII

It's 75-80 million per year per team.

 

[docrugby1]

Total $ CFB gets for broadcasting/streaming rights is something like 1/8th of what the NFL gets.

I'd say that there's a good bit more $ to be made by CFB (specifically the B1G and SEC), but would help if there were fewer B1G-MAC and the like matchups (there have been rumblings from the SEC of going to a 9 or 10 conference game schedule once UT/OU join).

In another threat, I presented a couple of scenarios where most games were within the B1G , capturing the maximum amount of TV money. If ND decides to shun the B1G ,then maybe the B!G should "boycott" ND

 

[zeek55]

Well the numbers being tossed around are way bigger than I'd expected: $350 million for just the CBS 3:30 package which would be 2nd in selection (shared with NBC).

 

[Sheffielder]

The tv negotiations right now are super fascinating. I think CBS and NBC are ready to spend on college football because they know live sports are all that's left to command premium ad rates. The knock has always been that NFL yields higher ratings but I would argue that's because of literally 100 fewer teams splitting air time. Can the networks present compelling productions for multiple Big Ten games week after week (rather, can the Big Ten deliver compelling games?)

There is a very, very realistic scenario in play where no Big Ten games will air on ESPN, which theoretically leaves the worldwide leader with SEC and ACC. I've seen some speculate this is good negotiating news for Big XII and Pac, but others say they will be left out in the cold with no CBS, NBC or FOX money in play.

Not sure if Big Ten missing on ESPN hurts the conference or the network more...ultimately neither can ignore the other.

 

[NUCat320]

The tv negotiations right now are super fascinating. I think CBS and NBC are ready to spend on college football because they know live sports are all that's left to command premium ad rates. The knock has always been that NFL yields higher ratings but I would argue that's because of literally 100 fewer teams splitting air time. Can the networks present compelling productions for multiple Big Ten games week after week (rather, can the Big Ten deliver compelling games?)

There is a very, very realistic scenario in play where no Big Ten games will air on ESPN, which theoretically leaves the worldwide leader with SEC and ACC. I've seen some speculate this is good negotiating news for Big XII and Pac, but others say they will be left out in the cold with no CBS, NBC or FOX money in play.

Not sure if Big Ten missing on ESPN hurts the conference or the network more...ultimately neither can ignore the other.

Admittedly, I have not intentionally watched any ESPN non-game programming for a decade or more (we’ll, except for the last ten minutes of GameDay…). That said, ESPN is a promotional vehicle for its programming, and hardly a news organization anymore. When the NHL left ESPN’s TV schedule, the NHL coverage was condensed to 3 minutes of Barry Melrose on SportsCenter.

I also don’t know that ESPN coverage builds interest like it once did. The fastest growing sports are Formula One (Netflix doc series) and international soccer (streaming, Peacock, etc), who grew through ways other than traditional TV. (With Tiger a non-entity, I’ve heard that PGA will be next on Netfli

Point, current exposure to boomer/Gen X/older millennial audiences remains TV, and the conferences need to stack those dollars.

Where growth and interest is driven in the future, tho, is … somewhere else.

 

[zeek55]

The tv negotiations right now are super fascinating. I think CBS and NBC are ready to spend on college football because they know live sports are all that's left to command premium ad rates. The knock has always been that NFL yields higher ratings but I would argue that's because of literally 100 fewer teams splitting air time. Can the networks present compelling productions for multiple Big Ten games week after week (rather, can the Big Ten deliver compelling games?)

There is a very, very realistic scenario in play where no Big Ten games will air on ESPN, which theoretically leaves the worldwide leader with SEC and ACC. I've seen some speculate this is good negotiating news for Big XII and Pac, but others say they will be left out in the cold with no CBS, NBC or FOX money in play.

Not sure if Big Ten missing on ESPN hurts the conference or the network more...ultimately neither can ignore the other.

ESPN is out now. Big Ten asked for $380m/7 years for #2 package.

 

[ricko654321]

ESPN is out now. Big Ten asked for $380m/7 years for #2 package.

Yes Rittenberg said they rejected that, but I don't think that was for the #2 package. That must have been for the leftovers after the top 2-3 games per week. Otherwise it would have been way more than $54M per year I would think.

Saying "about" $350M each for NBC CBS but not clear over what time horizon that is. If that's annual, then another $500-600M a year from Fox maybe? That gets us to $1.2-1.3B (not including potential streaming deal), a little under $100M per team per year... not too shabby.

