New Big Ten Media Rights Deal

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#76      

illinistephen

I
illinistephen
the juiceman cometh said:
I think the idea that lack of parity hurts ratings is overstated, if not outright untrue. The EPL is experiencing unprecedented success despite the fact Man City has won 4 if the last 5 titles and only 5 teams have finished in the top 3 in that same span. In the US dynasties led by superstars have proven to draw attention and eyeballs (Bulls in the 90s, Patriots more recently).

I think college football's problem hasn't necessarily been the same teams over and over. It's been the same teams AND uncompetitive blowouts. The playoff product has been bad. It's more a question of disparity between the top 1% and the next 10% than the disparity between the top 1% and the remaining 99%.

I think NIL may already be helping that issue, but if you expect it to level the playing field in a more expansive way you'll probably be disappointed.
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The difference with the 90's bulls example is that:
First, in the early nineties the Lakers, Bulls, and Knicks were all good so the 3 major markets were all heavily invested.
Second, mid-market teams like the Pistons, Pacers, and Jazz could be really good to the point it wasn't irrational to think they could win.
Third, bottom feeders had hope through the draft.

College football is massive, but if there was more parity, there would be a lot less uncompetitive games, more teams/fanbases invested, and this could actually grow the game even more as crazy as that sounds.
 
#77      

illinistephen

I
illinistephen
ChiefGritty said:
There's no reason it can't continue in theory with ESPN and Fox each showing half the games, but I would be surprised if it does. The Big Ten is dead to ESPN as of today. I think that's going to prove to be more expansive and openly petty than some are expecting.
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Well, there's still nothing stopping the Big Ten and ACC from deciding to schedule each other independently if they wanted to. ESPN not airing Michigan St. at Duke or Illinois at North Carolina to air a lesser game due to pettiness would really be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
 
#78      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
theathletic.com

Big Ten's TV deal: 16 thoughts on CBS, NBC and Fox's new college football rights

Big Ten football is leaving ESPN after a 40-year relationship. Here are some initial thoughts on what to expect from CBS, NBC and Fox.
theathletic.com theathletic.com

Two interesting nuggets in that paywalled article:

- Sources say Amazon bid higher than NBC and CBS for the packages they received. So the conference had the opportunity to step further into streaming and turned it down. Smart, I think.

- Apparently Fox doesn't get the #1 game every week, and it will rotate around all three networks. That certainly makes the numbers NBC and CBS are paying ($350 million a year) make more sense.

The TV ratings war with the SEC is going to be fascinating.
 
#79      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
Pikeillinifan said:
With all this extra $ our athletic department will be able to pay off our debt by 2075.

Serious question for those that may know, how is that athletic dept. handled? I know it is owed (much to the university system), but will the athletic department really need to pay it back, or could it get absorbed into the system (I think Rutgers did this)?

Our athletic department debt is massive, and I'm just curious how that debt will impact will be on future investment/spending of media $ increases (i.e. will we ever fix the horseshoe, or be able to make other investments to keep up with the big dogs). Or, will we be stuck taking the new media $ and throwing it toward paying down the actual debt, instead of just servicing it.
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Much of the debt derived from building facilities will be repaid by pledges from donors. Typically the DIA gets pledges from donors to cover a significant portion of the cost of the project prior to starting construction. These pledges often are paid over 30 years or so. The DIA then borrows the money for the construction, up front,.which is then repaid from the forthcoming pledges year by year.. Of course there is interest to be paid on that debt, on top of the principle, and that has been running north of $20 million/year for Illinois. Fortunately, I guess, the recent debt binge has occurred under historically low interest rates.
 
#80      

Pikeillinifan

Pikeillinifan
Pikeillinifan
BRucks said:
Much of the debt derived from building facilities will be repaid by pledges from donors. Typically the DIA gets pledges from donors to cover a significant portion of the cost of the project prior to starting construction. These pledges often are paid over 30 years or so. The DIA then borrows the money for the construction, up front,.which is then repaid from the forthcoming pledges year by year.. Of course there is interest to be paid on that debt, on top of the principle, and that has been running north of $20 million/year for Illinois. Fortunately, I guess, the recent debt binge has occurred under historically low interest rates.
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I should have thought about the debt basically being getting donor money up front, thank you for the clarifications.
 
