CBS will lose the SEC but it looks like they’re in the Big Ten business.
According to the Sports Business Journal, CBS is a front-runner to obtain the rights for the conference’s 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday game as FOX currently has a deal to preserve the noon broadcast, and NBC will get the primetime game.
Barring a last-minute change of direction in the Big Ten’s media rights negotiations, ESPN will be without the conference’s football and basketball games for the first time in 40 years. With Big Ten negotiations nearing an end — I’m told agreements could be reached by the end of this week or push into next — CBS and NBC have emerged as the clear front runners to pick up Big Ten rights alongside Fox Sports.
The conference’s deals with CBS and NBC are not finalized. But it looks like the two networks are in the lead to split a “B” package. CBS would pick up games for the 3:30pm ET window, and NBC would carry games in primetime. NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, also would wind up carrying some games. Amazon has bid on these packages, but sources described CBS and NBC as the clear front-runners.
The Big Ten is expected to be the first college conference to eclipse $1 billion per year in rights fees once all is said and done.
If ESPN does not get a package, it would end one of the longest-standing sports media relationships in the business. ABC started carrying Big Ten games in 1966, and ESPN cut its first deal with the conference in 1982.
CBS would reportedly pay the Big Ten $350 million to air the Big Ten’s games on the 3:30 pm timeslot.
CBS is expected to pay in the $350 million per year neighborhood for the 3:30 Big Ten games, according to sources. https://t.co/D0nGwB4PXJ
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) August 9, 2022
For a *single game* a week, CBS is going to pay the Big Ten more than 4 times what ESPN currently pays for the entire AAC https://t.co/Q5vfz83m0Y
— Christian Simmons (@ByCASimmons) August 9, 2022
$350 million per year for *just one* of the Big Ten's football broadcast windows. And not even the primetime one!
13 weeks in the regular season, so that's about $25 million per week.
And the schools…. still aren't paying the players! https://t.co/fccvl8Q7HH— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) August 9, 2022