The Pac-12 Networks - financially exposed

[M-I-Coug]

We've all discussed Scott's future, but this exposure, how bad it really is..... is profound.
.
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports...the-reality-might-be-worse-than-you-imagined/

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

I saw this come up in my feed yesterday and didn't get a chance to read it.

After reading it though, one thing is perfectly clear: the only people making money off the P12N is Larry Scott and his cronies. If this were a Fortune 500 company he would have been gone 2 years ago.

I'm not exactly sure what needs to happen or how it needs to transpire, but it should resemble something along the lines of Scott being gone without further compensation and the network blown up or dramatically restructured. I mean, they thought they could just follow the Root sports model with the regions? Did they forget that Root also had all the regional MLB and MLS teams? I'm literally speechless with the amount of ineptitude at this level - its mind numbing.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

I saw this come up in my feed yesterday and didn't get a chance to read it.

After reading it though, one thing is perfectly clear: the only people making money off the P12N is Larry Scott and his cronies. If this were a Fortune 500 company he would have been gone 2 years ago.

I'm not exactly sure what needs to happen or how it needs to transpire, but it should resemble something along the lines of Scott being gone without further compensation and the network blown up or dramatically restructured. I mean, they thought they could just follow the Root sports model with the regions? Did they forget that Root also had all the regional MLB and MLS teams? I'm literally speechless with the amount of ineptitude at this level - its mind numbing.

What baffles me as much as the ineptitude is that the conference presidents don't seem in a hurry to change things. A little hand wringing but no real moves to really make a difference (firing Scott in particular).

 

[Cougatron]

We've all discussed Scott's future, but this exposure, how bad it really is..... is profound.
.
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports...the-reality-might-be-worse-than-you-imagined/

This may be changing, and honestly only tells part of the story in terms of why the Pac-12 Networks is making so little money.

The major difference is that all the media rights aren't controlled by the conference yet.

Here's a chart showing you when it ends.

And here is a link for what this actually is.

The Pac 12 networks aren't getting major money from USC, Utah, UW, Zona or even us yet.

The major shift will come in after June 2022 with Utah, USC, Oregon State, USC being the BIG one.

Then Arizona and finally WSU and UW in June of 2025.

What that will mean is that all the schools will sell advertising / ALL media rights through 1 entity for licensing.

That's a lot of leverage. No conference has done that or has that capability, and it could end up grossing a ton of money. A TON of money. Because large media buyers could buy media licenses across ALL the schools.

For example let's say I am Mercedes Benz or Land Rover, or Apple. or (pick whatever big company you want) and I want to advertise during college football in the Pac-12.

Now I could advertise just through commercials and what not, but let's say I want a comprehensive capaign with billboards at games, video ribbons, TV ads etc.

Before you couldn't do that. You would have to go and buy the commercial space, buy the billboard space (from a different company) and you could only do that at 1 place.

By 2025.... You can do that. For example if Coors light wants to buy some ad space they can (and will have to buy) ad space across ALL schools and platforms, and it will cost a lot more, but they will also get a lot more exposure too.

So instead of like 10 million for a commercial and maybe an ad spot billboard during a specific game.

That changes completely to Buy 10 million ad spot and 10 million for billboards across all games.

You should get the idea. The Pac-12 consolidating all media rights into 1 location is a big deal down the road.

So while the Pac-12 revenue now is small, it is only operating with partial media rights. When it can negotiate and leverage the entirety of athletics across the board it could make a TON of money.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

This may be changing, and honestly only tells part of the story in terms of why the Pac-12 Networks is making so little money.

The major difference is that all the media rights aren't controlled by the conference yet.

Here's a chart showing you when it ends.

And here is a link for what this actually is.

The Pac 12 networks aren't getting major money from USC, Utah, UW, Zona or even us yet.

The major shift will come in after June 2022 with Utah, USC, Oregon State, USC being the BIG one.

Then Arizona and finally WSU and UW in June of 2025.

What that will mean is that all the schools will sell advertising / ALL media rights through 1 entity for licensing.

That's a lot of leverage. No conference has done that or has that capability, and it could end up grossing a ton of money. A TON of money. Because large media buyers could buy media licenses across ALL the schools.

For example let's say I am Mercedes Benz or Land Rover, or Apple. or (pick whatever big company you want) and I want to advertise during college football in the Pac-12.

Now I could advertise just through commercials and what not, but let's say I want a comprehensive capaign with billboards at games, video ribbons, TV ads etc.

Before you couldn't do that. You would have to go and buy the commercial space, buy the billboard space (from a different company) and you could only do that at 1 place.

By 2025.... You can do that. For example if Coors light wants to buy some ad space they can (and will have to buy) ad space across ALL schools and platforms, and it will cost a lot more, but they will also get a lot more exposure too.

So instead of like 10 million for a commercial and maybe an ad spot billboard during a specific game.

That changes completely to Buy 10 million ad spot and 10 million for billboards across all games.

You should get the idea. The Pac-12 consolidating all media rights into 1 location is a big deal down the road.

So while the Pac-12 revenue now is small, it is only operating with partial media rights. When it can negotiate and leverage the entirety of athletics across the board it could make a TON of money.

As to the IMG deals: were those 20 year deals? If so, who does that? Otherwise, why were deals resigned AFTER the P12N was formed in 2012? I thought the IMG deal was just re-upped a few years ago as far as WSU. Again, if the idea is to own all the rights, why sign a 10 year deal? What am I missing?

 

[Cougatron]

As to the IMG deals: were those 20 year deals? If so, who does that? Otherwise, why were deals resigned AFTER the P12N was formed in 2012? I thought the IMG deal was just re-upped a few years ago as far as WSU. Again, if the idea is to own all the rights, why sign a 10 year deal? What am I missing?

Yeah we signed the deal right before the Pac-12 actually talked about doing its media rights. This was done in I think in 2014.

The Pac 12 deal expires in 2024. So that's sort of why WSU signed until 2024 because that's when the media rights would be renegotiated.

The idea of the Pac 12 forming its own media rights management company didn't come around till 2015 (I think when they saw that the revenue wasn't what the schools had wanted and realized they needed the media rights entirely all packaged up)

So basically 2023 is the big negotiating year for the Pac 12. In the history of college football, no conference has had the sole control across all media rights and owns its own network outright.

The next round of negotiations could be a massive step up (just like the last one was when Larry Scott first put it together)

I don't like Larry Scott. I think he's a bumbling fool (and a cheat), but he sort of is getting at the right idea on creating leverage for the conference.

Owning your own TV network outright and all of your media rights is massively powerful at the negotiating table and that happens in 2023.