(12-13-2019 06:31 PM)Wedge Wrote: I don't think it's ESPN's goal to own everything.
I think ESPN management wants to not buy up everything, not even every big event, as their way of showing "restraint" to their Disney bosses. It's a balance between owning enough to brag about themselves as "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" without the ESPN executives getting reined in or replaced by Disney for excessive spending.
They have what they want and there is a definite method to within what rights they own. The most football crazy market stretches from the Southeast to the Southwest, at least in terms of viewer saturation. More households out of the total households watch in that area of the country than in any other including most of the Atlantic Coast. But the Atlantic Coast's population numbers were a priority for ESPN.
Therefore they own 100% of the ACC's rights but pay much less for them than they do for other conferences.
The own just under 50% of the rights to the Big 10's T1 and T2 inventory, and exactly 50% of the rights to the PAC and Big 12. They own all of the SEC except for the first pick 17 games a year that CBS has.
So with half of the picks for the PAC they cover their late evening schedule. With the Big 12 they don't own T3 rights because they belong to the schools. With the PAC they don't own T3 because they belong to the PAC. With the Big 10 they don't own them because FOX does. And this all makes sound business sense since the depth of these conferences, or the appeal of their lower tier schools as a % of the viewers they would bring for a T3 game indicates it is not real profitable to do so. With the Big 12 they acquired the T3 of Texas and Kansas. No surprise there either since UT draws in viewers in a state of nearly 28 million and Kansas is a blueblood basketball program where T3 rights to basketball still draw interest.
What ESPN does have is a lock over the entire Southeast with the exception of those 17 games owned by CBS. Remember they also have all of the rights to the AAC. So between the SEC, AAC, and ACC nobody advertises in the Southeast (other than through CBS) without going through ESPN which gives them a stranglehold over the rates charged to advertisers in this region.
This is what they want. Control over the Southeast for ad rate reasons. Access to Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and possibly West Virginia 50% of the time for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, 50% of the Big 10 T1 and T2 for the same reasons and because most weeks in the Big 10 Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin aren't playing each other and the bottom half of the Big 10 is not a ratings bonanza. 50% of the PAC's T1 and T2 so that they have PAC late evening game to go up against the FOX late evening PAC game. They have what they want in order to provide access to all P5 conferences without conceding FOX any East Coast or Southeast games, and precious little of value outside of a few Texas and Oklahoma games in the Southwest, and enough of the Big 10 to claim to the World Wide Leader, and enough of the PAC to tuck us into bed watching ESPN on Saturdays in the fall and for late evening college hoops fans.
So yes ESPN has and gets what they want and it keeps them in the lead and no they don't want T3 games from the PAC, Big 12, and Big 10 because they don't draw well. The OP would have been more accurate to say they want access to every school of value. They have that in spades!
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ESPN'S Endgame
ESPN'S Endgame 