#81      

sacraig

sacraig
The desert
sacraig
ChiefGritty said:
theathletic.com

Big Ten's TV deal: 16 thoughts on CBS, NBC and Fox's new college football rights

Big Ten football is leaving ESPN after a 40-year relationship. Here are some initial thoughts on what to expect from CBS, NBC and Fox.
theathletic.com theathletic.com

Two interesting nuggets in that paywalled article:

- Sources say Amazon bid higher than NBC and CBS for the packages they received. So the conference had the opportunity to step further into streaming and turned it down. Smart, I think.

- Apparently Fox doesn't get the #1 game every week, and it will rotate around all three networks. That certainly makes the numbers NBC and CBS are paying ($350 million a year) make more sense.

The TV ratings war with the SEC is going to be fascinating.
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The comments in the NYT article earlier about B1G games being on not work TV from dawn to dusk on most Saturdays speaks volumes. Amazon may be able to outbid up front, but in terms of brand-building (and thus longer term profits), you need more eyes on product. The B1G made the right call, in my opinion.
 
#87      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
wettsten said:
does this mean some games will be on Paramount+?
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From what I could find, it looks like any football or basketball games that air on CBS will also stream on Paramount+. I already had added Paramount+ when I was wanting to watch the USMNT World Cup qualifiers so this will be something else I can watch on there if I have to (Plus I'm wanting to watch some of the Star Trek stuff (mainly Picard) that they have on there now).
 
#88      

spotter

S
spotter
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
And people forget that the iconic music in that video was around even before the SEC came to CBS.
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That was the music CBS used to open coverage of Super Bowl XXI.

Starting with the 1987 season, CBS used that music for it's college football coverage and it has stayed that way for the last 35 years.
 
#89      

illinistephen

I
illinistephen
According to Sports Business Journal the total is 8.05B over 7 years for these media rights for an average of 72M per school/year.
Here are some caveats and interesting points to this I've read today unless someone can correct a mistake:
1. USC/UCLA won't get anything from this in year 1 because they will still play in the PAC12 that year.
2. The payouts will be backloaded.
3. Rutgers and Maryland are both full members, however their payouts will be reduced some because they have taken out loans from the Big Ten.
4. These media rights don't include money from bowls, the NCAA tournament, the college football playoff, or radio.
5. It looks like the Big Ten media rights are supplemented by the Big Ten Network which brings in an additional almost 200M per year to the conference. This will probably increase some if the Big Ten Network can get additional carriage fees from the LA market which I think is a safe assumption.
6. Taking into account rotating bye weeks during conference season, at minimum, 3 of the 7 (43%) Big Ten games will be on a "main" broadcast. If Illinois can put together an average team they will get a decent number of the high profile game slots. If they are bad they won't.
7. The Big Ten deal is bigger than the SEC/ACC combined (mainly because the ACC deal is so low) and they will get to renegotiate a new deal before the SEC or ACC. If streaming takes off even more in the next 7 seven years, the Big Ten will get in on it before the SEC.
 
#90      

IllinoisssssssVarsity

I
IllinoisssssssVarsity
illinistephen said:
According to Sports Business Journal the total is 8.05B over 7 years for these media rights for an average of 72M per school/year.
Here are some caveats and interesting points to this I've read today unless someone can correct a mistake:
1. USC/UCLA won't get anything from this in year 1 because they will still play in the PAC12 that year.
2. The payouts will be backloaded.
3. Rutgers and Maryland are both full members, however their payouts will be reduced some because they have taken out loans from the Big Ten.
4. These media rights don't include money from bowls, the NCAA tournament, the college football playoff, or radio.
5. It looks like the Big Ten media rights are supplemented by the Big Ten Network which brings in an additional almost 200M per year to the conference. This will probably increase some if the Big Ten Network can get additional carriage fees from the LA market which I think is a safe assumption.
6. Taking into account rotating bye weeks during conference season, at minimum, 3 of the 7 (43%) Big Ten games will be on a "main" broadcast. If Illinois can put together an average team they will get a decent number of the high profile game slots. If they are bad they won't.
7. The Big Ten deal is bigger than the SEC/ACC combined (mainly because the ACC deal is so low) and they will get to renegotiate a new deal before the SEC or ACC. If streaming takes off even more in the next 7 seven years, the Big Ten will get in on it before the SEC.
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How much longer after we renegotiate does the SEC renegotiate? I don’t like that they’ll be able to take our number and try to go over it.

