Is ESPN out on the Pac 12? What's happening with Apple, media rights negotiations, etc?
Channel: Winning Cures Everything
Date: 01/03/2023

Richard Deitsch wrote about Apple, Amazon and the Pac 12 in the Athletic on Monday, and had some very interesting tidbits to share out.  Deitsch is as tied in on sports media as anybody, and his connections gave him some compelling information. 

(https://theathletic.com/4242454/2023/02/27/mls-apple-deitsch-media-column/)

He stated that the potential partners we've all talked about - Amazon, ESPN, Apple, etc - are all open to something with the Pac 12... but only at a certain price.  We've discussed this on the show before - Big Ten & SEC & NFL are must haves - Pac 12 fits alongside the G5s in the "it would be nice to have" category.

Here's the interesting nugget: "there is conceptual interest from the Amazon side for a Friday night Pac-12 football game. Why? Well, they can promote it big during their “Thursday Night Football” franchise and they would not be going up against the Saturday college football schedule. It’d be another nice piece for Amazon’s growing sports portfolio. But the price has to be right and from what I understand —Amazon and the Pac-12 were far apart earlier this month regarding any kind of a deal."

That's interesting - first, because Amazon wanting to get in on Friday night football isn't really what we expected, and second, because it sounds like Kliavkoff is wanting way more money for a Friday night standalone from Amazon than what they're willing to pay.

Deitsch also questioned whether or not the Pac 12 conference championships could be parceled out - basically selling them separately from the regular season packages.  ESPN & CBS do this with mid-major conferences during March Madness.  Would the Pac 12 be willing to sell their championship games and tournaments separately?  We haven't seen a P5 do that - and before you guys start in on me - I know the pac 12 is nothing like a power anything right now.  Leave me alone.  haha.

It also mentions, and I'm going to read this straight from the article: "One industry source said ESPN had general interest in the Pac 12 - and likely a Saturday 10:30pm ET window for football games - but with so many assets coming up for bid (NBA, CFP, NCAA championships, NASCAR, etc) and Disney in cost-conscious mode, there was no chance it was going to break the bank for Pac-12 inventory."

The first thing I noticed in this?  And I'll give you about 2 seconds to see if you noticed it too...  "ESPN HAD general interest..." and "there WAS no chance it WAS going to break the bank..." 

Past tense.  If ESPN is out of the running - and this is the first we've heard of that potential - then is Apple and Amazon all that's left?  Could Ion be the only linear option left?  If the only available options are streaming... that's got to be the death knell, right?

Now, he also closes out with this "If I was a consultant and the Pac-12 asked me what we should do — note, this is not happening — I would sign a short-term deal with ESPN and with one streaming service. The money will not make my college presidents happy (and George Kliavkoff was hired to bring in a big money deal), but I’d play the medium-term market, trade dollars for exposure in the near term, and see where streaming versus cable is in, say, 2028."

But what if that short term ESPN deal is no longer an option?  This is just nuts to see play out.

Toss in Dennis Dodd's latest article at CBS, where former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti is quoted as saying "I have that impending sense of doom.  All my life, I've always been a West Coast guy. I can just see the Pac 12 falling apart."  One aspect of this that was brought up in Dodd's article - where he spoke with multiple former Pac 12 coaches - is that going to streaming is going to kill recruiting in that conference.  If people can't see your games easily, most players will choose to play somewhere they can be seen.

This is an absolute cluster.  And yes, I'm tired of it too.

From Tuesday 2/28/23 full show: https://youtube.com/live/C8Ewk3JH99k

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