Fox Sports 1 Update

[GoldenWarrior11]

Question for people. There has been much debate on the way the FOX contract works for women basketball. I know FOX controls everything on the mens side. I thought I read somewhere that FOX has control of selected women games, but not all. Can anyone clarify?

Just wondering if UConn could sell the games FOX doesn't broadcast on the womens side to SNY like they have in the past? There is a market for it.

Other than the tournament, there have been very few women's games telecast. For Marquette last year, we had three games telecast on FS1 (Notre Dame, DePaul and Georgetown), as well as the Women's Tournament. Many of the games were on the Big East Digital Network. Looking at DePaul, they had a number of their games on FS2, but still nothing big on FS1.

My guess is that Fox will recognize the importance of UConn's Women's team, and attempt to utilize as much as they can, given their windows. For those that it cannot utilize, it will likely sell to SNY.

[BFieldHusky]

Question for people. There has been much debate on the way the FOX contract works for women basketball. I know FOX controls everything on the mens side. I thought I read somewhere that FOX has control of selected women games, but not all. Can anyone clarify?

Just wondering if UConn could sell the games FOX doesn't broadcast on the womens side to SNY like they have in the past? There is a market for it.

Other than the tournament, there have been very few women's games telecast. For Marquette last year, we had three games telecast on FS1 (Notre Dame, DePaul and Georgetown), as well as the Women's Tournament. Many of the games were on the Big East Digital Network. Looking at DePaul, they had a number of their games on FS2, but still nothing big on FS1.

My guess is that Fox will recognize the importance of UConn's Women's team, and attempt to utilize as much as they can, given their windows. For those that it cannot utilize, it will likely sell to SNY.

So FOX would be the one selling the women content to SNY, not UConn? It just threw me the way the language in the contract reads.

[GoldenWarrior11]

The original deal was a 12-year, $500 million deal; on average, that provided $41.6 million per year to the ten members ($4.16 million per member per year). It allowed the deal to be upgraded to $550 million if we went to eleven members, and $600 million if we went up to 12 members. So, without extending the deal - and just following parameters set forth in original deal - that would increase the average payout per year to $45.83 million per year ($4.58 million per member per year). From that, if Fox wanted to "extend" the current deal, upping the annual payout to $6 million, they would "only" need to increase the average payouts by $16.5 million per year total (around $1.65 million per member); from that increase it payouts, Fox gets an additional 40 Big East conference games (an extra two for each team, as well as the full 20 from UConn), as well as the right to an additional BE Tournament game. Not counting the access to UConn's OOC home games it will also acquire, it comes out to about 40k per "extra" contest.

I still think a BE-Fox extension gets announced next July 1st.

Good write up GoldenWarrior 11. Thanks. This makes a lot of sense. Hope you don't mind but I am going to share this on the UConn board (giving you credit of course).

Would be pretty amazing to make 6 million in the Big East, while the American (WITH FOOTBALL) would make just shy of 7 million a year.

Math was wrong (I thought it looked off) - it would come out to $400k per contest (not $40k).

[GoldenWarrior11]

The original deal was a 12-year, $500 million deal; on average, that provided $41.6 million per year to the ten members ($4.16 million per member per year). It allowed the deal to be upgraded to $550 million if we went to eleven members, and $600 million if we went up to 12 members. So, without extending the deal - and just following parameters set forth in original deal - that would increase the average payout per year to $45.83 million per year ($4.58 million per member per year). From that, if Fox wanted to "extend" the current deal, upping the annual payout to $6 million, they would "only" need to increase the average payouts by $16.5 million per year total (around $1.65 million per member); from that increase it payouts, Fox gets an additional 40 Big East conference games (an extra two for each team, as well as the full 20 from UConn), as well as the right to an additional BE Tournament game. Not counting the access to UConn's OOC home games it will also acquire, it comes out to about 40k per "extra" contest.

I still think a BE-Fox extension gets announced next July 1st.

Good write up GoldenWarrior 11. Thanks. This makes a lot of sense. Hope you don't mind but I am going to share this on the UConn board (giving you credit of course).

Would be pretty amazing to make 6 million in the Big East, while the American (WITH FOOTBALL) would make just shy of 7 million a year.

I know it is a sore subject with AAC Football fans (and probably a few UConn Football fans), but in terms of ROI, UConn will 100% be making more for basketball alone than any AAC basketball program BECAUSE they do not also have the added expense of football eating away from it. Say the AAC TV deal is $7 million. It has been argued that 75% of all television revenue is for football content (and the other $25 is for men's basketball). So, with that breakdown, TV revenue for football is just over $5 million (and men's basketball is for $2 million). With the costs for football coaching salaries, the added costs of equal Title IX scholarships, football stadium renovations, practice facilities maintenance and all the other expenses that go on into the costs of football, if you aren't in the P5, you aren't in the big-boy league of college football, period.