It'll be cool for the conference to have a tripleheader of marquee games every week - Big Noon kickoff on FOX, then 3:30pm ET on CBS, then Sat Night Football on NBC. No ESPN - it really is pitting Fox vs ESPN then I guess alongside the B1G vs SEC. If they aren't giving games to CBS / NBC cable providers (ie CBS Sports, USA, it's unclear to me right now) then BTN and FS1 could theoretically take up the rest of the inventory (2 Noon ET games, 2 3:30pm ET games, 1 night game adds up to 8 total along with 3 network games, which covers 16 teams once USC UCLA join). And could maybe add a late night slot at that point to compete with Pac 12 after dark on ESPN. But that would pretty much block FS1 out from televising the other conferences ie Big 12 and Pac 12 which they have done historically (not sure what their ongoing agreements with them are).

Sees like they are still talking about having a streaming service take some of the inventory- Amazon, Peacock, AppleTV potentially. If so I hope they limit it to the non-conference games when there is overflow so it's that or BTN+. But these days who knows. The streaming services might be willing to pay up to get conference matchups. Fans would hate it though.

 

[zeek55]

Yes Rittenberg said they rejected that, but I don't think that was for the #2 package. That must have been for the leftovers after the top 2-3 games per week. Otherwise it would have been way more than $54M per year I would think.

Saying "about" $350M each for NBC CBS but not clear over what time horizon that is. If that's annual, then another $500-600M a year from Fox maybe? That gets us to $1.2-1.3B (not including potential streaming deal), a little under $100M per team per year... not too shabby.

It'll be cool for the conference to have a tripleheader of marquee games every week - Big Noon kickoff on FOX, then 3:30pm ET on CBS, then Sat Night Football on NBC. No ESPN - it really is pitting Fox vs ESPN then I guess alongside the B1G vs SEC. If they aren't giving games to CBS / NBC cable providers (ie CBS Sports, USA, it's unclear to me right now) then BTN and FS1 could theoretically take up the rest of the inventory (2 Noon ET games, 2 3:30pm ET games, 1 night game adds up to 8 total along with 3 network games, which covers 16 teams once USC UCLA join). And could maybe add a late night slot at that point to compete with Pac 12 after dark on ESPN. But that would pretty much block FS1 out from televising the other conferences ie Big 12 and Pac 12 which they have done historically (not sure what their ongoing agreements with them are).

Sees like they are still talking about having a streaming service take some of the inventory- Amazon, Peacock, AppleTV potentially. If so I hope they limit it to the non-conference games when there is overflow so it's that or BTN+. But these days who knows. The streaming services might be willing to pay up to get conference matchups. Fans would hate it though.

It was $380 million per year for 7 years for ESPN. With no streaming component.

Probably would have shared 2nd pick with CBS.

 

[NUCat320]

It’s really crazy that this money is being talked about, and the people providing the entertainment will receive nothing.

Yes, I realize the athletes can take money from Deep Pocketed donors, or negotiate with some random online nutrition brand, …but my math says this is $900mm/team (not school, but team) per year.

The NCAA has no power over major college football , and it is in the B1G’s interest to be a leader in this space.

(Half to the schools, half to the athletes. That’s a million per year per NU athlete, and I’m overestimating the number of athletes. That’s the right thing to do. Call ‘em employees, require them to file taxes and then they’ll be stuck with $400k per year. Darn.)

Ohio will love it when its highest paid state employees are its football coach, basketball coach, university president, women’s basketball coach, and then a whole bunch of football players, tied with a whole bunch of women’s volleyball players.

@JournCat i much appreciate the ‘like’, as a #journcat, I feel obligated to point out the 6 to 8 mistakes in computation here. You may not have noticed. #medill #solidarity

The point largely remains, tho. Mucho lucre, and a forward-thinking commish should get some of that directly to the athletes.

 

[Sheffielder]

WORTH NOTING:

* I've read from at least one source that NBC would like to broadcast a B1G game on SUNDAYS before Sunday Night Football, which is FASCINATING. I wonder how the NFL would feel about that.

* Also read from at least one source that the conference might be looking at sending some games to a third party streamer, like Apple or Amazon Prime. I imagine this scenario is a real kick in the nuts to those paying for traditional cable to get BTN for the other games.

 

[NJCat]

WORTH NOTING:

* I've read from at least one source that NBC would like to broadcast a B1G game on SUNDAYS before Sunday Night Football, which is FASCINATING. I wonder how the NFL would feel about that.

Won't happen. The 4:15 ET NFL games would conflict. And the NFL is the 700# gorilla.

