The new television deal will create more work for the member schools, but will give Ohio students interested in broadcasting the opportunity to be a part of an ESPN broadcast.
Although a new television deal between ESPN and the Mid-American Conference was agreed upon in August, there are still some questions that need answered.
The two sides agreed to a new 13-year media deal, which, in part, will re-write the remaining three years of the previous deal and extend a new deal until 2026-27.
ESPN’s Brett McMurphy reported that the deal is worth more than $100 million — almost $8 million per season. The $670,000 that will be allotted per school, per season, is about a 500 percent increase from the $120,000 on the previous deal.
Is it worth it? Dr. Richard Vedder, an Ohio University Economics Professor and distinguished author, said it will take time to find that out.
“The total amount of money involved in this deal, from what I’ve read, cannot exceed 10 percent of the athletic budget of any of these schools on average,” Vedder said. “If you added up all the budgets of the MAC and added up all the money ESPN gave to the MAC schools per year, the ratio from one to the other would be well under 10 percent — my guess is under five percent.”
Vedder hesitated to take a strong side for or against the deal, but estimated that MAC athletic departments lose between $15-$20 million per year, so any revenue will be accepted, especially if it means added exposure.
“If someone goes along and says ‘We’ll add another million dollars a year to your revenue stream for ESPN and we’ll get you on TV every week so you can brag that you’re on TV every week,’” Vedder said. “The athletic directors jump at this and the commissioner jumps at this.”
With the new agreement, OU faculty and students will have the opportunity to broadcast ESPN games in-house.
No MAC school will be immediately prepared to broadcast an event on the most-watched sporting channel in the country, but Director of Athletics Jim Schaus said the knowledge and expertise throughout the Scripps School of Communication will give OU a leg up while starting the process.
Vedder calculated that Ohio Athletics will spend around $1 million per year on new hires and equipment upgrades, but ESPN has said it’s going to help the schools ease into the process.
“There are going to be opportunities for a lot more productions than we’ve ever had,” Schaus said. “I think it’ll have a huge impact to be able to say, ‘If you come to Ohio University, you could get involved in ESPN telecasts, things that end up on different platforms of ESPN.’ ”
MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said there will be at least 100 events broadcasted in the first year — including the most basketball exposure in MAC history — and schools will receive a ‘ramp-up’ process where ESPN will help upgrade the equipment and broadcast capabilities of each school. The deal will initially just include football and men’s basketball, but other sports will gradually be added over the coming seasons.
The typical free web streams that were available on schools’ websites won’t be available anymore, as ESPN3 will be used for non-televised games, which means only cable subscribers will be able to watch.
Burke Magnus, ESPN’s senior vice president of programming and acquisitions, says the deal is a win-win situation for both sides.
“It deepens the exposure that the conference gets overall. It provides real-life experience for students and professors for that matter,” Magnus said. “It’s a way to do things more efficiently, as the imperative has become in college sports to get as much content produced as possible across sport categories.”
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