For whatever reason, young people LOVE Apple phones over Samsung. Does that mean that those same young people are going to watch PAC football? I would think that your average PAC football fan is not in that demographic.
It's only free for 3 months and most people cancel it afterwards - outside of Ted Lasso, they haven't really found a show to lock in audiences and they have very few subscribers overall. It just doesn't have the library depth that other streaming services have to keep people subscribed. Latest data I can find is from March 2022 when Apple had 25MM subscribers globally. By comparison, Netflix and Amazon are 200MM+. Hulu has 50MM or so in the US alone (not sure if they do international). YoutubeTV seems to be super low at 5MM, so that I guess isn't a viable option - but I think with the NFL package, they plan to let you buy things ala-carte so that might work in that form.
Severance is an incredible show... but we still subscribe when there are new seasons of it and Ted Lasso and cancel afterwards.
Severance rocks. Last night marked the first MLS game on apple. Quality was great. Super easy to get it started. It's a nice change in trying to decode one of the 10 different ways you might have to watch a game in the old system. Consolidation brings greater convenience which brings customers.
FSU signed a 20 year agreement and now wants out less than 7 years in, lol. Using the 60% buyout precedent, if they intended to leave in 2025 they would owe something like.... 112+MM bucks?
If this is accurate, you'd think Oregon and others would be begging the B10/B12 to take them before they get sucked into a Grant of Rights situation.
Spoiler Kliavkoff is facing pressure to deliver a new media rights deal to his members by the end of the month. If the dollar figures or the details are underwhelming, March may be the moment when the Big 12 finally strikes. Sources briefed on the discussions say the conference has been in recent contact with the so-called Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — which has renewed optimism that convincing them to join is possible. Brett Yormark has eyed westward expansion since the day he was hired as the Big 12’s new commissioner last summer. Yormark has never been shy about his interest in expanding the Big 12 into the “fourth time zone” to establish a truly national conference and boost the value of his league’s media rights. The arrival of BYU this summer will get the Big 12 into the Mountain Time Zone. Yormark wants more, though he has always said any additions need to be additive and not dilutive. “I don’t think any of us are trying to dismantle the Pac-12,” Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades told SicEm365 on Tuesday. “If there’s opportunity, and whenever their TV media deal comes to fruition and if those institutions decide that it’s not good for them, then the Big 12 will be ready. And that probably is as simple as I can say it.” Yormark is also deep in discussions with Gonzaga, but sources involved in the process indicated he wants clarity on the Pac-12’s situation before making that move. Since these expansion courtships began last summer, Yormark has been confident he can convince his targets that the future is brighter in the Big 12. He ramped up the pressure by jumping the Pac-12 in line and reaching an early extension with ESPN and Fox in October that will make his members more money than they do now with Oklahoma or Texas. That agreement will bring in a reported $31.7 million annually for each Big 12 member, setting a measuring stick for the Pac-12’s deal. As The Athletic reported last month, Kliavkoff has been met with lukewarm interest in the marketplace. ESPN, Amazon and Apple are the only known suitors, and any deal will likely put the majority of the league’s events on an over-the-top streaming service. The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch reported there’s interest from Amazon in a weekly Friday night Pac-12 game but that the two sides were “far apart” in February. And the Pac-12’s timing couldn’t be worse. Just since last summer, networks have committed billions in future rights fees to the Big Ten and Big 12, and Disney’s cost-cutting CEO Bob Iger said in February that “we’re simply going to have to get more selective” in sports bidding. Still, the sports consulting firm Navigate’s modeling projects the Pac-12’s average annual value at $31 million per school, barely less than the Big 12’s new deal. Although the Big 12 has larger fan bases, Pac-12 games on ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS averaged 20 percent higher ratings than comparable Big 12 games (excluding both leagues’ departing members) from 2014 to 2021, according to data provided to The Athletic. Multiple people familiar with the Pac-12’s board members expressed doubt that their schools would switch conferences unless it’s for a substantially better deal. School