AAC upcoming TV deal will have huge ramifications for UConn, league

[StunningSteve]

Pretty sure the AAC voted to give UConn control of its T3 rights. Best source I could find was a Dooley tweet with Megan Bard confirming it.

Reported awhile ago.

Whaler is talking out of his hindquarters. If he had a clue, he'd know that.

"My background is being the financial lead on dozens of deals way bigger than the pennies the AAC get paid."
LMFAO i.e. absolutely clueless about media valuations and properties

 

[Fishy]

Our Tier 3 rights, or what people are referring to here, are not really worth much because there’s not a lot left over to call Tier 3.

Whatever ESPN doesn’t want is usually sold off to CBSSportsNet...whatever is left over after that is generally just some women’s hoop content.

That’s what was sold off to SNY. Originally, that money went to the conference, but the conference voted a while back to let us keep it.

 

[CL82]

Our Tier 3 rights, or what people are referring to here, are not really worth much because there’s not a lot left over to call Tier 3.

Whatever ESPN doesn’t want is usually sold off to CBSSportsNet...whatever is left over after that is generally just some women’s hoop content.

That’s what was sold off to SNY. Originally, that money went to the conference, but the conference voted a while back to let us keep it.

So a few bad MBB games, a few football games, but a ton of WBB games. That package has value.

 

[Wordbomar]

So a few bad MBB games, a few football games, but a ton of WBB games. That package has value.

Last year the SNY games were 5 MBB games, 1 football game, and 15 WBB games.

 

[Storrs South]

Pretty sure the AAC voted to give UConn control of its T3 rights. Best source I could find was a Dooley tweet with Megan Bard confirming it.

The Huskies have a lucrative TV deal with SNY (about $1 million a year) and a media rights deal with IMG (bringing in about $9 million a year, and set to expire after 2017-18) that is one of the best in the nation. The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it.

As Big East Money Dries Up, UConn Must Create Fresh Revenue Streams

 

[whaler11]

Reported awhile ago.

Whaler is talking out of his hindquarters. If he had a clue, he'd know that.

"My background is being the financial lead on dozens of deals way bigger than the pennies the AAC get paid."
LMFAO i.e. absolutely clueless about media valuations and properties

Our Tier 3 rights, or what people are referring to here, are not really worth much because there’s not a lot left over to call Tier 3.

Whatever ESPN doesn’t want is usually sold off to CBSSportsNet...whatever is left over after that is generally just some women’s hoop content.

That’s what was sold off to SNY. Originally, that money went to the conference, but the conference voted a while back to let us keep it.

So a few bad MBB games, a few football games, but a ton of WBB games. That package has value.

A Memphis State grad who probably moves boxes at FedEx is talking smack lol. Tomorrow I’ll be working on things with 2 and 3 more zeros than the AAC deal and he’ll be explaining to someone why they lost their shipment from newegg.

UConn didn’t get their tier 3 rights back. They got the money back for the women’s basketball deal that was signed with SNY prior to the AAC deal. I believe it was exactly $1mm a year.

Unless something has changed the league owns everything going forward and UConn can’t sell the women’s basketball rights again.

Maybe Mrs Aresco should get her facts straight before running her mouth? Stunning Steve couldn’t value the loose change in his pocket - he can’t even dream up an entity that will magically make the contract bigger.

God it’s bad enough UConn has to subsidize this community college league - maybe don’t encourage their stupidest graduates.

 

[whaler11]

The Huskies have a lucrative TV deal with SNY (about $1 million a year) and a media rights deal with IMG (bringing in about $9 million a year, and set to expire after 2017-18) that is one of the best in the nation. The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it.

As Big East Money Dries Up, UConn Must Create Fresh Revenue Streams

Oh so who had it right? Let’s count the years... 18, 19, 20. 1 million x 3 years = 3 million and then bye bye - those rights get sold with the rest of the AAC inventory in the 2021 deal.

