BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Southeastern Conference on Thursday agreed to a 10-year, multimillion-dollar college football contract with ESPN and ABC.
The deal will begin with the 2024 season, the conference said in a news release. The contract ends the SEC’s nearly two-decade affiliation with CBS, Sports Illustrated reported.
According to the terms of the deal, ABC will be the conference’s new broadcast home for Saturday afternoon SEC football games. The deal will include up to 15 premier football games, such as the SEC championship game and rivalry games such as Alabama-Auburn and Florida-Georgia, ESPN reported.
Announced today: #ESPN, together with the @SEC, have a new deal and will add college football's most-watched TV package beginning with the 2024 season. 🏈 pic.twitter.com/0RYQwPIYQA
— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020
“This new agreement was born from a strong foundation which began almost 25 years ago and now reflects a shared vision of the future with the SEC, Commissioner (Greg) Sankey and their member institutions,” Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and sports content, said in a statement. “With all the conference’s games under the ESPN umbrella and adding ABC and ESPN+ to our distribution channels, ESPN will have complete scheduling flexibility, resulting in maximum exposure and adding significant benefits for SEC schools and fans.”
Terms were not disclosed, but ESPN’s annual fee is expected to be in the low $300 million range, according to Sports Business Journal. That is a large increase from the $55 million per year that the SEC currently receives. CBS pulled out of negotiations this spring after the price tag got too high, the magazine reported.
The new First Tier rights agreement puts all SEC media rights under the umbrella of The Walt Disney Company. That will give the SEC exposure on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN+, SEC Network and SEC Network+ platforms, according to the news release. Under the new agreement, a number of game times and broadcast windows will be announced in advance of the season.
“This is a significant day for the Southeastern Conference and for the future of our member institutions. Our agreement with ESPN will greatly enhance our ability to support our student-athletes in the years ahead and to further enrich the game day experience for SEC fans around the world,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in the release. “The broadcast industry’s intense and widespread interest in securing the SEC’s First Tier rights is a direct reflection of the sustained excellence achieved by our 14 member schools, and we are thrilled to have been able to maximize our current position of strength to benefit our student-athletes, the fans who go to our games and home viewers.”
The new agreement will be concurrent with the separate, existing 20-year agreement between ESPN and the SEC that also runs through 2033-34, ESPN reported.
Cox Media Group