presidents, not ADs, authorize realignment decisions, and the Pac-12’s prioritize academic and cultural fits more than most. Washington State president Kirk Schultz and Oregon State president Jayathi Murthy have both attempted to defuse the various rumors in recent interviews. “There’s lots of reasons for us to hold together. The different members of the Pac-12 understand it,” Murthy told John Canzano. “All this talk about people running off and joining the Big Ten and Big 12 or whatever is just talk.” Motivating those presidents to expand the Pac-12 has also been a challenge. They have not yet reached a consensus about inviting San Diego State, SMU or other expansion candidates, sources briefed on the discussions said. Two summers ago, in the wake of the SEC adding Oklahoma and Texas, the Pac-12 board had a chance to welcome any number of current Big 12 schools — and passed on all of them. But circumstances have changed. Those sources believe if Yormark can convince the leadership at two Pac-12 schools to join the Big 12, that might be all it takes to land all four and pull the conference apart. Yormark would need to get Fox to be an equal share partner in expansion. CBS Sports previously reported that the Big 12’s new rights contract includes an agreement with ESPN on a pro rata clause but that Fox has not committed to one. ESPN got 63 percent of the new TV deal with the Big 12, sources briefed on the agreement confirmed. Fox would have to sign off on the Big 12 adding Pac-12 schools as full-share members. Yormark strongly believes basketball is undervalued in these TV rights talks. He has dropped hints about an interest in unbundling it from football and selling those rights separately when the Big 12 next hits the market in 2030-31. That’s one motivation behind the Big 12’s continued talks with hoops powerhouse Gonzaga. Joining as a non-football member would mean a smaller revenue share for the Bulldogs, but they’d be an inarguably valuable addition. Arizona, a top-10 program with more Pac-12 titles than every school but Big Ten-bound UCLA, would similarly boost the best conference in men’s college basketball and its long-term ambitions. “I think we have an opportunity to monetize basketball in a way that hasn’t been done before,” Yormark said in an appearance on the Wilner & Canzano podcast last month. “It’s certainly something I’m thinking about. So if the opportunity ever exists where, within the construct of what makes sense for expansion, as part of that, we could double down on basketball and further cement our leadership position, it’s certainly something that I’m willing to consider.” On the Pac-12 side, a critical moment in this process could come next week, at the conference’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Las Vegas. The ADs in attendance are going to want clarity and hard numbers. Kliavkoff took these rights to the open market in October. Nearly five months have passed. On Feb. 13, Pac-12 presidents released a joint statement emphasizing their unity and vowing a deal would be consummated “in the very near future.” There’s no official deadline, but each day this negotiation process drags on cranks up anxiety and, perhaps, vulnerability. As the adage goes in the sales world: Time kills all deals. What ultimately matters is the deal Kliavkoff can deliver for his members in the weeks ahead. If it’s inadequate, Yormark and the Big 12 are poised to pounce.
That video goes pretty in-depth on GOR. Even saying Oregon/UW don’t want to negotiate a buyout of the GOR. Makes sense from their standpoint but effectively it really wouldn’t be a GOR at that point.
TIFWIW, a mod on UCLA 247 is saying Utah is bolting for Big 12. Talk about CU or ASU partnering with them on the move. Also saying the tv deal is a shared package with Amazon/Apple which seems hard to believe.
The Sports Business Journal (probably the best source around) reported that a split Amazon/Apple package was a possibility. Utah and Colorado feel like they're the holdouts for the Big 12. I can see the AZ schools saying eff it and jumping together, but not unless the PAC deal is just awful. It feels almost inevitable that the B1G will consume Cal/Stanford/Wash/Oregon in 2030 and the Big 12 will gobble up the 4 Corners. The only question is whether the PAC folds or it manages to somehow grab some MWC properties to stay afloat.
SMU, SDSU and Colorado State are specifically mentioned which is kinda funny since it is followed by a lot of optimism and shots at the Big 12.
LOL. ADs don't normally step into the mudslinging like this. The PAC12 has handled this entire situation over the last 10~ years just extraordinarily poorly. Mr. Utah AD should probably keep his mouth shut, because he may soon have no choice but to leave. The Big 12 is no great shakes, but my lord, the leadership in the PAC would send me running for the exits alone... not even considering the carriage/money problems.
