ESPN Paying SEC $2.25B Over 15 Years For Remaining TV Rights

(From Sports Business Daily)

ESPN will pay the SEC $2.25 billion over the next 15 years -- about $150 million annually -- for the conference's TV rights, giving the network "all of the SEC's content that was not taken by CBS."

The deal, set to be announced later this week, "effectively ends any conversation of a conference network, and it knocks RAYCOM SPORTS out of the SEC's distribution business for the first time" since 1986.

The SEC, which will receive an average of $55 million per year from the new deal with CBS, will bring in an average of $205 million annually in media rights from the two contracts through fiscal year 2025, "nearly three times what the SEC had been receiving in TV revenue."

SPN's package of games will include the SEC basketball tournament finals, previously on CBS, and ESPN also is "expected to offer an expanded package of regular-season basketball games across its networks."

ESPN's "aggressive bid is part of a strategy to secure high-quality programming for its networks and broadband platforms."

Also, ESPN and COMCAST in the coming weeks will announce a deal that will "initially put ESPNU in about 7 million Comcast homes."

ESPN REGIONAL TELEVISION "will handle syndication to local broadcasters throughout the Southeast," and also will "make regional cable packages available to cable channels."