Two years after the Big Ten Conference dived into the high-stakes cable-television business, its 11 member institutions are seeing their venture begin to pay off.
The Big Ten Network posted its first profitable quarter last year, and the trend has continued into 2009. Market analysts expect the network to turn a $57-million profit this year—giving member universities some $29-million in addition to what their other TV contracts earn.
After a year spent hammering out distribution deals with cable operators—some of them contentious and very public—the network now has agreements in 22 of the top 25 television markets. While it still faces challenges, its programming is available to 73 million homes nationwide, and it will soon begin streaming live football and men’s basketball games online for fans abroad.
“It’s been everything we hoped it would be, but also more difficult,” says James E. Delany, commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, who sold the idea of a conference-owned television network to the Big Ten presidents. “Our schools believed in what we were doing, and they stayed the course.”
The Big Ten Network isn’t the first devoted exclusively to college sports. Before it came along, there was College Sports Television (now the CBS College Sports Network) and ESPNU. The Mountain West Conference also created its own channel.
Under the 20-year partnership between the Big Ten, which owns 51 percent of the venture, and Fox Cable Networks, each member institution takes home a share of the profits, which are expected to increase each year. In addition, nearly 700 hours of airtime every year are reserved for university programming, much of it unrelated to sports. (That is, if programs like “Mr. Lincoln’s University” and “The Science of Fermentation,” both airing at 4 a.m. on recent mornings, are your kind of thing.)
The early profit, and the promise of more to come, has Big Ten officials feeling optimistic. “It’s been a success financially,” says Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University, who has a sports-talk show on the channel. “We are all receiving the promised revenues, so there’s a boost for our universities and our athletic conference.”
Comparing the Deals
By establishing the network, the Big Ten took a different route from that of the Southeastern Conference, which this month begins the first year of a 15-year, $3-billion agreement with CBS and ESPN to televise its sporting events. The Big Ten also has a contract with ABC and ESPN, worth $1-billion over 10 years, and a $20-million agreement with CBS to broadcast marquee basketball games.
But the Big Ten channel, unlike ESPN and the other major networks, is harder to find. Outside the primarily Midwestern states in which the Big Ten universities are located, it is available only on a digital sports tier, which some cable customers must pay extra for.
Mr. Delany and Mr. Spanier are somewhat reluctant to compare their approach with the SEC’s. “It’s not a contest,” says Mr. Spanier. “We have our contract with ESPN, which I think is somewhat comparable to the SEC’s contract, but then we’ve got the whole Big Ten Network, which is very different. Ours is all day, every day. The SEC’s is just a fixed number of events that are covered.”
Mr. Delany is more blunt. “We have the deal that makes sense to us,” says the commissioner, who took home a $1.5-million bonus, in part for helping to create the network. “This is like the difference between renting a house and owning a house. You have equity.”
Running the Show
The network gives sports other than football and men’s and women’s basketball time in the spotlight, too. In all, more than 350 events, including lower-profile football games and swim meets, are televised. Two hundred more events in men’s and women’s Olympic sports are streamed live on the network’s Web site, http://www.bigtennetwork.com.
Karen Weaver, a former head field-hockey coach at Ohio State University who is now athletic director at Pennsylvania State University-the Abington College, provides color commentary for field-hockey games televised on the channel.
When she arrived for her first assignment, two years ago, at Michigan State University, the scene was unlike any pregame bustle she had known as a coach. Cameramen raced around the field. A tractor-trailer emblazoned with the Big Ten Network logo was parked in the end zone with a satellite dish. A producer and director had been on site since 4 a.m. (The game would start at noon.)
“I’m sitting here going, ‘What is this? This is field hockey!’” she recalls.
By 2010, the Big Ten Network will devote 50 percent of its programming to women’s sports. “Most people would say that’s a money loser,” says Ms. Weaver, who recently completed a dissertation on the creation of the Big Ten Network. “But it’s part of the commitment.”
And that, says Mr. Delany, is the benefit of running the show.
“You can do things for your institution, for your athletic departments, for your student-athletes,” he says, “and you can do it in a way that’s best for them.”
Major Conferences’ TV Deals
The Southeastern Conference’s $3-billion CBS and ESPN television agreements are the richest in college sports. Here are the TV deals for the other five major conferences.
Southeastern Conference
— ESPN: 15 years, $2.25-billion
— CBS: 15 years, $825-million
(Both contracts run through the 2023-24 season)
Big Ten Conference
— Big Ten Network: 20 years, $2.8-billion* through 2026-27
— ABC/ESPN: 10 years, $1-billion through 2016
— CBS: 10 years, $20-million for basketball through 2018-19
Atlantic Coast Conference
— ABC/ESPN: Seven years, $258-million
— Raycom Sports: 10 years, $300-million for basketball
(Both deals run through 2010-11)
Big 12 Conference
— ABC/ESPN: Eight years, $480-million through 2015-16
— Fox Sports Net: Four years, $78-million through 2011-12
Pacific 10 Conference
— ABC/ESPN: Five years, $125-million for football
— Fox Sports Net: Five years, $97-million for football
— ABC/ESPN: Six years, $52.5-million for basketball
(All deals run through 2011-12)
Big East Conference
— ABC/ESPN: Six years, $200-million through 2013 *projected revenue
SOURCE: Sports Business Journal
