New AAC ESPN Contract Value Poll

[StunningSteve]

“Everything is awfullll/Everything is bad/When you’re in the AAC”

sing it with me!

Lol Doubling the value of the NBE 4 million dollar slice of FS1 pie is really awful.

 

[StunningSteve]

Look, not super optimistic over here; but, it is all but guaranteed that it will at least be more than the current deal.

At least it won’t be FS1 bro, with significantly less than half the audience tuning in.

 

[StunningSteve]

Leagues trending up, I think ESPN realizes that too. I hate the everyone gets the same amount stuff. I’m sure the bottom half loves it but the top half of the league shouldn’t. They bring in all the money. ECU, Tulane and other bottom dwellers should not be getting the same amount of money as Cincinnati, UCF, Houston. Aresco gotta stop this and realize that the “national champions” UCF is getting the same amount to develop facilities and other things for football as ECU. And for basketball why is 0-13 Tulane which I don’t belive has aired on a network other that CBSSN all season get the same amount at UConn, Houston, Cincinnati, UCF who’ve been on ESPN and ESPN2 multiple times this year.

Actually I will relish Tulane doubling up Marquette’s payout considering their shared history in a prior league and Larry Williams talking chit.

Funny stuff
Let’s see if Tulane can get Tulane staffer Cannon Cunningham’s little brother Cade to go with their other Top 100 commit Elijah Wood next year. A bump in pay will be good for them.

 

[CL82]

Fair, but when does it stop? I feel like if we get to the next round of realignment, and we’re still on the outside looking in, there will be people saying “we just got to keep hemoraging cash till this contract is up or this contract is up etc etc”

I can hear the argument to hold on until the ACC contract comes up in 2036 (I think.)

 

[CL82]

Demographics are saying otherwise.

How so?

 

[Dooley]

I’m interested in @Dooley ’s prediction for the TV deal

My guess: $9M-$10M/yr per school. It'll definitely be north of what the Big East schools make, that's for sure. Football is still king - below average NCAAF games still outdraw the majority of NCAAB regular season games. And to be honest, all of our games are considered well below average.

 

[Towney007]

All aboard for ESPN+.

My guess is $5-$6 million.

 

[StunningSteve]

All aboard for ESPN+.

My guess is $5-$6 million.

Doubtful the Presidents would take 5-6 without going to the open market.

That being said, even at that number it’s more than the NBE gets.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

sec money. no doubt

 

[superjohn]

All aboard for ESPN+.

My guess is $5-$6 million.

Good god, it's gotta be more than that.

 

[superjohn]

Doubtful the Presidents would take 5-6 without going to the open market.

That being said, even at that number it’s more than the NBE gets.

You do realize the Big East doesn't have football, right?

 

[Fishy]

Biggest problem with the AAC contract is that there really is only one buyer for the content.

There’s no one in the open market. Fox isn’t looking for content, the streaming services can’t do anything with it and the networks will show infomercials on weekend afternoons rather than increase their costs these days.

Realistically, it’s just ESPN bidding a number that is as low as they can get away with while still maintaining the conference as a somewhat viable provider of content for their platform. Expect plenty of + games in our future.

 

[Hi-Low]

Is there anyway we can hang onto of our non-conf games for SNY / CBS or do all the games remain under espn control to do with as they wish?

 

[Towney007]

Good god, it's gotta be more than that.

Not sure i'd bank on that. They're paying for rights for like... 4-5 semi-interesting football programs.

 

[whaler11]

I hate to break it y’all. There is no market.

This is a one bidder situation - I can’t even kill Aresco for it - there just isn’t another viable partner than ESPN.

Take it to market lol.

 

[whaler11]

Biggest problem with the AAC contract is that there really is only one buyer for the content.

There’s no one in the open market. Fox isn’t looking for content, the streaming services can’t do anything with it and the networks will show infomercials on weekend afternoons rather than increase their costs these days.

Realistically, it’s just ESPN bidding a number that is as low as they can get away with while still maintaining the conference as a somewhat viable provider of content for their platform. Expect plenty of + games in our future.

Yep. The second most viable partner is Stadium. Which you can find on your OTA antennae as the third or fourth sub-station on your local Sinclair affiliate.

In Connecticut it’s Channel 20.4 out of Waterbury.

They have Brett McMurphy writing and have rights to MWC, WCC and the Patriot.

If you can’t get them OTA download the Pluto TV app to watch for free.

