According to Sports Business Daily, Dish Network has agreed to carry the upcoming SEC Network at launch.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/01/13/Media/SEC-net.aspx
Distributors in SEC country can expect to pay a rate of $1.30 to carry the soon-to-be-launched SEC Network, according to several sources with knowledge of the rate card.
That fee, paid on a monthly per-subscriber basis, is what cable and satellite companies within the SEC’s 11-state footprint would pay to ESPN, the owner of the SEC Network. Outside of SEC territory, the channel’s license fee drops to 25 cents.
Cable operators are certain to blanche at the network’s price tag, which is more expensive than other college conference channels like Big Ten Network and Pac-12 Networks.
But ESPN could have leverage as it negotiates with cable operators, as it appears to be on the cusp of landing a deal with one of the industry’s biggest distributors. Sources said that the country’s third-largest distributor, Dish Network, has agreed to carry the channel from its August launch. The deal has not been completed and is part of a bigger overall deal that it is negotiating with ESPN. Dish’s ESPN deal expired at the end of September, but the two worked out an extension, and they are still negotiating terms. Sources say SEC Network carriage is not a sticking point in these talks.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/01/13/Media/SEC-net.aspx
Distributors in SEC country can expect to pay a rate of $1.30 to carry the soon-to-be-launched SEC Network, according to several sources with knowledge of the rate card.
That fee, paid on a monthly per-subscriber basis, is what cable and satellite companies within the SEC’s 11-state footprint would pay to ESPN, the owner of the SEC Network. Outside of SEC territory, the channel’s license fee drops to 25 cents.
Cable operators are certain to blanche at the network’s price tag, which is more expensive than other college conference channels like Big Ten Network and Pac-12 Networks.
But ESPN could have leverage as it negotiates with cable operators, as it appears to be on the cusp of landing a deal with one of the industry’s biggest distributors. Sources said that the country’s third-largest distributor, Dish Network, has agreed to carry the channel from its August launch. The deal has not been completed and is part of a bigger overall deal that it is negotiating with ESPN. Dish’s ESPN deal expired at the end of September, but the two worked out an extension, and they are still negotiating terms. Sources say SEC Network carriage is not a sticking point in these talks.
