ESPN and the Big 12 Conference have enhanced their comprehensive rights agreement, adding to the network’s coverage of the NCAA division 1 conference including hundreds of events heading to ESPN+
- As part of the new enhancements, the Big 12 Football Championship will air on either ESPN or ABC through 2024.
- Hundreds of events will be added to ESPN+ under a new Big 12-branded offering to be developed by the conference and ESPN, and launched on ESPN+ ahead of the start of the 2019-20 athletic season.
- Each participating Big 12 Conference school will assign available rights to ESPN and deliver more than 50 exclusive events per year.
- The lineup will include:
- An exclusive regular-season football game each season from each participating school, as well as any spring football games;
- All regular season and exhibition men’s basketball games not distributed on ESPN’s linear networks (expected to be upwards of 75 games per year);
- Women’s basketball and other conference sports such as volleyball, soccer, wrestling, softball, baseball and more;
- Select Big 12 Conference championship events and original content.
- Eight of the conference’s 10 schools will produce and deliver multiple sports under the new Big 12-branded platform on ESPN+.
What they’re saying:
- Burke Magnus, ESPN executive vice president, programming & scheduling: “We appreciate the continued collaboration with our friends at the Big 12 Conference and their commitment to innovation. This enhancement to our rights agreement reflects an ongoing desire to give Big 12 fans access to their favorite teams and hundreds of more contests, while embracing the power of technology and the expanded nature of sports consumption with ESPN+.”
- Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby: “Our institutions are thrilled with the exposure all 10 athletics programs will receive through this Big 12-branded offering. I appreciate the efforts of ESPN’s Burke Magnus, Nick Dawson and Pete Derzis in bringing this to fruition. Building on our relationship with ESPN and Disney DTCI allows our programs access to cutting-edge technology through the ESPN+ platform, and the ability for multiple live contests to be distributed simultaneously. Our goal was to be forward thinking in the use of technology to create a conference-branded platform and believe this partnership ideally positions the Big 12 now and into the foreseeable future.”