 

[ricko654321]

It was $380 million per year for 7 years for ESPN. With no streaming component.

Probably would have shared 2nd pick with CBS.

No way in he**, would have been way more for alternating second pick. CBS and NBC are reportedly paying roughly $350M a year for what seems like 1 game a week each as near as I’ve been able to gather. That rejected ESPN offer (sounds like B1G offered and ESPN rejected) must have been for the leftovers at $34M a year. Apparently it was only for 13 games per year so one a week essentially.

For that price, I also wonder if CBS NBC might have the #1 pick some of the weekends. Otherwise it seems like an overpay, though I don’t really know that much about the going market rates. Styre would prob be the expert here…

 

[zeek55]

No way in he**, would have been way more for alternating second pick. CBS and NBC are reportedly paying roughly $350M a year for what seems like 1 game a week each as near as I’ve been able to gather. That rejected ESPN offer (sounds like B1G offered and ESPN rejected) must have been for the leftovers at $34M a year. Apparently it was only for 13 games per year so one a week essentially.

For that price, I also wonder if CBS NBC might have the #1 pick some of the weekends. Otherwise it seems like an overpay, though I don’t really know that much about the going market rates. Styre would prob be the expert here…

You're confused.

Fox took the exclusive noon bid from the start along with the "A package" in the rotation and some other things like the conference championship and games on FS1 for $500+ million a year.

Then the Big Ten offered 2 more packages: 3:30 and 7:30/primetime exclusive windows for ~13 games a year with those two picking for the "B package".

CBS bid for the 3:30 package for $350 million per year to replace their SEC weekly game that's going to ABC/ESPN.

NBC bid a similar amount for the 7:30/prime time exclusive window. NBC also may be paying more for Peacock to be involved.

The Big Ten wanted ESPN to give the same exclusive window at 3:30 or 7:30 and pay $30 million more than CBS or NBC offered (i.e. $380 million a year) in order to beat them out and win one of the 2 packages.

Also yes, the A package and B package aren't likely to be as clear as just FOX picking first.

FOX will get Ohio State/Michigan every year but beyond that there will be weeks where CBS and NBC have bigger games than FOX.

It's easy to envision a Penn State whiteout hosting Ohio State on NBC or ND at USC on NBC.

USC/UCLA in particular if hosting marquee names like Ohio State, Michigan, etc. aren't going to be on FOX at noon eastern. Those have to be on CBS or NBC or elsewhere.

 

[ricko654321]

You're confused.

Fox took the exclusive noon bid from the start along with the "A package" in the rotation and some other things like the conference championship and games on FS1 for $500+ million a year.

Then the Big Ten offered 2 more packages: 3:30 and 7:30/primetime exclusive windows for ~13 games a year with those two picking for the "B package".

CBS bid for the 3:30 package for $350 million per year to replace their SEC weekly game that's going to ABC/ESPN.

NBC bid a similar amount for the 7:30/prime time exclusive window. NBC also may be paying more for Peacock to be involved.

The Big Ten wanted ESPN to give the same exclusive window at 3:30 or 7:30 and pay $30 million more than CBS or NBC offered (i.e. $380 million a year) in order to beat them out and win one of the 2 packages.

Also yes, the A package and B package aren't likely to be as clear as just FOX picking first.

FOX will get Ohio State/Michigan every year but beyond that there will be weeks where CBS and NBC have bigger games than FOX.

It's easy to envision a Penn State whiteout hosting Ohio State on NBC or ND at USC on NBC.

USC/UCLA in particular if hosting marquee names like Ohio State, Michigan, etc. aren't going to be on FOX at noon eastern. Those have to be on CBS or NBC or elsewhere.

I read it as 7 yrs for total $380M. if it is $380M per year, then I get it, that makes sense. written misleadingly by the ESPN writer though, IMO.

 

[zeek55]

I read it as 7 yrs for total $380M. if it is $380M per year, then I get it, that makes sense. written misleadingly by the ESPN writer though, IMO.

Yeah, Big Ten told ESPN that they'd have to bid on one of the 2 exclusive windows to get access to the basketball as well.

That $380 million/year was what the Big Ten told ESPN they'd need to offer to beat CBS or NBC.

 

[Sheffielder]

Won't happen. The 4:15 ET NFL games would conflict. And the NFL is the 700# gorilla.

Not sure the NFL gets to dictate what NBC uses as non-NFL programming lead-ins for its NFL content (but I agree it sounds far-fetched).