The Big Ten Conference will play ball in the national cable sports arena as the college conference will team up with Fox Sports to launch a national sports channel this fall.
The new deal comes as the conference reached a 10-year renewal deal with Disney’s ESPN and ABC Sports, which will allow Disney to distribute conference content over 10 domestic and international platforms, according to ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer.
Financial terms for either deal were not disclosed.
The Big Ten Channel will launch in September featuring as many as 35 live football games, 100 basketball contents and 175-200 matchups from Olympic Games-based sports from the conferences’ 11 mostly Midwest-based schools, according to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney.
Those games could also air on broadband or video-on-demand through other distribution-platform outlets created by the partnership between Fox and the Big Ten.
The Big Ten joins the Mountain West Conference with conference-specific cable services, although the College Sports Television-distributed Mountain West service is offered on a regional basis.
FSN president Bob Thompson said the service will initially launch on News Corp.-owned DirecTV, but it will seek expanded-basic cable distribution from operators.
The Big Ten Channel will significantly increase the conference’s exposure on television, but Bodenheimer doesn’t believe the deal will hurt ratings for its ESPN and ABC broadcast-network telecasts.
“We’ve never overestimated the consumer demand for sports product, so [viewer fatigue] never really entered our mind,” he added.
On the Disney front, the new 10-year deal will deliver more than 110 Big Ten events each year -- including football, men’s and women’s basketball and more -- across numerous platforms.
ESPN and ESPN2 will present up to 25 football and 40 basketball telecasts, according to the network. In addition, ESPN’s broadband service, ESPN360, will offer select contests from the two sports.
Various other ESPN outlets including Mobile ESPN, ESPN VOD and ESPN Classic will offer conference highlights, replays of vintage games and other conference-based content.
ESPN International will have worldwide rights to all games on ABC Sports and ESPN outlets.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6346033.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&nid=2226
The new deal comes as the conference reached a 10-year renewal deal with Disney’s ESPN and ABC Sports, which will allow Disney to distribute conference content over 10 domestic and international platforms, according to ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer.
Financial terms for either deal were not disclosed.
The Big Ten Channel will launch in September featuring as many as 35 live football games, 100 basketball contents and 175-200 matchups from Olympic Games-based sports from the conferences’ 11 mostly Midwest-based schools, according to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney.
Those games could also air on broadband or video-on-demand through other distribution-platform outlets created by the partnership between Fox and the Big Ten.
The Big Ten joins the Mountain West Conference with conference-specific cable services, although the College Sports Television-distributed Mountain West service is offered on a regional basis.
FSN president Bob Thompson said the service will initially launch on News Corp.-owned DirecTV, but it will seek expanded-basic cable distribution from operators.
The Big Ten Channel will significantly increase the conference’s exposure on television, but Bodenheimer doesn’t believe the deal will hurt ratings for its ESPN and ABC broadcast-network telecasts.
“We’ve never overestimated the consumer demand for sports product, so [viewer fatigue] never really entered our mind,” he added.
On the Disney front, the new 10-year deal will deliver more than 110 Big Ten events each year -- including football, men’s and women’s basketball and more -- across numerous platforms.
ESPN and ESPN2 will present up to 25 football and 40 basketball telecasts, according to the network. In addition, ESPN’s broadband service, ESPN360, will offer select contests from the two sports.
Various other ESPN outlets including Mobile ESPN, ESPN VOD and ESPN Classic will offer conference highlights, replays of vintage games and other conference-based content.
ESPN International will have worldwide rights to all games on ABC Sports and ESPN outlets.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6346033.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&nid=2226
