You thought the ESPN family of networks was already too expensive??

[cosmo_kramer]

You have to be a subscriber to read the whole article, but the gist is here:

ESPN is close to securing media rights for the entire college football playoff system, with industry sources pegging the new 12-year BCS package at $500M a year. That means ESPN would own college football's postseason for a total of $7.3B over 12 years, beginning with the '14 season.

Sources: ESPN Bids $500M Per Year For Four-Team College Football Playoff

 

[AntAltMike]

Here's a little longer excerpt from al.com:

ESPN is planning to bid close to $500 million a year to secure media rights for the entire college football playoff system, according to a report from Sports Business Journal. The deal would include a total of $7.3 billion over 12 years, beginning with the 2014 season and would include the Rose, Orange and Sugar Bowls in addition to the new three-game national championship playoff.

In total, the BCS television rights package will include 12 national championship games and 24 semifinal games within the new college football four-team playoff that begins with the 2014 season, as well as the rights to three "access" bowls that will be in the BCS mix: likely the Tostitos Fiesta, Chick-fil-A and AT&T Cotton. The BCS has not finalized the lineup of access bowls.

Over the summer, ESPN negotiated separate deals for the Rose and Champions (now Sugar) bowls, at $80 million annually each. ESPN's deal for the Orange Bowl will pay $55 million a year.

 

[TNGTony]

Okay, so some basic math is in order here.
7,300 Million divided by 12 years is $608,333,333.33 a year. Divided by 12 months is $50,644,444.44. Divided by 98,000,000 house holds subscribing to ESPN is a whopping 52¢ per subscribing household if advertising is taken out of the equation.
(51.7294 Cents a month)

It is a crapload of money, don't get me wrong, but economies of scare come to play here.

 

[AntAltMike]

ESPN expects to make a profit on this, so they believe that it is desirable enough programming to enable them to raise their rates by more than $.52 per subscriber.

I remember when ESPN used to pay cable companies a dime per subscriber to carry them, and I used to enjoy staying up at night to see the America's Cup races live. Regrettably, most of the money ESPN spends on programming gets us stuff that we used to watch for free on broadcast TV.

 

[Teehar]

Ahh shucks,I just saw on the ESPN ticker its 475mil not 500mil.

 

[dvrexpander]

Don't care as long as ESPN U is in HD!!!! :rant:

 

[Derwin0]

Rights fees aren't the only costs either. There are substantial production costs, salaries, equipment, transportation, etc... So the true costs are even higher. They'll want to recoup all that as well.

 

[Ramy]

You don't think the fees for channels are ever going to go down do you?

 

[cosmo_kramer]

You don't think the fees for channels are ever going to go down do you?

Of course not. With deals like this, they're likely to increase exponentially as opposed to the increases we've been accustomed to...

 

[TNGTony]

You are all talking as if advertising revenue is not a factor in this. ESPN is expensive and will be more expensive as time passes. But advertisers pay more when there are more eyeballs. And unlike scripted entertainment shows, people are not very likely to delay watching the event in order to skip commercials. It is a giant chunk of change that translates to about 50¢ per subscribing household per month WITHOUT any increase in advertising revenue. But I maintain that advertising revenue increases will more than make up for the increase in rights fees.
As to production costs, ESPN farms out nearly everything off site. Of all the events I have been to in this area covered by ESPN (and that is well over 100 over the past decade), I have yet to see an ESPN branded truck. It is usually Lyon Video in this area. But there are others.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

Looks like it's official:

ESPN president John Skipper and Bill Hancock, the executive director of the BCS and committee setting up the college football playoff, announced the deal in principle, which includes rights on TV, radio, mobile TV and WatchESPN. ESPN also gets the rights to the games in 3D, on ESPN Deportes and internationally. It is subject to finalizing documents and approvals.

"Because of college football's widespread popularity and the incredible passion of its fans, few events are more meaningful than these games," Skipper said in a statement. "We are ecstatic at the opportunity to continue to crown a college football champion on ESPN's outlets for years to come, the perfect finale to our year-round commitment to the sport."

ESPN to televise college playoff

 

[whitewolf8214]

Damn ESPN needs to have a competitor for competition badly

 

[gadgtfreek]

While I hate seeing my bill go up, ESPN is one thing Ive come to realize I dont mind paying for. The 9 freaking Viacoms or whatever, not so much. As a big ACC/SEC fan, Im stuck.

 

[Juan]

Rights fees aren't the only costs either. There are substantial production costs, salaries, equipment, transportation, etc... So the true costs are even higher. They'll want to recoup all that as well.

when you televise as many college football as ESPN does a few more game wont tip the apple cart

 

[jayn_j]

It is really quite simple. I can live without football. As long as ESPN/ABC has this extortion packaging scheme where I pay for football anyway, I find that I can live without cable/sat entirely. It's just TV, and since the carriers got their way, it's $100/mo.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I wish I could say "I can live without football". I might make it to "can".