 

[Hoophound]

A Memphis State grad who probably moves boxes at FedEx is talking smack lol. Tomorrow I’ll be working on things with 2 and 3 more zeros than the AAC deal and he’ll be explaining to someone why they lost their shipment from newegg.

Funniest line on the board in months. Lol.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Our Tier 3 rights, or what people are referring to here, are not really worth much because there’s not a lot left over to call Tier 3.

Whatever ESPN doesn’t want is usually sold off to CBSSportsNet...whatever is left over after that is generally just some women’s hoop content.

That’s what was sold off to SNY. Originally, that money went to the conference, but the conference voted a while back to let us keep it.

I think that people are just saying that any new deal needs to preserve for UConn 100% of any WBB contract we get.

 

[Guapo]

Funniest line on the board in months. Lol.

It's great to be a Connecticut Husky

 

[Slasher]

This league is much more interesting if Memphis (and well us) get back to our peak levels. It’s a miracle that this league is still considered decent in basketball with its two most prestigious programs bring down recently.

1st and 3rd maybe. Memphis has zero national titles and just three final fours (one of which was vacated.)

 

[CL82]

And getting Tier 3 for us is huge. That’s a multiple over $3m.

When did they ever say the schools get t3 rights back?

Oh so who had it right?

The Huskies have a lucrative TV deal with SNY (about $1 million a year) and a media rights deal with IMG (bringing in about $9 million a year, and set to expire after 2017-18) that is one of the best in the nation. The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it

Mmm, kind of seems like @Pudge did. Just sayin.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The Huskies have a lucrative TV deal with SNY (about $1 million a year) and a media rights deal with IMG (bringing in about $9 million a year, and set to expire after 2017-18) that is one of the best in the nation. The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it

Mmm, kind of seems like @Pudge did. Just sayin.

It's essentially just the women's basketball money.

When we were in the Big East, the Tier 3 deal with SNY would include actual Big East Conference games for basketball and to a lesser extent football.

The league owns the Tier 3 rights, SNY gets the scraps, and the league allows UConn to keep its women's hoop portion.

 

[CL82]

It's essentially just the women's basketball money.

When we were in the Big East, the Tier 3 deal with SNY would include actual Big East Conference games for basketball and to a lesser extent football.

The league owns the Tier 3 rights, SNY gets the scraps, and the league allows UConn to keep its women's hoop portion.

Well that is where the value is I guess.

I think SNY would take any games that weren't otherwise broadcast if they could get them.

 

[whaler11]

The Huskies have a lucrative TV deal with SNY (about $1 million a year) and a media rights deal with IMG (bringing in about $9 million a year, and set to expire after 2017-18) that is one of the best in the nation. The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it

Mmm, kind of seems like @Pudge did. Just sayin.

We’ve been over this in other threads. They got the money back on the wbb deal that was signed before the AAC existed. There has never been any indication they have tier 3 rights back to sell beyond the end of this AAC deal. That’s why it says 3 million over three years.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Well that is where the value is I guess.

I think SNY would take any games that weren't otherwise broadcast if they could get them.

I agree that SNY would take any games they could get their hands on.

If it was like our older deal, they would be broadcasting the games that are now on CBS Sports Network. Those games used to be Rutgers, Marquette, USF, Depaul, etc., but now would be ECU, Tulsa, Tulane, etc. Nowadays? SNY is lucky to get Maryland Eastern Shore and New Hampshire.

Money aside, exposure wise, I guess it's better to be on a national platform in CBS Sports Network, but I liked how we were featured content on a NY Centric network.

 

[CL82]

We’ve been over this in other threads. They got the money back on the wbb deal that was signed before the AAC existed. There has never been any indication they have tier 3 rights back to sell beyond the end of this AAC deal. That’s why it says 3 million over three years.

Yeah missed them, apparently, but I agree that the value is equivalent to the WBB deal.