Between the added ticket sales, increased revenues, increased fan interest and increase in travel, the move is an absolute win/win. The whole paying $17 million argument to the AAC to leave is pretty comical to me. The AAC withheld $11 million from those payments (including one year where it will already be a member in the Big East), with UConn paying $1 million annually for six years. Once again, it is a PR move to frame it like that (no doubt from the AAC, who was so quick to declare a $1 billion deal without reading the fine print). In the long-run, UConn will be saving and making more money.

[BFieldHusky]

The original deal was a 12-year, $500 million deal; on average, that provided $41.6 million per year to the ten members ($4.16 million per member per year). It allowed the deal to be upgraded to $550 million if we went to eleven members, and $600 million if we went up to 12 members. So, without extending the deal - and just following parameters set forth in original deal - that would increase the average payout per year to $45.83 million per year ($4.58 million per member per year). From that, if Fox wanted to "extend" the current deal, upping the annual payout to $6 million, they would "only" need to increase the average payouts by $16.5 million per year total (around $1.65 million per member); from that increase it payouts, Fox gets an additional 40 Big East conference games (an extra two for each team, as well as the full 20 from UConn), as well as the right to an additional BE Tournament game. Not counting the access to UConn's OOC home games it will also acquire, it comes out to about 40k per "extra" contest.

I still think a BE-Fox extension gets announced next July 1st.

Good write up GoldenWarrior 11. Thanks. This makes a lot of sense. Hope you don't mind but I am going to share this on the UConn board (giving you credit of course).

Would be pretty amazing to make 6 million in the Big East, while the American (WITH FOOTBALL) would make just shy of 7 million a year.

I know it is a sore subject with AAC Football fans (and probably a few UConn Football fans), but in terms of ROI, UConn will 100% be making more for basketball alone than any AAC basketball program BECAUSE they do not also have the added expense of football eating away from it. Say the AAC TV deal is $7 million. It has been argued that 75% of all television revenue is for football content (and the other $25 is for men's basketball). So, with that breakdown, TV revenue for football is just over $5 million (and men's basketball is for $2 million). With the costs for football coaching salaries, the added costs of equal Title IX scholarships, football stadium renovations, practice facilities maintenance and all the other expenses that go on into the costs of football, if you aren't in the P5, you aren't in the big-boy league of college football, period.

Between the added ticket sales, increased revenues, increased fan interest and increase in travel, the move is an absolute win/win. The whole paying $17 million argument to the AAC to leave is pretty comical to me. The AAC withheld $11 million from those payments (including one year where it will already be a member in the Big East), with UConn paying $1 million annually for six years. Once again, it is a PR move to frame it like that (no doubt from the AAC, who was so quick to declare a $1 billion deal without reading the fine print). In the long-run, UConn will be saving and making more money.

All true. And the straw that finally broke UConn's back was ESPN+. As part of the new American deal, schools are forced to pay the broadcast production costs of all sports, except football when hosting an event on ESPN +. So if UConn was hosting a mens or women's basketball game, they would be on the hook for the production costs. Those include the infrastructure needed to broadcast events in HD, and at the level ESPN expects.

American fans don't believe there will be much cost with this, but my source said that the athletic department at UConn said there will be big costs to get this up and running, and then the cost of running these events every year. UConn feared that the men and women would be on ESPN+ a lot because ESPN wants to grow this. It's a $5 dollar a month subscription service.

You also have to produce Olympic sporting events. So that 7 million the American is getting is even less when you factor in the production costs. And if you are UConn, you can't "skimp" on broadcasting a women's game like East Carolina or Tulsa can. The women have a huge following. The new deal taking the women off SNY didn't help matters either.

[GoldenWarrior11]

The original deal was a 12-year, $500 million deal; on average, that provided $41.6 million per year to the ten members ($4.16 million per member per year). It allowed the deal to be upgraded to $550 million if we went to eleven members, and $600 million if we went up to 12 members. So, without extending the deal - and just following parameters set forth in original deal - that would increase the average payout per year to $45.83 million per year ($4.58 million per member per year). From that, if Fox wanted to "extend" the current deal, upping the annual payout to $6 million, they would "only" need to increase the average payouts by $16.5 million per year total (around $1.65 million per member); from that increase it payouts, Fox gets an additional 40 Big East conference games (an extra two for each team, as well as the full 20 from UConn), as well as the right to an additional BE Tournament game. Not counting the access to UConn's OOC home games it will also acquire, it comes out to about 40k per "extra" contest.

I still think a BE-Fox extension gets announced next July 1st.

Good write up GoldenWarrior 11. Thanks. This makes a lot of sense. Hope you don't mind but I am going to share this on the UConn board (giving you credit of course).

Would be pretty amazing to make 6 million in the Big East, while the American (WITH FOOTBALL) would make just shy of 7 million a year.

