Fox, ESPN Tie Up Pac-12 Rights For $3 Billion; Reports
Parties To Make 12-Year Pact Official On May 4
Mike Reynolds (Multichannel News) -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/3/2011 5:09:00 PM
ESPN and Fox will make it official tomorrow: They have scored a media rights deal with the soon to be Pac-12 conference.
The parties have scheduled a noon (ET) press conference during which they will announce a 12-year agreement, which Sports Business Daily pegs at some $3 billion, encompassing football, basketball and Olympic sports.
The contract will put football on Fox broadcast in primetime, as well on FX, while FSN will present hoops. ESPN will control football, with some games heading to ABC in primetime, and basketball, with the Olympic sports heading to ESPNU.
ESPN and Fox will alternate presentation of the conference's basketball tournament and football championship game
The conference, officially sporting its expanded number designation on July 1 with the entrance of Colorado and Utah, will retain some rights, which it plans to parlay into a conference channel.
Comcast/NBC was in the hunt for rights for national cable network Versus. "We were very interested in the Pac-12, but were simply outbid by Fox and ESPN," said NBC Sports Group chairman Dick Ebersol. We wish all parties well."
NBC Sports Group could still be in the game for the conference channel, according to reports, but is uninterested in owning it.
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