CBS Inks 15-Year Deal With SEC For TV, Digital Rights

CBS has signed the SEC to a 15-year broadcast TV deal that includes a wide variety of digital and streaming rights for football and basketball. The conference also continues to negotiate with ESPN for a cable deal, and an agreement is expected to be signed in the upcoming weeks. The SEC still is considering launching its own channel, though that is now considered a long-shot. The CBS deal, which runs through 2023, will give the broadcaster a football "Game of the Week," along with prime-time and double-header windows. CBS also will have a noon window for some football games. As part of the deal, CBS has the right to stream its games live on the Internet starting in '09. "That's possible, but we don't know yet if that's what we're going to do," said Mike Aresco, CBS's Exec VP/Programming. "We have found that streaming has not cannibalized our TV programming." CBS College Sports also collected a bucket of rights, including the right to simulcast CBS' games, though Aresco said he did not know if the network would do that. The cable channel will be allowed to re-air CBS games and will have highlight rights and Olympic sports rights. The deal includes wireless, video-on-demand, data and enhanced highlight rights. "We're pretty excited about the length of this," Aresco said, pointing out that the 15-year deal is longer than the network's other contracts.
By John Ourand & Michael Smith, Staff Writers, SportsBusiness Journal