https://www.al.com/sec/2020/12/inside-the-secs-decision-to-leave-cbs-for-espn.html
Inside the SECβs decision to leave CBS for ESPNAfter being announced as the next Southeastern Conference commissioner in March 2015, Greg Sankey immediately started thinking about his conferenceβs next media rights deal.ESPN had the majority of the SECβs rights locked up through 2034, but the fate of the SEC on CBS package, considered the crown jewel of college football, had long been a source of intense speculation within the sports TV industry. For years, CBS benefited from one of the sweetest deals in sports TV, paying a mere $55 million annually to get the SECβs weekly top game plus the SEC Championship.After losing long-trusted TV advisor Chuck Gerber, who passed away that same year, Sankey opted to take his time and do his due diligence. In 2018, the SEC hired Evolution Mediaβs Alan Gold and CAAβs Nick Khan to guide the conference through the future media landscape. He consulted trusted deputies Charlie Hussey and Mark Womack as the senior SEC leadership weighed all of their options.After years of consideration, Sankey and the SEC came to the conclusion it was time to go all-in with ESPN.In a deal announced Thursday, though agreed to nearly a year ago, the premier package in college sports is leaving CBS for ESPN starting in 2024-25. Exact terms of the 10-year deal were not released though sources told AL.com the agreement is for upwards of $300 million annually, a massive increase from CBSβ price.A key component of the deal will be a weekly SEC game on ABC, giving the league a much-desired broadcast platform once it leaves CBS. That will include a regular late afternoon kick like the SEC on CBS time slot but also the ability to feature the games in primetime for ABCβs Saturday Night Football. The strategy will be to βput the biggest games in the biggest places in front of the most people,β Burke Magnus, ESPNβs executive vice president of programming and scheduling, told AL.com in an interview.RELATED: Winners and losers of SEC football leaving CBSMagnus and his ESPN colleagues eyed the top SEC game package for years, waiting for their chance to pitch their plan to the SEC. Sources told AL.com last year landing the entire SEC inventory had long been a major priority for the company. Magnus had buy-in and support from his boss, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro, and the big boss, former Disney CEO Bob Iger, to pursue a deal. When the conference indicated in 2019 it was ready to have that discussion, Magnus said, βWe were ready when the phone call came.βBeyond the massive cash component, a big selling point was the scheduling flexibility that would come with the SEC only having one scheduling partner. Magnus described it as a βone plus one equals three dynamicβ where having every football game helped ESPN offer better distribution and exposure that no other entity could offer the SEC. One expected benefit is the league could schedule game times much further in advance without having to wait on CBSβ game of the week pick.The opportunity to maintain a traditional broadcast spot plus the flexibility that comes with ESPN, the SEC Network and ESPN+ was too good for the SEC to pass up. Starting next year, ESPN+ can also air one non-conference game per school and up to two non-conference basketball games.βAll of those were important elements of this conversation and led us down the path to decide that the affiliation with the Disney brand, with ABC and ESPN, was going to be the right opportunity for our future,β Sankey told AL.com.One of the looming questions over the deal will be if it will take until 2024 to go into effect. After ESPN closed in on acquiring the SEC rights last year, there was considerable industry speculation that it would also try to buy out CBS early from its contract with the SEC. According to sources, that desire hasnβt gone away, but no high-level discussions have taken place to this point. Magnus didnβt deny there was interest, though he pointed out it was βentirely outside of our control.ββWeβre not anticipating necessarily, but this partnership is so important to us that if there was an opportunity to discuss something in that regard, weβre open to that conversation,β Magnus said. βBut only if itβs a positive development for all the parties.βSankey added, βCBS obviously continues to be an important relationship for the SEC and has been for many years, and even in this odd year of 2020, that remains. Our focus has been on the three years remaining in our agreements...and thatβs really how weβve looked at the situation, both at present and as we go forward.βOnce the deal goes into effect, itβll be a significant financial boon for all 14 SEC schools. The SEC schools, which received more than $45 million last fiscal year, will receive at least an additional $15 million from this new deal alone. For ESPN, it will finally get the chance to televise every game it wants, from the Iron Bowl to Florida-Georgia, that CBS had picked for itself for the last two-plus decades.βI think increasingly the media business is about must-have content,β John Kosner, president of Kosner Media and a former ESPN executive, told AL.com. βNot just having a lot of stuff, but having the stuff everyone wants to watch. The SEC games every week that CBS had are examples.β