AAC Media Contract | Page 3 | The Boneyard

AAC Media Contract

Guapo said:
Can someone more familiar with the weeds of the current contract explain to me how the current deal with CBS works? I was under the impression CBS was buying excess content from ESPN. But, if those rights are being seperatly negotiated than I’m guessing the total media payout per year will be above 7 million.
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CBS buys a half dozen basketball games they put on broadcast CBS. Teams were getting like 100k each on that deal.

ESPN was selling the CBSSN games to them.
 
ThabeetDown said:
Besides, during the lifetime of this deal, ESPN+ subscribers are only going to shoot through the roof. In 10 years, streaming will out view cable no question.
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Agree on the last point. But no guarantee ESPN+ is going to be the leader on that front. Again, I would have rather have seen them partner with Amazon, Twitter, or Youtube. Everyone already uses them and we'd be the only conference with that connection. I would have even taken a little less $ but with the greater chance of exposure.
 
whaler11 said:
It takes it away from millions of passive viewers and puts it behind a paywall that has a potential audience that is 1/20th the size at best.

I already have it and like it but the diehards paying $5 isn’t the big deal.
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Exactly. I dont have it and dont want it but now will have to get it because of this crappy deal. Its a slap in the face and these dudes who say who cares they will only play the bad teams there dont get it. Our fanbase for the most part is being told you have to pay to some of your teams games. Its third rate.

We have to get out of this conference.
 
storrsroars said:
So if I'm reading this right, our athletic department is now only going to lose $35 million a year? Progress!
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It actually nets out to about zero for UConn since we lose the Big East exit fee money going forward that only a handful of schools were getting.
 
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aburks41 said:
Perception matters. Do you think ESPN would ever put UK or Duke on ESPN+ if they were playing UMKC? No. IDK about you, but I believe UConn was on the same level as Duke and probably even better than UK from 1999 through 2014. There is no reason why we should expect Hurley to not be able to get us back there - that's what we are paying him for.
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We are not Duke or Kentucky. Duke and Kentucky has always been bigger than us, regardless of our success. It is delusional to think we should be kept to the same standards.

I look at Gonzaga as our model. Do they have trouble recruiting? Not today! If we turn into a top-25 program, every single game will be on ESPN/2. They played every game on ESPN, ESPN2 or their RSN (Root Sports). If we are good enough, we won't be put on ESPN+.
 
ThabeetDown said:
Besides, during the lifetime of this deal, ESPN+ subscribers are only going to shoot through the roof. In 10 years, streaming will out view cable no question.
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This is what all the dinosaurs on this board don't get. 5 years from now there will likely be more people watching content "streaming" than subscribing to cable. This deal gives ESPN the flexibility short-term to put the content they want on their networks. If our teams are good we'll get plenty of exposure, if we suck we won't. I don't think people realize how many people these days WON'T pay $100/month or more for a cable subscription (especially the younger generation). People under 35 or 40 are more likely to shell out $60/year to watch their favorite teams than spend $1500/year on cable. If anything this will increase viewership over time. Cable is dying folks, I know some of you guys refuse to believe it, but it's gonna happen sooner than you think.
 
ThabeetDown said:
We are not Duke or Kentucky. Duke and Kentucky has always been bigger than us, regardless of our success. It is delusional to think we should be kept to the same standards.

I look at Gonzaga as our model. Do they have trouble recruiting? Not today! If we turn into a top-25 program, every single game will be on ESPN/2. They played every game on ESPN, ESPN2 or their RSN (Root Sports). If we are good enough, we won't be put on ESPN+.
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uh... espn+ is now our RSN.
 
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If the play improves there will be a reason to watch, and games will end up on ESPN 1 and 2.
 
Most of the UFC content is also on ESPN+ so $5 a month is s good deal and the subscriber numbers will continue to grow.
 
Hurleyman216 said:
This is what all the dinosaurs on this board don't get. 5 years from now there will likely be more people watching content "streaming" than subscribing to cable. This deal gives ESPN the flexibility short-term to put the content they want on their networks. If our teams are good we'll get plenty of exposure, if we suck we won't. I don't think people realize how many people these days WON'T pay $100/month or more for a cable subscription (especially the younger generation). People under 35 or 40 are more likely to shell out $60/year to watch their favorite teams than spend $1500/year on cable. If anything this will increase viewership over time. Cable is dying folks, I know some of you guys refuse to believe it, but it's gonna happen sooner than you think.
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Yeah and ESPN has 86 million subs and ESPN+ has 2 million subs.

But other than that cable is dead and everyone is streaming sports.
 
12 Years is way too long for a media contract, that's the worst part of this agreement. My only thought is that Aresco did this in the hopes that it would help the conference stay together when the next round of chips start to fall. In 6-7 years this is going to look like a bargain for ESPN...maybe enough so that ESPN will be lobbying to keep the AAC intact, but it's more likely to backfire than to keep the conference together. Just glad they didn't sign a GOR.
 
