The Big Ten Conference has its new media rights deal, announcing the details Thursday morning.
The seven-year distribution agreement with broadcast partners CBS, Fox, FS1, NBC, Peacock and the Big Ten Network will run from July 1, 2023, through the end of the 2029-30 athletic year.
Several news outlets reported the new deal to broadcast the conference’s football and basketball games is worth more than $7 billion, with The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach reporting the rights agreement will exceed $8 billion.
Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde also reported the annual payout for each conference team “could average in excess of $70 million per member in the 16-team conference” once USC and UCLA join the league in 2024.
There could be more financial windfall, though, if the conference adds more schools.
Both Forde and Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported there’s an escalator clause in the contract that could make the deal increase to nearly $10 billion if the Big Ten expands further.
Both outlets reported that sources within the Big Ten indicated the league isn’t done expanding.
Who would be the top candidates for expansion? That’s a topic Action Network reported on last month, with the most likely candidates including independent Notre Dame, the Pac-12’s Oregon, Washington, Stanford and California, and the ACC’s Miami and Florida State.
Both CBS and NBC will pay around $350 million each year for their Big Ten deals, The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach reported.
As has been previously reported, ESPN will not be a part of the deal.
The Big Ten and ESPN have a distribution deal that expires next year, which means once the new contracts kick in, it will be the first time in 40 years the Worldwide Leader hasn’t broadcast home Big Ten football and basketball games, according to Auerbach.
The Big Ten’s seven-year term will expire before the SEC’s current deal with ESPN, which runs through 2034.
CBS, Fox and NBC will each televise at least one Big Ten football championship during the seven-year term of the deal. Fox will broadcast four of those games (2023, 2025, 2027, 2029), with CBS broadcasting two (2024, 2028) and NBC one (2026).
The contract will also be backloaded, for a few reasons, as Auerbach explains.
“CBS will not carry as many games in 2023 as it will for the duration of the contract, so the network will pay more in later years, and USC and UCLA will not join the Big Ten until 2024, so the added payments from then on reflect the increase in inventory,” she wrote.
McMurphy and the Big Ten outlined the production details for each major broadcast partner.
In 2023, CBS will broadcast seven football games and increase that to number to 15 games from 2024 through 2029 — including an annual Black Friday game. Every Big Ten football and basketball broadcast will also be streamed on Paramount+.
NBC will broadcast between 14 and 16 games each year — that will include primetime “Big Ten Saturday Night” contests — with games being simul-streamed on Peacock.
Fox and FS1 will combine to produce between 24-27 Big Ten football games during the 2023 season, then between 30-32 the remainder of the contract, according to Murphy.
The league’s network partners, excluding NBC, will televise Big Ten’s men’s basketball games. According to McMuprhy, the Big Ten Network will broadcast the most each season (126), followed by Fox and FS1 (45), Peacock (32 to 47) and CBS (9 to 15).