Michael Smith and John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal confirm what was reported by the Memphis Commercial Appeal yesterday, that ESPN has signed a contract with the SEC for 15 years.
However, what was not reported in the Commercial Appeal is that ESPN picks up everything not taken by CBS. That means that ESPN will also syndicate games in the Southeast through its ESPN Regional Television arm. What it really means is that Raycom is out of the picture showing the SEC after this season.
And Smith and Ourand report that ESPN has also made an agreement with Comcast to distribute ESPNU in 7 million homes, expanding its reach.
Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that the SEC is going to announce the new multimedia rights deal with ESPN at 3 p.m. today.
Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News has Raycom’s reaction to the deal.
Eric Spanberg of the Charlotte Business Journal says the loss of the SEC leaves a big hole in Raycom’s syndication plans.
The deal is worth a reported $2.25 billion bringing the SEC’s take combined with CBS’ deal, an estimated $205 million a year. That’s a lot of cash to the conference.
We’ll have reaction to this later.
