Network will make ACC 'very, very competitive financially'
David TeelContact ReporterDavid Teel
ACC Network will have been a decade in the making, a protracted delay for league administrators and fans pining for additional revenue, exposure and cachet. But two of the television industry’s most authoritative voices believe the dividends will merit the wait.
Wasserman Media Group consultant Dean Jordan and ESPN president John Skipper were among the legions whom the conference gathered Thursday at its annual football kickoff to confirm and fete the network’s creation, a collaboration with ESPN.
“If the network performs even moderately,” Jordan said, “it will put the ACC in a situation where they’ll be very, very competitive financially with the upper tier of the collegiate industry.”I have complete confidence in our ability to launch this network with national distribution and to create a significant asset for ESPN and a superlative showcase for the ACC,” Skipper said.
The league’s 15 schools need them to be right.
Money doesn’t assure championships, but with the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference thriving financially with their networks, the ACC needs a revenue infusion to prevent lagging too far behind.
Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock talks about the ACC television network partnership with ESPN.
To use a NASCAR analogy – its Hall of Fame is just down the street here in Charlotte – the ACC can’t afford to go two or more laps down.
“It’s the most important thing we had to do in this league,” said Virginia Techathletic director Whit Babcock, whom ACC commissioner John Swofford appointed to the conference’s television subcommittee earlier this year.
Virginia executive associate athletic director Jon Oliver called the ACC’s new contract with ESPN, which extends through the 2035-36 academic year, “visionary,” including the digital ACC Network Extra. Available to 90 million subscribers on the WatchESPN app, Extra debuts next month and will broadcast 600 live games in its first year, growing to 900 by 2019.
Photos from the ACC Kickoff football event.
This in addition to the 450 events on the ACC Network, which will include 40 football games and 150 combined men’s and women’s basketball games.
Swofford first envisioned an ACC Network in 2009, when the league had 12 members. But Jordan told him the conference’s demographics weren’t good enough, and Swofford knew its football wasn’t good enough.
The additions of Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame, and a return to national football prominence – take a bow, Florida State and Clemson – solved those issues.
Jordan, Swofford and Skipper, the latter Swofford’s fellow North Carolina native and University of North Carolina graduate, were the driving forces of this deal. They almost certainly would have preferred an earlier launch, but waiting until 2019 gives them time to transfer Raycom’s regional package of games to the network. That also coincides with ESPN parent Disney’s contracts with major cable and satellite providers.
“The time frame of 2019 takes into account a variety of factors,” Skipper said, “including the content we have currently licensed. … We wanted to provide ourselves a runway to plan the network, to get the distribution deals done and figure out the staffing.”
“A little delayed gratification I think was good strategy,” Babcock said.
And lest you think waiting on ACC Network revenue until 2019 will compromise the league financially: Say hello to what Swofford calls “the channel clause.”
Written into the ACC’s previous agreement with ESPN, signed after the additions of Pitt, Syracuse and Notre Dame, the clause guaranteed the league an undisclosed amount of additional rights fees absent a channel.
“There will be a (rights fees) bump in these next years until we get to the linear channel,” Swofford said during an exclusive interview hours after the formal announcement.
Also during that one-on-one, Swofford said that Notre Dame, an ACC member for sports other than football, will receive a full share of ACC Network revenue. The Fighting Irish receive one-fifth of a full share of the conference’s guaranteed rights fees from ESPN.
And while the full-share arrangement may frustrate some who want Notre Dame all in, understand that without the Irish’s national brand and overall sports excellence, there might well not be an ACC Network. Further, Notre Dame will produce more than its share of ACC Network content.
Swofford announced Thursday that coinciding with the 2019 launch, the ACC will expand its men’s basketball conference schedule from 18 to 20 games, creating more inventory for the network. So I asked him about growing the league football schedule from eight to nine games.
“It’s our decision,” he said. “We’ve gotten very good at having this discussion without changing anything. I don’t know what the end result will be. That’s very unpredictable. I suspect there will continue to be discussions on eight versus nine. …
“I probably lean a little toward nine, simply because if you’re in this chair, you’d like to see your teams playing each other more rather than less. I think that’s how you build the brand. … And it’s always been a fairly close vote, and you just never know when a school or two or three are going to change their minds.”
While football and men’s basketball have a ubiquitous television presence, it’s the non-revenue, or so-called Olympic sports, that will enjoy exponentially more exposure from the ACC Network and the digital Extra.
Virginia men’s soccer coach George Gelnovatch, among the many Olympic sports coaches in attendance Thursday, told VirginiaSports.com’s Jeff White that the digital side is critical “particularly for our younger fans, who love to watch games on the phones – and I can attest to this, because I have teenagers. …
“They can do it anywhere. And also on their laptops, their tablets. That’s recruits, that’s fans, that’s everyone. This just gives everyone across the board -- the older generation, middle generation, younger generation -- full access to a lot of things.”
“We have to depend on all sorts of crazy mediums to (broadcast matches),”Virginia Tech wrestling coach Kevin Dresser said. “Sometimes it’s not even possible. We have live streams with no sound and one single camera. The quality and product when ESPN puts it out there will make it big-time. … And let’s face it, college athletes like to perform, and the idea that they can call home or text home or tweet home that they’re going to be on ESPN is huge.”
Building the on-campus facilities to produce those additional telecasts will cost each ACC school millions. Oliver declined to estimate Virginia’s costs, while Babcock said Virginia Tech’s could range from $2 million to $6 million.
“When you take that out over the length of the deal,” Babcock added, “the money’s well worth it.”
And money is at the heart of everything we heard Thursday. Now ESPN has three years to finalize a business model that will appeal to consumers and cable/satellite providers in these technologically fluid times.