Math was wrong (I thought it looked off) - it would come out to $400k per contest (not $40k).

Man, my math was WAY OFF. Sincerest apologies.

I did not adjust for the eleventh member: it still comes out to a flat rate to $4.16 per member per year (thus Fox did not incentivize the Big East to expand just for the sake of expanding, which would make sense). While the amounts change, the content numbers do not. It still amounts to at least 41 new guaranteed content slots to offer to Fox (not including UConn Women's Basketball). IF it gets bumped up to $6 million, that would mean each member would need to receive an extra $1.84 million per year (with Fox paying an extra $20 million per year).

[BFieldHusky]

I keep going back to the piece Kevin McNamara wrote when news broke we were joining. Word is he is very connected inside the Big East office. He got this info from a good source. I am not saying the number is right on, but this wasn't just floated out of thin air. My guy has heard it as well.

Don’t listen when you hear Big East people say this isn’t about money. Expansion is always about money and after getting steamrolled for years by former football partners Boston College, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, everyone should know the score. UConn will pay an entry fee to the Big East ($3.5 million), but that’s usually deducted from future earnings. More importantly, TV partner Fox Sports certainly pushed for this. Word is the addition of UConn can trigger a clause in the Big East’s deal with Fox and re-open talks on a contract that has six years to run. This will mean a bump from the current $4 million or so per school TV payout; perhaps an additional $2 million per school.

[gtmoBlue]

I keep going back to the piece Kevin McNamara wrote when news broke we were joining. Word is he is very connected inside the Big East office. He got this info from a good source. I am not saying the number is right on, but this wasn't just floated out of thin air. My guy has heard it as well.

Don’t listen when you hear Big East people say this isn’t about money. Expansion is always about money and after getting steamrolled for years by former football partners Boston College, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, everyone should know the score. UConn will pay an entry fee to the Big East ($3.5 million), but that’s usually deducted from future earnings. More importantly, TV partner Fox Sports certainly pushed for this. Word is the addition of UConn can trigger a clause in the Big East’s deal with Fox and re-open talks on a contract that has six years to run. This will mean a bump from the current $4 million or so per school TV payout; perhaps an additional $2 million per school.

Both ESPN and Fox, particularly Fox have escalated contract payouts in recent years...the Pac12 and B12 in 2012-13, and the B1G in 2017. Current payouts should reflect the current inflationary costs and payout levels. The combined BIG contract was approx S6 Billion/6 years combined with the 2 carriers. Football, while the major factor, is not a $5 billion factor. Therefore the current market value for basketball, not saying that basketball is equal to football, has increased substantially.

GW11's $400K a game tallys out to 330 games/year @$400k = $132Million x 10 years =$1.320 Billion. $12M/school/yr

$100k/gm x 330gms = $33Million ($330M over 10 years) or $3M/school/yr
$150k/gm x 330 = $49.5Million ($495m over 10 years) or $4.5M/school/yr ($4.125M/yr over 12 years)
$200k/gm x 330 = $66Million ($660M over 10 years) or $6M/school/yr
$300K/gm x 330 = $99Million ($990M over 10 years) or $9M/school/yr
$400K/gm x 330 = $132Million ($1.32Billion over 10 years) or $12M/school/yr
At $500k/game $165Million ($1.65 Billion over 10 years) or $15M/school/yr

Looks as though we were getting around $150k/gm. If current fair market value is in GW11's ballpark ($300-400K/game) The conference will double its TV revenues.

Fox Sports makes it's money off advertising...I'll take a wild guess that their rates have climbed over the last 6 years along with their ratings. They have made a killing off sports and when you add in the early lowballing of contract bids, like ours, their monies look like Uncle Scrooge's vault. Time for a course correction for the BEAST.

[MUPanther]

FOX Sports gets 20 extra Big East Conference games. Not 40

[MUPanther]

Question for people. There has been much debate on the way the FOX contract works for women basketball. I know FOX controls everything on the mens side. I thought I read somewhere that FOX has control of selected women games, but not all. Can anyone clarify?

Just wondering if UConn could sell the games FOX doesn't broadcast on the womens side to SNY like they have in the past? There is a market for it.

Other than the tournament, there have been very few women's games telecast. For Marquette last year, we had three games telecast on FS1 (Notre Dame, DePaul and Georgetown), as well as the Women's Tournament. Many of the games were on the Big East Digital Network. Looking at DePaul, they had a number of their games on FS2, but still nothing big on FS1.

My guess is that Fox will recognize the importance of UConn's Women's team, and attempt to utilize as much as they can, given their windows. For those that it cannot utilize, it will likely sell to SNY.

So FOX would be the one selling the women content to SNY, not UConn? It just threw me the way the language in the contract reads.

Yes. FOX Sports has the rights to the women's games.