Big Ten announces historic television rights deal with CBS, FOX, and NBC
The long awaited television rights deal for the Big Ten is officially completed. On Thursday, the conference announced it has signed a seven-year deal with CBS, FOX, and NBC. The deal is estimated to be worth between $7-$8 billion according to Stadium’s Brett McMurphy with the potential to be worth upwards of $10 billion. It will also mark the end of the Big Ten’s 40-year partnership with ESPN.
The deal also confirms much of what was previously known, FOX will air games at noon, CBS in their traditional 3:30 p.m. time slot as well as a weekly prime time game on NBC.
The deal will begin in the 2023 season with each network respectively. Notably, CBS will still have partial SEC media rights for the 2023 season therefore the network will only air seven games in 2023. Starting in 2024, CBS will air 15 Big Ten games per season including an annual Black Friday game. In basketball both the Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Tournament championship games will also air on CBS.
Fox, who is has hosted Big Ten games on Fox flagship stations and FS1 will continue to do so going forward as they have done in the past. They’ll air 24-32 games annually. Finally, NBC will air 14-16 Big Ten Saturday Night Football games per year according to the press release. Games will also be simulcasted on Peacock. Additionally, eight Big Ten games per season will be hosted on Peacock as well as 47 men’s basketball games and 30 women’s basketball games. On top of football and basketball, NBC and Peacock will also air Olympic sports as well as golf.
BREAKDOWN BY NETWORK....
| NETWORK | AMOUNT OF GAMES | Column 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
FOX / FS1 |
24-27 |
13 noon games Rest are 3:30 or primetime |
|
BIG TEN NETWORK |
38-41 |
Mix of Noon/3:30/Primetime |
|
NBC |
16 |
TBD.... |
|
Peacock |
8 |
Mostly Noon games.... |
|
CBS |
7 |
3:30 games |
The three networks will also rotate in coverage of the Big Ten Championship game. Fox will host the championship game in 2023, 2025, 2027, 2029 while CBS will host in 2024 and 2028, NBC will host the game in 2026.
As noted above, there is the possibility the television deal could be worth $10 billion, if the Big Ten continues to expand the conference. This summer, the Big Ten has already added USC and UCLA to the conference starting in the 2024 season, the caveat in the contract for the deal to be potentially worth upwards of $10 billion is a strong sign more expansion will be coming to the Big Ten.
As the deal currently stands, the Big Ten’s 14 and soon to be 16 programs will be expected to receive $80 to $100 million annually.
MORE TO COME.....