Update: Pac 12 Gets TV Deal Update and Arizona Briefs their Regents

STILLWATER – Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff met with the conference presidents and athletic directors on Tuesday morning Aug.1 and finally produced some details on a potential new multimedia rights agreement for the conference. The details are sketchy and you would giess all involved were sworn to secrecy but there were details that leaked out. The deal is through Apple Plus and is primarily a streaming deal through subscriptions. Those kind of deal starts out low and the rumored amount, never confirmed, was in the neighborhood of $20-million per school. However, with lots of interest and subscriptions it could blow up to bigger numbers. 

There is still the issue of having the bulk, if not all, of your inventory on streaming and without over the air or cable distribution. That could be very limiting in exposure. 

The only school we know of that met officially after the Pac-12 gathering was Arizona. The meeting was called by the University of Arizona, but the Arizona Board of Regents control Arizona, Arizona State, and Norther Arizona University. 

The meeting was held at 4:30 central time and there was no report on any actions as the majority of the meeting was held in executive session.

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The pressure is on Kliavkoff to deliver a good television solution.

The speculation all along before and after Colorado made their decision was that Arizona was leaning toward jumping to the Big 12. University of Arizona President Ribert C. Robbins, has in recent days preached patience with Kliavkoff and has said Arizona would wait on any actions until they heard the television contract details. 

In May the Big 12 paid it’s schools $44-million in annual revenue up the previous year by over $1-million. The ACC paid it’s schools $39,4 million and the Pac-12 paid each school $37-million. The SEC and BIg Ten are numbers one-two in conference revenue.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark jumped ahead of the Pac-12 when he negotiated a six-year extension with the Big 12 television partners ESPN and FOX that will pay the league $31.6-million per school. It also keeps the Big 12 football and basketball games on the two biggest linear sport television networks. 

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Yormark and the Big 12 could be standing taller if he pulls another Pac-12 school.

Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 have failed repeatedly to secure a new television contract, and Pac-12 schools want the conference to get a deal similar to the Big 12's massive six-year extension with ESPN and Fox. The more that looks like an impossibility, the more likely teams are to jump ship from the Pac-12 like Colorado just did.

The Pac-12 schools did agree to meet again on the subject, but by the time they do that the question is will there still be nine member institutions involved.