But depending on how long after it is, we’ll get our new number, they’ll get their higher one, and then we can maybe quickly go back on top of them if we time it right? Kinda like 3 deals to 2?
 
#91      

PIT_ILL

P
PIT_ILL
ChiefGritty said:
Well let's be fair and compare apples to apples. Bar the BTN+ scam (which will absolutely continue) every Illini game is currently available on basic(ish) cable.

Now they won't be. In order to continue squeezing growth from our TV partners, we need to indulge them putting our content behind a paywall where way fewer people will see it.

1. That stinks! It's not nuclear war, but it's worth complaining about.
2. The audience for those games is going to be WAAAAAAAAAY smaller, even compared to "lesser" games on BTN. BTN has 60 million subscribers, Peacock has 27 million, and only 13 million who aren't getting it (temporarily) for free as part of their cable package.

The Peacock games will be watched only by a small number of hardcore fans, who are paying extra for the privilege. That's the new world of sports that the whole industry is nervously tiptoeing towards. It keeps the wolf from the door today, but the numbers do not pencil out for that in the long term.
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I get what you are saying but the games that matter won't be on streaming. You will see some UI vs PSU or MD etc on streaming. UM vs UI or other high profile games will be on a network. The UI brand will not increase or decrease because of the streaming games. If they show out in the big network games they will grow as has been shown over the past two years.
 
#92      

bdutts

bdutts
Houston, Texas
bdutts
ChiefGritty said:
I think most people outside this board are expecting the right thing, that it won't be quite as high as the per-school B1G take, but it will be in that ballpark, and dramatically higher than what they got in 2013. Cobble it together with what the ACC gives them and they won't be leaving program-changing money on the table.
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Totally agree.
 
#93      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
illinistephen said:
6. Taking into account rotating bye weeks during conference season, at minimum, 3 of the 7 (43%) Big Ten games will be on a "main" broadcast. If Illinois can put together an average team they will get a decent number of the high profile game slots. If they are bad they won't.
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Even if we're bad we'll probably be on those network broadcasts a couple times a season, taking beatings in LA or Columbus, but still.

That's gonna start to create demands for parity, by the way. It will be interesting to see how that evolves. At the moment everything rises and falls on Ohio State and USC being able to line up and compete with Bama and Georgia so it will fall on deaf ears. But the networks will not be happy broadcasting blowout after blowout.

PIT_ILL said:
I get what you are saying but the games that matter won't be on streaming.
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Are we talking football or basketball? The football package is just 8 games and sitting below this giant network thing, so it's going to be a pretty limited presence, though I'm sure every team will be on there at some point.

The basketball package is bigger than the one going to FS1, we're going to be on Peacock all the time.

Remember, the bottom of the barrel is still BTN. So Peacock is now the layer between BTN and FS1 (with Fox and CBS having a small number at the tippy top). It's gonna be a lot of big games.

ESPN has an opportunity to make that hurt if they want to get aggressive about it.
 
#94      

redwingillini11

redwingillini11
White and Sixth
North Aurora
redwingillini11
ChiefGritty said:
The basketball package is bigger than the one going to FS1, we're going to be on Peacock all the time.
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The numbers still only work out to each team averaging 4 conference games and 1 non-conference game per year. I know that’s going to feel like a lot but we are going to have 28ish games on Fox, FS1, CBS or BTN. Peacock isn’t likely to overwhelm us.

I will predict though that the Braggin Rights game may turn into a spite war where it alternates being on ESPN+/SECN and Peacock in alternating years. Big Ten will have no problem using us as a pawn against SEC fans and I assume the SEC thinks of Mizzou just the same.
 
#95      

Chukwuwumba

Chukwuwumba
Chukwuwumba
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
Not sure why there's such complaining on here about games being on Peacock. Would it be really that much worse than the basketball games on BTN+ that hardly anyone is able to watch?