“I’m totally confident that with the players involved,” Oliver said, “they’ll get it right.”
ACC Network will have been a decade in the making, a protracted delay for league administrators and fans pining for additional revenue, exposure and cachet. But two of the television industry’s most authoritative voices believe the dividends will merit the wait.
Wasserman Media Group consultant Dean Jordan and ESPN president John Skipper were among the legions whom the conference gathered Thursday at its annual football kickoff to confirm and fete the network’s creation, a collaboration with ESPN.
“If the network performs even moderately,” Jordan said, “it will put the ACC in a situation where they’ll be very, very competitive financially with the upper tier of the collegiate industry.”I have complete confidence in our ability to launch this network with national distribution and to create a significant asset for ESPN and a superlative showcase for the ACC,” Skipper said.
The league’s 15 schools need them to be right.
Money doesn’t assure championships, but with the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference thriving financially with their networks, the ACC needs a revenue infusion to prevent lagging too far behind.
Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock talks about the ACC television network partnership with ESPN.
To use a NASCAR analogy – its Hall of Fame is just down the street here in Charlotte – the ACC can’t afford to go two or more laps down.
“It’s the most important thing we had to do in this league,” said Virginia Techathletic director Whit Babcock, whom ACC commissioner John Swofford appointed to the conference’s television subcommittee earlier this year.
Virginia executive associate athletic director Jon Oliver called the ACC’s new contract with ESPN, which extends through the 2035-36 academic year, “visionary,” including the digital ACC Network Extra. Available to 90 million subscribers on the WatchESPN app, Extra debuts next month and will broadcast 600 live games in its first year, growing to 900 by 2019.
Photos from the ACC Kickoff football event.
This in addition to the 450 events on the ACC Network, which will include 40 football games and 150 combined men’s and women’s basketball games.
Swofford first envisioned an ACC Network in 2009, when the league had 12 members. But Jordan told him the conference’s demographics weren’t good enough, and Swofford knew its football wasn’t good enough.
The additions of Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame, and a return to national football prominence – take a bow, Florida State and Clemson – solved those issues.
Jordan, Swofford and Skipper, the latter Swofford’s fellow North Carolina native and University of North Carolina graduate, were the driving forces of this deal. They almost certainly would have preferred an earlier launch, but waiting until 2019 gives them time to transfer Raycom’s regional package of games to the network. That also coincides with ESPN parent Disney’s contracts with major cable and satellite providers.
“The time frame of 2019 takes into account a variety of factors,” Skipper said, “including the content we have currently licensed. … We wanted to provide ourselves a runway to plan the network, to get the distribution deals done and figure out the staffing.”
“A little delayed gratification I think was good strategy,” Babcock said.
And lest you think waiting on ACC Network revenue until 2019 will compromise the league financially: Say hello to what Swofford calls “the channel clause.”
Written into the ACC’s previous agreement with ESPN, signed after the additions of Pitt, Syracuse and Notre Dame, the clause guaranteed the league an undisclosed amount of additional rights fees absent a channel.
“There will be a (rights fees) bump in these next years until we get to the linear channel,” Swofford said during an exclusive interview hours after the formal announcement.
Also during that one-on-one, Swofford said that Notre Dame, an ACC member for sports other than football, will receive a full share of ACC Network revenue. The Fighting Irish receive one-fifth of a full share of the conference’s guaranteed rights fees from ESPN.
And while the full-share arrangement may frustrate some who want Notre Dame all in, understand that without the Irish’s national brand and overall sports excellence, there might well not be an ACC Network. Further, Notre Dame will produce more than its share of ACC Network content.
Swofford announced Thursday that coinciding with the 2019 launch, the ACC will expand its men’s basketball conference schedule from 18 to 20 games, creating more inventory for the network. So I asked him about growing the league football schedule from eight to nine games.
“It’s our decision,” he said. “We’ve gotten very good at having this discussion without changing anything. I don’t know what the end result will be. That’s very unpredictable. I suspect there will continue to be discussions on eight versus nine. …
“I probably lean a little toward nine, simply because if you’re in this chair, you’d like to see your teams playing each other more rather than less. I think that’s how you build the brand. … And it’s always been a fairly close vote, and you just never know when a school or two or three are going to change their minds.”
While football and men’s basketball have a ubiquitous television presence, it’s the non-revenue, or so-called Olympic sports, that will enjoy exponentially more exposure from the ACC Network and the digital Extra.
Virginia men’s soccer coach George Gelnovatch, among the many Olympic sports coaches in attendance Thursday, told VirginiaSports.com’s Jeff White that the digital side is critical “particularly for our younger fans, who love to watch games on the phones – and I can attest to this, because I have teenagers. …
“They can do it anywhere. And also on their laptops, their tablets. That’s recruits, that’s fans, that’s everyone. This just gives everyone across the board -- the older generation, middle generation, younger generation -- full access to a lot of things.”
“We have to depend on all sorts of crazy mediums to (broadcast matches),”Virginia Tech wrestling coach Kevin Dresser said. “Sometimes it’s not even possible. We have live streams with no sound and one single camera. The quality and product when ESPN puts it out there will make it big-time. … And let’s face it, college athletes like to perform, and the idea that they can call home or text home or tweet home that they’re going to be on ESPN is huge.”
Building the on-campus facilities to produce those additional telecasts will cost each ACC school millions. Oliver declined to estimate Virginia’s costs, while Babcock said Virginia Tech’s could range from $2 million to $6 million.
“When you take that out over the length of the deal,” Babcock added, “the money’s well worth it.”
And money is at the heart of everything we heard Thursday. Now ESPN has three years to finalize a business model that will appeal to consumers and cable/satellite providers in these technologically fluid times.
“I’m totally confident that with the players involved,” Oliver said, “they’ll get it right.”
