Five Heart Podcast 284: Big Ten Media Rights - The First To A Billion?

Greg is out!

Todd is out!

Jon takes control of the show and invites Husker Mike!

We talk about Big Ten media rights, because Mike knows that stuff better than anyone else I know that isn’t fully employed in the media.

So.... the Big Ten is going to negotiate new media rights. The players - ESPN, Fox, CBS, and NBC.

We discuss (well, mostly Mike answers my questions) how the TV rights of Big Ten sports might be split up between the networks.

Mike proposes that the following mix might happen with Big Ten football:

Fox - Big Noon Saturday  - Big Ten game of the week

CBS -2:30   - Another high profile Big Ten game

NBC - Primetime - Yet another high profile Big Ten game

BTN - everyone else that week

This would give the Big Ten three games on broadcast TV, meaning people could pick those games up with just an antenna. This is an important distinction and worth a lot of money to the networks AND the Big Ten.

$1B per year will translate to around $71M per year per Big Ten school. That’s around double what they get now... so this round of media right discussions is crucial.

That’s what Mike and I talk about this episode!

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