The Big Ten has finally announced its massive, long-awaited media rights deals with FOX, CBS and NBC.
The Big Ten announced Thursday that it has reached seven-year deals with Fox Sports, CBS and NBC that will run from next season through the 2029-30 academic year. Per Sports Business Journal, the deals are worth around $1.1 billion per year. Previous reporting had indicated that the conference could get as much as $1.5 billion/year due to its pending acquisitions of USC and UCLA.
Under the deals, incumbent FOX will remain the primary Big Ten broadcaster, carrying more football games (30) than CBS (15) and NBC (14-16) and the Big Ten Championship Game in four of seven years (2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029). CBS gets the title game in 2024, NBC in 2026 and CBS in 2028.
The NBC streaming service Peacock will get eight exclusive games per season and simulcast all of the games on the NBC broadcast network, bringing the total number of games on NBC platforms to 22-24 per season.
As has been previously reported, but now officially confirmed, FOX will primarily air Big Ten football games in its “Big Noon” window, followed by a midday game on CBS at 3:30 PM ET and a primetime game on NBC under the banner “Big Ten Saturday Night.” Because the first year of the Big Ten deal coincides with the final year of the CBS SEC deal, CBS will carry only seven Big Ten games in various windows next season.
In addition, per ESPN, NBC will continue televising occasional Notre Dame home games in primetime — meaning there will be weeks when the Big Ten does not get that slot.
On the basketball side, games will air across FOX, NBC, Peacock and CBS. The Fox networks — including BTN — will carry more than 200 games per year, NBC and Peacock will air “dozens,” including as many as 77 regular season games on Peacock (47 men’s and 30 women’s), and CBS will continue to provide its coverage of regular season and conference tournament games — including the women’s title game for the first time.
ESPN is shut out of the Big Ten for the first time since 1981. According to Sports Business Journal, it is somehow still possible that talks could re-open for ESPN to carry a small number of games.
[News from conference and network PR, Sports Business Journal 8.18, ESPN 8.18]