 

[StunningSteve]

Tomorrow I’ll be working on things with 2 and 3 more zeros than the AAC deal and he’ll be explaining to someone why they lost their shipment from newegg.

 

[Nostical]

The big streaming services are all bigger companies than Disney (ESPN) by market cap. Do they find college sports an interesting asset to expand? Remember when the Big East signed with a young company named ESPN back in the day? It was groundbreaking. Would they start with the AAC and then go after other conferences later?

Good post Jim. That was my thought, that Amazon, etc. might want to grab some of the AAC to begin proving their reach and value in contemplation of going after the bigger fish later.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I love when a dope tries to call someone out and is a complete fool.

Pull quote from Saturday night 10:43pm. Yep, "love." My Saturday gratitude listed out quite differently. This helps to explain why we do our little tug-o-wars.

Regardless of what some of our more delusional posters think - the next contract will be a function of the numbers of parties interested.

Make a case for a legitimate second bidder (nevermind third or fourth).

I suspect they will have two offers from ESPN. One that looks like today and one that keeps what is on linear TV on TV and moves the ESPN3 content to ESPN+.

I’d guess the first deal gets them 3-4 million and the second deal gets them 5-6 million.

Breaking it into a bunch of pieces would probably get them a few more dollars but is suicide from a competitive standpoint. The only thing the league has going for it is the deluge of games easily available on ESPN properties and ESPN having so many windows because so much has/will move to the SEC and ACC networks.

Helpful stuff at 9:56am the next morning, for which kudos are due. Makes it worthwhile for the casual fan to click on the thread after noticing it has some legs.

LOL - you don’t want to go down the professional background path trust me.

Sure he does. That's why he asked, and it's a fair question within a half hour of your confident post.

Other people want to know as well.

When did they ever say the schools get t3 rights back?

Is anyone other than me going to actually name a second bidder that is going to drive things to 120 million a year?

The absolute best realistic thing I can dream up is Sinclair buys the Fox RSNs and bid using that ‘network’ plus the OTA Sinclair affiliates and their Stadium streaming platform.

Now keep in mind ASN went belly-up and got rolled into Stadium so it’s not something that worked before.

This is the reality - not Netflix or Amazon.

Again, helpful to consider. Back on track at 11:11am?

A Memphis State grad who probably moves boxes at FedEx is talking smack lol. Tomorrow I’ll be working on things with 2 and 3 more zeros than the AAC deal and he’ll be explaining to someone why they lost their shipment from newegg.

True or not, top-notch funny stuff, well-delivered at 5pm, but it still doesn't fill the hole suggested by your Saturday night love listing.

Yes, you have gifts to offer but often not much of a generous spirit. I think that's why you get in a lot of dust-ups here.

Just an observation from someone out of his depth.

 

[pj]

Regardless of what some of our more delusional posters think - the next contract will be a function of the numbers of parties interested.

Make a case for a legitimate second bidder (nevermind third or fourth).

I suspect they will have two offers from ESPN. One that looks like today and one that keeps what is on linear TV on TV and moves the ESPN3 content to ESPN+.

I’d guess the first deal gets them 3-4 million and the second deal gets them 5-6 million.

Breaking it into a bunch of pieces would probably get them a few more dollars but is suicide from a competitive standpoint. The only thing the league has going for it is the deluge of games easily available on ESPN properties and ESPN having so many windows because so much has/will move to the SEC and ACC networks.

ESPN having so many holes to fill is why they can compel ESPN to pay up at least to the level they can get other networks to pay a la carte. And if they can persuade ESPN that that level is higher than it really is, they can get ESPN to pay in the $7-10 mn range.

B10 showed how it's done by getting the Fox deal on part of their content at a high number, setting the market for ESPN. If the AAC can get a second bidder to do a publicly announced deal on a piece of content, they can extract a better bid from ESPN for the rest.

 

[whaler11]

Pull quote from Saturday night 10:43pm. Yep, "love." My Saturday gratitude listed out quite differently. This helps to explain why we do our little tug-o-wars.



