This is from Stu Mandel's column today, always a great read.
I cut and pasted only the ACC question and answer
Does the ACC really have a bad TV deal? If so, explain to me why they deserve more money. — Stephen S.
You’d have to ask the schools why they feel they “deserve” more money. Per the league’s 2022 tax return, it made $443 million in television revenue, a little north of $30 million per school, higher than the Big 12 and Pac-12 but nowhere near the Big Ten or SEC. That seems about right for a conference with just two-and-half nationally relevant football programs (Florida State, Clemson and four-to-five Notre Dame games a year) but also the most valuable basketball product (thanks to Duke-UNC).
The league’s ESPN deal is generally viewed as “bad” because it’s locked in for 20 years — through 2035-36 — which means other conferences’ contracts will come up again, possibly more than once, putting the ACC in danger of falling further behind if those leagues keep getting richer and richer deals.
But there’s been an interesting wrinkle to the narrative recently that hasn’t really been discussed.
Have you been following what’s going on at ESPN these days? It’s not great! The network has lost 25 percent of its cable subscribers since the model peaked in 2011, and the number of cable homes is only expected to keep dropping. ESPN+ is off to a decent start (a reported 25 million subscribers), but Disney as a whole is losing billions on streaming. We’re starting to see some panic, with ESPN recently laying off a whole bunch of household on-air names (Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber, et al) and Disney CEO Bob Iger went so far as to suggest the company may spin off or sell a stake in its TV networks.
Which is to say the days of ESPN throwing money at leagues and conferences not named the NFL, NBA or SEC may be coming to an end. We’re already getting a glimpse of that with the network declining to hand the SEC more money than it already does if the league goes to nine conference games and the fact the Pac-12 and ESPN were reportedly “hundreds of millions” apart at the outset of their negotiations. The network is becoming more frugal and more selective.
All of which is to say, if the ACC’s media rights happened to be coming up right now, I don’t think there’d be some golden payday waiting. It would probably be in much the same position the Pac-12 finds itself. And it never made sense to me why ESPN agreed to launch the ACC Network in 2019, well past the peak of bundled cable. If given the opportunity it might either shut it down or turn it into a direct-to-consumer product. The idea an Amazon or Apple would invest heavily in the ACC seems unrealistic, too. I’m sure they would love to get Notre Dame football when the NBC deal expires, but they don’t need the ACC to do that.
Therefore, one could make the case the ACC is actually fortunate to have its place at ESPN secured for as long as it does. It will definitely come at a cost. But there’s a reason the SEC and Big Ten make so much more — way more people watch SEC and Big Ten football than they do ACC football.
I cut and pasted only the ACC question and answer
Does the ACC really have a bad TV deal? If so, explain to me why they deserve more money. — Stephen S.
You’d have to ask the schools why they feel they “deserve” more money. Per the league’s 2022 tax return, it made $443 million in television revenue, a little north of $30 million per school, higher than the Big 12 and Pac-12 but nowhere near the Big Ten or SEC. That seems about right for a conference with just two-and-half nationally relevant football programs (Florida State, Clemson and four-to-five Notre Dame games a year) but also the most valuable basketball product (thanks to Duke-UNC).
The league’s ESPN deal is generally viewed as “bad” because it’s locked in for 20 years — through 2035-36 — which means other conferences’ contracts will come up again, possibly more than once, putting the ACC in danger of falling further behind if those leagues keep getting richer and richer deals.
But there’s been an interesting wrinkle to the narrative recently that hasn’t really been discussed.
Have you been following what’s going on at ESPN these days? It’s not great! The network has lost 25 percent of its cable subscribers since the model peaked in 2011, and the number of cable homes is only expected to keep dropping. ESPN+ is off to a decent start (a reported 25 million subscribers), but Disney as a whole is losing billions on streaming. We’re starting to see some panic, with ESPN recently laying off a whole bunch of household on-air names (Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber, et al) and Disney CEO Bob Iger went so far as to suggest the company may spin off or sell a stake in its TV networks.
Which is to say the days of ESPN throwing money at leagues and conferences not named the NFL, NBA or SEC may be coming to an end. We’re already getting a glimpse of that with the network declining to hand the SEC more money than it already does if the league goes to nine conference games and the fact the Pac-12 and ESPN were reportedly “hundreds of millions” apart at the outset of their negotiations. The network is becoming more frugal and more selective.
All of which is to say, if the ACC’s media rights happened to be coming up right now, I don’t think there’d be some golden payday waiting. It would probably be in much the same position the Pac-12 finds itself. And it never made sense to me why ESPN agreed to launch the ACC Network in 2019, well past the peak of bundled cable. If given the opportunity it might either shut it down or turn it into a direct-to-consumer product. The idea an Amazon or Apple would invest heavily in the ACC seems unrealistic, too. I’m sure they would love to get Notre Dame football when the NBC deal expires, but they don’t need the ACC to do that.
Therefore, one could make the case the ACC is actually fortunate to have its place at ESPN secured for as long as it does. It will definitely come at a cost. But there’s a reason the SEC and Big Ten make so much more — way more people watch SEC and Big Ten football than they do ACC football.