 

[whaler11]

Remember that Navy resigned with CBS for nothing in lieu of being part of this transaction. If it turns out it’s 10 mil lol then we’ll see some court martials

 

[UConnNick]

I can hear the argument to hold on until the ACC contract comes up in 2036 (I think.)

I can't wait that long. I'll likely be taking a dirt nap by then.

 

[BUConn10]

$5-6 mil is my guess.

 

[billybud]

Sports Business News figures $8 million...

 

[UConnJim]

ESPN will be careful about putting content on ESPN+. Why? They have to maintain the premium pricing of the current ESPN channels. What they want to do is put a couple of games per team on ESPN+ (as well as other non-game content) to entice fans to subscribe to both the ESPN channels and ESPN+ to increase revenues during a period of declining subscribers.

I would imagine that current games being only shown on ESPN3 will all go to ESPN+. Thus, if you are an avid fan, you will subscribe to ESPN+. For UConn, maybe a couple of football games and a handful of men's basketball games.

 

[Hurleyman216]

I hate to break it y’all. There is no market.

This is a one bidder situation - I can’t even kill Aresco for it - there just isn’t another viable partner than ESPN.

Take it to market lol.

This is not really true. The reality of media in 2019 is that the cable companies are losing subscribers to streaming services like Hulu, YouTube, etc. In 10 years I don’t think the cable tv market will look anything like what it is today. If Aresco was smart he went to streaming services like Hulu and YouTube or even someone like Amazon and kicked the tires only if to drive the price up. If you don’t think this scares the hell out of ESPN, think again. Amazon and some of these other companies can throw way more money at content than ESPN can. And yes I realize the argument that ESPN still provides the best exposure to the conference and they have their own streaming service. I don’t think ESPN wants to open the floodgates or even let these other streaming services taste the product, so here’s hoping Aresco negotiated well and bumped up the price. If you’re ESPN you also have to realize that there are 3-4 schools in the AAC that are worth $30 M/year if the conference breaks up and they get pulled into P5 conferences. I would imagine they have to realize they’re saving $$ by locking the conference in to a mediocre media deal (like I said I think it’ll be between $10-14M/ year per school) vs. paying more for just a fraction of the schools. My point is, it’s in ESPN’s best interest to keep the AAC together vs. having it picked apart. The only way that happens is with a good enough media deal that teams will sign a GOR.

 

[BlueDogs]

Unless it is 15MM, keep shopping

 

[billybud]

Disney owns Hulu...

And is pumping major money into Disney company streaming.

Moreover...Disney owns content.

No matter how that content is transmitted, the content owner gets paid.

Yes...more competition to bid up content is good for the universities, but ESPN is, and I think will remain, the primary sports televiser.

 

[whaler11]

This is not really true. The reality of media in 2019 is that the cable companies are losing subscribers to streaming services like Hulu, YouTube, etc. In 10 years I don’t think the cable tv market will look anything like what it is today. If Aresco was smart he went to streaming services like Hulu and YouTube or even someone like Amazon and kicked the tires only if to drive the price up. If you don’t think this scares the hell out of ESPN, think again. Amazon and some of these other companies can throw way more money at content than ESPN can. And yes I realize the argument that ESPN still provides the best exposure to the conference and they have their own streaming service. I don’t think ESPN wants to open the floodgates or even let these other streaming services taste the product, so here’s hoping Aresco negotiated well and bumped up the price. If you’re ESPN you also have to realize that there are 3-4 schools in the AAC that are worth $30 M/year if the conference breaks up and they get pulled into P5 conferences. I would imagine they have to realize they’re saving $$ by locking the conference in to a mediocre media deal (like I said I think it’ll be between $10-14M/ year per school) vs. paying more for just a fraction of the schools. My point is, it’s in ESPN’s best interest to keep the AAC together vs. having it picked apart. The only way that happens is with a good enough media deal that teams will sign a GOR.

and which of those companies is going to invest the tens of millions of dollars required to build out a live sports production arm so they can own the rights to tulane and memphis?

maybe someday they will be players but they clearly aren’t today. they have never done anything but acquire streaming rights to things produced by others

when people start throwing around $10 million a team... it’s just going to lead to a hilarious set of meltdowns next week

the idea that the p5 are going to expand with these teams - those days are over. nobody is going to add more mouths to feed until they figure out how the revenue to replace carriage fees gets generated.