Good news is that we didnt sign a GOR so when conference realignment happens again in 2022-2024 when the Big 10, Big 12, and Pac 12 tv deals expire, we will hopefully be ready to make a play and jump ship. If we get kicked in the nuts again, we drop football and move to the big east. Our AD needs to spend the next 3 years making UConn as attractive as possible.
 
ThabeetDown said:
Besides, during the lifetime of this deal, ESPN+ subscribers are only going to shoot through the roof. In 10 years, streaming will out view cable no question.
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This. I scrolled quickly thru all the complaints to see if anyone caught onto this. I remember the AAC talking about getting in on the ground floor of streaming tv deals. While I agree with the other poster saying Twitter/Amazon might have gotten more exposure, getting a deal that guarantees streaming is actually a step in the right direction. This deal is for the next decade - if you are trying to make a deal that sustains your product in the near future, you don’t go with old technology.

Would I love a deal to see us on prime time every night, absolutely. But for a lower conference, I won’t judge this deal til we see what the future holds for streaming products. ESPN+ could be the start of opening a whole world of live sports streaming, or could quickly fall behind the power curve. Either way, he league has the right thought.
 
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whaler11 said:
To me the worst part of this deal is twelve years.

That’s a lifetime if ESPN+ doesn’t pop and they let it go fallow.
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That's my whole thing, too.

Even IF everyone takes a huge step forward and miraculously we all end up being outstanding at football, the conference is locked into a deal for 12 years that's pennies on the dollars for what it's worth even assuming best case scenario.


Mix it in with the exposure issues, and this is embarrassing.
 
aburks41 said:
Good news is that we didnt sign a GOR so when conference realignment happens again in 2022-2024 when the Big 10, Big 12, and Pac 12 tv deals expire, we will hopefully be ready to make a play and jump ship. If we get kicked in the nuts again, we drop football and move to the big east. Our AD needs to spend the next 3 years making UConn as attractive as possible.
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Sadly, this is pretty much my take as well. I would however petition the ACC to join as a hoops only member over the Big East though.
 
So I take it we're not gonna keep getting that extra $1.1 million each year from WBB/SNY...
 
Hurleyman216 said:
12 Years is way too long for a media contract, that's the worst part of this agreement. My only thought is that Aresco did this in the hopes that it would help the conference stay together when the next round of chips start to fall. In 6-7 years this is going to look like a bargain for ESPN...maybe enough so that ESPN will be lobbying to keep the AAC intact, but it's more likely to backfire than to keep the conference together. Just glad they didn't sign a GOR.
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This makes no sense.
 
ThabeetDown said:
We are not Duke or Kentucky. Duke and Kentucky has always been bigger than us, regardless of our success. It is delusional to think we should be kept to the same standards.

I look at Gonzaga as our model. Do they have trouble recruiting? Not today! If we turn into a top-25 program, every single game will be on ESPN/2. They played every game on ESPN, ESPN2 or their RSN (Root Sports). If we are good enough, we won't be put on ESPN+.
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The Big East from the 90's until 2013 was the most popular/best conference in college basketball. UConn happened to be the best program in that conference for those 15 years. We were absolutely on the same level as Kentucky during that time period. If you think current day Gonzaga is our comp, then you must not understand how big UConn's peak was. 99% of people cannot even name another team in the WCC aside from Gonzaga or Saint Marys lmao
 
whaler11 said:
Yeah and ESPN has 86 million subs and ESPN+ has 2 million subs.

But other than that cable is dead and everyone is streaming sports.
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Yeah and ESPN+ has only been around for a year and cable has been around for an eternity. ESPN started ESPN+ because they've been losing MILLIONS of subscribers per year. Streaming will be king sooner than you think. I know you think you know everything about media, but you really have no clue.
 
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Towney007 said:
That's my whole thing, too.

Even IF everyone takes a huge step forward and miraculously we all end up being outstanding at football, the conference is locked into a deal for 12 years that's pennies on the dollars for what it's worth even assuming best case scenario.


Mix it in with the exposure issues, and this is embarrassing.
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The worst part is half the schools in this league are literally worth zero in a media deal - and ESPN gets to use UConn and a couple of others to build +.

It’s couch cushion change for ESPN. They collect 1 billion in affiliate cable revenue every 6-7 weeks. UConn is going to gross in this deal what ESPN picks up in just subscriber revenue in 4-5 days.
 
whaler11 said:
Yeah and ESPN has 86 million subs and ESPN+ has 2 million subs.

But other than that cable is dead and everyone is streaming sports.
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ESPN+ has been around for a year. ESPN is losing subs at a rate of over 2 million/year and it's only going to start getting worse.
 
whaler11 said:
To me the worst part of this deal is twelve years.

That’s a lifetime if ESPN+ doesn’t pop and they let it go fallow.
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Do we know for sure there are no outs or re-negotiation periods?
 
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