Reports: New ACC Network To Launch

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The long-awaited ACC Network project has been gaining steam throughout this calendar year. Monday night, reports began to indicate where that train is heading. A digital streaming option is expected to be available this fall, beginning in August 2016, while a more traditional cable channel is expected to launch by 2019.

There are multiple reports out concerning the breaking ACC Network news with the Raleigh News & Observer, ESPN, and the Daily Press’ David Teel all outlining some of the history and near-term future for the joint ACC-ESPN venture.

Luke DeCock, long-time reporter for the Raleigh News & Observer detailed some of the history in this article:

“In 2010, when the ACC forged its current deal with ESPN, it chose to forgo a cable network in favor of a continued agreement with Raycom in what was branded as an ‘ACC Network’ but was really a continuation of the conference’s decades-long syndication deal that puts ACC games on local affiliates like WRAL. Discussions over an ACC channel have been ongoing ever since, gathering pace after the 2012 addition of Notre Dame in all sports but football and the 2013 grant-of-rights agreement that essentially prevented any further defections after Maryland’s departure.”

Brent McMurphy of ESPN wrote in this article about an updated piece of information on that 2013 grant-of-rights agreement that will come as part of this network launch:

“The Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN have agreed to a 20-year deal and rights extension through the 2035-36 academic year, sources said. The ACC also extended its conference grant of rights deal nine years through 2035-36, a source said. The conference’s grant of rights makes it untenable financially for a school to leave, guaranteeing in the 20 years of the deal that a school’s media rights, including revenue, for all home games would remain with the ACC regardless of the school’s affiliation.”

McMurphy also noted that if Notre Dame opts to move away from football independence in the next 20 years, it is contractually obligated to join the ACC.

David Teel of the Daily Press, who has been on top of this story throughout the process, wrote in this article that the ACC decision-makers believe that a conference network is necessary to further increase revenue and to stay on pace with other power conferences:

“Windfalls from those networks have separated the Big Ten and SEC from their peers financially, and administrators at ACC schools have made clear the need for additional television revenue. Accounting practices differ among the conferences, but the most recent federal tax records available, for 2014-15, showed the ACC third in average per-school distribution at $26.2 million, behind the SEC’s $32.7 million and Big Ten’s $32.4 million. New contracts with Fox and ESPN are expected to send the Big Ten’s distributions north of $50 million.”

With Notre Dame in as a full ACC member other than football, the ACC has 15 schools to provide content to the ACC Network. To date, other sports have landed on ESPN3 – the digital streaming arm of ESPN – frequently, but the new deal will shift the offerings to a new digital channel. According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal in this article, that channel will be called ACC Network Plus, but will still be available via the WatchESPN and ESPN apps. He also wrote that it will carry a lot of content:

At launch, the digital channel will carry at least 600 Olympic-style events per year, with individual schools producing an undetermined number of the events. When the linear channel launches in ’19, it will carry at least 400 events, including 40 football and 150 men’s and women’s basketball games each year.

While some of the basic information is well covered in the articles and blurbs above, many details remain unclear. How much of a revenue increase will the network launch? What expenses will schools incur to be able to provide the streaming service for games that they host? John Swofford, the ACC Commissioner now in his 20th year on the job, is scheduled to meet with the media on Thursday morning as the ACC Football Kickoff media days get underway.