The Big East US college sports conference has struck a rights deal with incumbent rights-holder ESPN and will also seal a renewal with US network CBS, according to the ESPN.com website.
The deal with ESPN will run for seven years, from 2013-14 to 2019-20, and is worth a total of $130 million (€97 million), or $18.6 million per year, the report said.
The agreement includes seven years of coverage of Big East men’s basketball, from 2013-14 to 2019-20, and six years of coverage of American football, from 2014-15 to 2019-2020. ESPN will pay $10 million for the 2013-14 basketball season and $20 million starting in 2014-15 for the combined American football and men’s basketball seasons.
The website added that CBS will also extend its men’s basketball rights with the Big East, paying about $2 million per year. The length of the CBS deal was not disclosed.
The conference gave ESPN one week to match an offer from the NBC Sports division of US network NBC for the rights.
“ESPN has matched the third-party offer that the Big East Conference received, and, subject to Big East board approval, ESPN and the Big East will continue, for years to come, their long-term relationship, which began in 1980,” Big East commissioner Mike Aresco said.
The report added that the new deal is worth less than the existing agreement between ESPN and the conference, and considerably less than ESPN’s offer of $130 million per year over nine years, from 2011-12 to 2019-20, which was turned down by the conference’s presidents in 2011. Several teams have departed the conference since then.