BCS makes cable connection
Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
NEW YORK — Bowl Championship Series football games, including the national title game, are moving to ESPN in 2011.
A four-year agreement between the BCS and ESPN was announced Tuesday. ESPN outbid Fox, which is paying approximately $ 80 million annually to broadcast the games from 2007-2010.
ESPN’s offer was for $ 125 million a year, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations. Fox would not offer much more than $ 100 million annually, the person said.
The agreement makes the BCS title game and its satellite matchups the latest high-profile sporting events to migrate from over-the-air television to cable.
BCS coordinator John Swofford, the Athletic Coast Conference commissioner, said he is confident that fewer and fewer viewers make a distinction between the traditional broadcast networks such as Fox, the current home of the BCS, and cable channels such as ESPN.
Playoff games in the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball are already broadcast on cable, as is Monday Night Football. ESPN announced last week that the British Open will be televised live exclusively on cable beginning in 2010.
This marks the first time, though, that the decisive game in a major U. S. pro sports league or NCAA college football or men’s basketball will air on cable.
“You’re talking about a situation where we’re seeing more and more sporting events go to cable,” Swofford said. “And certainly I think that the college football community, people who truly follow college football, are extremely well tuned in to ESPN and see ESPN as in essence for television the home of college football.”
Bowl payouts will increase because of the new deal, Swofford said.
Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said the increase in rights fee is an offshoot of Fox outbidding ESPN the last time the BCS contract was open.
“I’ll go way back to when Fox signed on,” Long said. “I think at that time that was a great move for us in college athletics because it created competition in the marketplace. At that time, ESPN really had a corner on the market. It created competition and I think that competition has really resulted in us having what I understand is an outstanding package from ESPN going forward. So, I think it’s important that competition was created and now this round of contract negotiations has really seen a payoff in that competition.
“ Now the question going forward is does ESPN now have a corner on the market. I think they do for a period of time again. I think what happened, as I understand with Fox, one of their goals was to get a major conference for a regular-season package. When they were not able to secure a major conference, a BCS conference, for a regular-season package, it made the BCS bowl games less desirable to them.
“ ESPN has done a great job of locking up major conferences. That’s why the BCS package became more important to them. I think we’ve seen the marketplace play out here, and I think we’ve seen it play out to college football’s advantage financially.... The question will be what will happen at the end of this contract, and we’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
The SEC was one of the conferences ESPN locked up, signing the league to a 15-year contract worth more the $ 2 billion in August to televise sporting events, including football and men’s and women’s basketball games. That deal begins with the 2009-2010 season.
Although some of the SEC’s sporting events will be shown nationally on ABC, which is run by ESPN, the cable channel chose not to slate the BCS games for the over-the-air network. Owning a valuable property like the BCS could help ESPN when it negotiates future subscription fees.
The agreement covers the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls each year and the BCS title game from 2011-2013. The Rose Bowl will continue to be televised on ABC through at least 2010 under a separate, previous contract, said ESPN President George Bodenheimer.
ESPN is available in just over 98 million U. S. homes, which is 86 percent of all households with televisions, according to Nielsen. Swofford expects that number to grow by 2011, and ESPN notes that 95 percent of people who watched the BCS title game on Fox last season had cable or satellite.
BCS officials decided in April to keep the current format — and not switch to a playoff system — until at least 2014, and the TV contract reflects that. Numerous ESPN commentators have disparaged the BCS structure over the years, which could make for some awkward pairings if previously critical analysts now wind up calling the games.
Bodenheimer said those opinions will continue to be voiced.
“We have a church and state operation here between editorial and on-air talent and the business side,” he said.
Long said he does not have any immediate concerns that ESPN is wielding too much power.
“No, standing here today, I don’t have a concern that they’re going to be able to manipulate people into bowl games and into the BCS championship game,” he said. “No, I don’t think that’s going to happen. You’ve got too many pieces to the puzzle for them to be able to control that — from my perspective.” Information for this article was contributed by Tom Murphy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
