What is A&M's multimedia rights deal like?

quote:

---

are we currently locked into a long arse deal that pays us peanuts?

---

we signed a 10-year deal with Learfield in 2006

quote:

---

do we have a moderately comparable deal at all?

---

multimedia rights are primarily driven through your radio deal and basketball games. Our radio deal sucks and no one gives a shite about hoops. UK's also includes naming rights.

We never released our figures in 06 so you can bet they suck. We did the same thing with the Adidas contract. You brag if the terms are good. You just make a press release saying you signed a contract if it sucked.

quote:

---

or our rights about to hit the open market?

---

not far away as the contract expires after the 2015-16 school year

quote:

---

We never released our figures in 06 so you can bet they suck. We did the same thing with the Adidas contract. You brag if the terms are good. You just make a press release saying you signed a contract if it sucked.

---

Are you referring to the initial adidas contract, or the one we just signed? I haven't heard anything about the terms of this new one, but would like to know.

It's all public information. And if it's less than 50 pages you don't have to pay for it.

Just saying you can easily find out with a public information act request.

quote:

---

are we currently locked into a long arse deal that pays us peanuts?

do we have a moderately comparable deal at all?

or our rights about to hit the open market?

---

For the TL:DR crowd - It would be near impossible for TAMU to replicate what UK has




Here are some reasons why.


Some things that make the UK deal so valuable

#1 BRAND POWER : UK via Host Communications - which became IMG College - was the pioneer in media rights not controlled by the NCAA. Kids today forget that for most of the history of the NCAA it was a monopoly controlled by the B1G and supported by the PAC. When the CFA was formed as a competitor to the B1G/PCC=>PAC/NCAA control and the straw that broke the back was the suit filed by Oklahoma (in the Big 8) and Georgia (in the SEC) that went all the way to the Supreme Court and broke this monopoly. While most schools in the country went to grow football value, UK went to the less competitive basketball space and carved out a big slice early.

UK had a national basketball following via radio the way Notre Dame did in football. Much of this was rooted in the uptempo style played by Rupp that made them exciting to watch and listen to. As time rolled on the UK radio value built up real value and Host in the 1970's just grew the brand and footprint.



#2 ELITE STATUS : UK is an elite school via Nike and before that Converse. While most schools have 1 sport, UK has been able to achieve average or above average across multiple sports. While their M basketball is the lead dog most folks are always surprised to find they were a Top 20 - Top 30 draw in football. Same with W basketball and baseball. While this may not have translated to NCAA hardware it did translate to content on the UK Radio Network. Most schools just can not draw that interest across a broader spectrum.

It is one thing to win at the top but it is another thing to have consumer demand. Arkansas may have lots of T&F titles, but do Hog fans tune in to hear it on the radio in enough numbers to monetize advertising? Georgia has won in lots of sports but outside of football their fans just do not tune in or show up. UK radio has been able to become at the school level what the SECN hopes to become on a conference level. Year round content you can sell to advertisers.



#3 NON FOOTBALL POWER : Basketball schools have real value at the Tier III level because of the nature of basketball. Unless TAMU started selling out Reed for men's games and became the primary basketball school in the state it will be hard to build a big value. Only 2 states in the US are true basketball states and they are KY and IN. When you can draw 24,000 for a high school basketball game in a state with only 4 million people you are at a totally different level. Alabama and Nebraska may not have big populations but they have ultra rabid football fans which make them more valuable per capita than bigger populations.



#4 LOCATION : Real location and radio location. The UK Radio Network historically went out on the 50,000 watt stations which had massive reach compared to your normal AM band in a local or regional area. I can remember picking up UK basketball games in Oklahoma when I was younger on some 50,000 watt station in a neighboring state.

In terms of real location UK sits in a unique physical location. Perhaps 1/2 of the US population is within 500 miles of Lexington or something crazy like that. An hour or so an you can reach major D1 programs in all conferences save the PAC. In 3 hours or less you can play AAC, A 10, ACC, B1G, MAC, Sun Belt, and other type schools. 6 hours get you to Chicago, Atlanta, Saint Louis, and similar large cities. The school sits at the crossroads of not only 2 major highways but several sports conferences as well.

Rupp used that proximity early on to play lots of schools in lots of directions which meant your team picked up UK games on their network to hear your own team play. UK still plays broad conference games in their OOC schedule. Even if other schools could replicate most other things, it would be hard for all but a handful of schools to replicate the central location advantage. It is not uncommon for UK to play away games where UK looks like the home team in the crowds. In addition UK played a (home) game in Louisville every season and a (home) game in southern Ohio - usually Cincinnati every season.

Could TAMU go into say New Orleans and outsell the local LSU fans? Kentucky has been know to do such things which seems to make advertisers really happy.