Helpful stuff at 9:56am the next morning, for which kudos are due. Makes it worthwhile for the casual fan to click on the thread after noticing it has some legs.



Sure he does. That's why he asked, and it's a fair question within a half hour of your confident post.

Other people want to know as well.



Again, helpful to consider. Back on track at 11:11am?



True or not, top-notch funny stuff, well-delivered at 5pm, but it still doesn't fill the hole suggested by your Saturday night love listing.

Yes, you have gifts to offer but often not much of a generous spirit. I think that's why you get in a lot of dust-ups here.

Just an observation from someone out of his depth.

Why do my professional credentials matter but nobody else’s? We’ve been talking about this stuff for years on the CR board it’s pretty clear at this point who knows what they are talking about and who doesn’t. I priced and negotiated way bigger deals than the AAC for a long time.

This is a simple equation - the rights fees go up when there are multiple competitors. We know from last go round there weren’t any other serious bidders. We had these same discussions the last go round and talked pumped up NBC (lol - they were going to have AAC/Notre Dame doubleheaders on OTA NBC in one ongoing fantasy).

People throw out AMAZON without even thinking about what it would mean for Amazon to own the rights. Amazon doesn’t currently have any ability to produce the games. Now could they build it? Could they hire someone to do it? Sure - they can do whatever they want - but the idea that Amazon is going to build out an arm to do live sports production for the AAC seems a bit far fetched.

Amazon has streamed someone else’s NFL production. They bought 20 EPL games. They are like a third of the growth of the S&P 500 YTD. They have a huge scope that is highly focused on huge emerging markets all over the planet - the AAC is small potatoes with tiny regional fanbases outside of UConn basketball.

It’s easy to call for 4-5x the money for the next deal, but other than throwing out some real long shots like Amazon nobody has come up with the rabbit that ESPN is going to chase.

 

[CL82]

People throw out AMAZON without even thinking about what it would mean for Amazon to own the rights. Amazon doesn’t currently have any ability to produce the games. Now could they build it? Could they hire someone to do it? Sure - they can do whatever they want - but the idea that Amazon is going to build out an arm to do live sports production for the AAC seems a bit far fetched.

Even if they could, would that be good for the league? I doubt it, we'd fall off the face of the earth for most sports fans. (Yes, I know that you are aware of that.)

This deal is absolutely critical for UConn especially but for all the AAC programs. It will decide whether we will be able to stay in the big time sport spending war. As you have said, absent some competition, it isn't likely to good news for us.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Why do my professional credentials matter but nobody else’s?

Because your demeanor quite fairly invites such curiosity.

You are not currently on the CR Board, and many here are ignorant regarding things you hold as settled and obvious and legitimate platform for a certain type of boorishness. It's an ignorance of its own type to treat ignorance as stupidity, and further so to treat stupidity as worthy of ridicule. Both run counter to the genuine value you are able to contribute when you frame the discussion as the balance of your post does.

I hope that helps. It seemed to me to be a better idea than to just steamroller you with an epithet in case good manners simply hadn't occurred to you as an option.

Thanks for your input into this thread

 

[Huskymagic]

If we get less money than the Big East members currently get despite having a decent basketball league and the best football conference outside the P5 then UCONN choices are clear: find a way ASAP to enter a P5 conference or drop football and join the Big East.

It would be stupid for UCONN to continue with football if ESPN disrespects UCONN and the league with a valuation that will be less than what Big East members get just for basketball from FOX.

PS: Connecticut legislators need to get tougher on ESPN. To be in the state of Connecticut and not be able to throw a bone to UCONN which has been very valuable to ESPN and produced many great sports moments for them is bordering on criminal. Our governor, congressmen, senators need to have immense pressure put on them to rectify this situation with ESPN.

PS: Protests need to start happening at ESPN headquarters by UCONN fans and students demanding a change.