I've had Peacock for just over a year but that was mainly due to WWE Network moving over there. I've never really had major issues watching online or through the app. I have Xfinity so I can just watch it through my TV now as well. There will be plenty of stuff that you all can watch on there aside from just Illini sports.

The one drawback I do know is that if you can't watch the event live from the start, you can't start it over from the beginning. You have to wait until after the event ends before you can go back and watch it in full.
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That’s what I was afraid of…
Usually in and out for football, finishing up the game later.
basketball, will typically be able to watch the game after 9pm or so. Might not be able to watch the later games until next day
 
#96      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
redwingillini11 said:
The numbers still only work out to each team averaging 4 conference games and 1 non-conference game per year. I know that’s going to feel like a lot but we are going to have 28ish games on Fox, FS1, CBS or BTN. Peacock isn’t likely to overwhelm us.
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Right. But someone earlier made the comparison to the BTN+ games, which are exclusively the early season sub-300 Kenpom lowest of the low cupcake games. This is not like that.

It does however mean that to watch the entire season you need three different pay TV services (including one for cable or Youtube TV or whatever).

Fewer fans paying more money, just tiptoeing a little bit further down that road every year. Not a bright future for the industry.
 
#97      

the juiceman cometh

T
the juiceman cometh
ChiefGritty said:
Right. But someone earlier made the comparison to the BTN+ games, which are exclusively the early season sub-300 Kenpom lowest of the low cupcake games. This is not like that.

It does however mean that to watch the entire season you need three different pay TV services (including one for cable or Youtube TV or whatever).

Fewer fans paying more money, just tiptoeing a little bit further down that road every year. Not a bright future for the industry.
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Sure we'll have a handful of meaningful conference games on Peacock. But it's still not "all the time" and I'd be surprised of it's games like Michigan, MSU, Indiana, Iowa. For basketball I'm anticipating it'll more likely be our matchups against teams like PSU, Northwestern, Rutgers, Nebraska, etc. Also wouldn't be surprised to see a team like Nebraska end up more on Peacock than us or some of the other more successful programs.

I will say, I don't like this Peacock thing either. I am worried the future portends a situation where watching a full Illinois basketball or football schedule requires subscriptions to multiple streaming services. Luckily we don't have to worry about that dystopian scenario for at least 7 years.
 
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#98      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
respect my decision™
Joel Goodson
ChiefGritty said:
Are we talking football or basketball? The football package is just 8 games and sitting below this giant network thing, so it's going to be a pretty limited presence, though I'm sure every team will be on there at some point.

The basketball package is bigger than the one going to FS1, we're going to be on Peacock all the time.

Remember, the bottom of the barrel is still BTN. So Peacock is now the layer between BTN and FS1 (with Fox and CBS having a small number at the tippy top). It's gonna be a lot of big games.
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Yeah. Like it or not, we're going to subscribe (during hoops season, anyway). If Peacock stays at $5/mo, not that bad. Super easy to cancel too.
 
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#99      

Calvin

C
Calvin
ChiefGritty said:
That's gonna start to create demands for parity, by the way.
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I may be reading too much into your response, but I disagree. I think the solution is a 12 or 16 team playoff where 2 loss teams are getting in, and seeding becomes more important. The current 4 team format I think creates a spending war that tends to reward only the very top spenders, and the way to solve that isn't necessarily parity, but a more open playoff format where more 2nd tier teams get in. Wouldn't bet my beach house on it, but a lot more games become interesting if the playoff format is more open.
 
#100      

Illini2010-11

I
Sugar Grove
Illini2010-11
Johnny Lawrence said:
Xfinity provides Peacock for free if you solely subscribe to their internet service so cutting the cord is still an option. And Xfinitiy still sucks.
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I cut the cord a few years ago and kept Xfinity internet, and it is absolutely true that you will receive Peacock for free as long as you subscribe to an Xfinity internet service plan. Last year I moved to an area in northern Illinois that was somehow not in the Xfinity coverage zone (YAY!), so I had to ditch Xfinity internet as well (glad to have MetroNet). I still happen to receive Peacock for free, probably due to Xfinity being completely inept at everything and not coding properly -- which leads me to believe that Peacock will completely fall apart in a couple of years due to incompetent service and management.
 
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