Pac-10 has new, lucrative TV deal

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO

The Pac-10 agreed to a 12-year television contract with Fox and ESPN on Tuesday worth about $3 billion, allowing the conference to quadruple its media rights fees and start its own network.

The contract, which will begin with the 2012-13 season, will be worth about $250 million per year, guaranteeing each of the 12 schools in the conference about $21 million.

The contract is expected to be formally announced by commissioner Larry Scott at a news conference in Phoenix today.

The Pac-10, which will be renamed the Pac-12 in July with the additions of Utah and Colorado, made less than $60 million in media rights this past season but became the latest conference to take advantage of the escalating market for college sports on television.

The ACC recently signed a deal for $155 million a year and the Big 12 reached a deal with Fox that made its total annual package worth about $130 million. The Pac-10 topped those deals, as well as the $205 million the SEC gets and the $220 million paid to the Big Ten.

Rights to some football and men’s basketball games were not sold to Fox and ESPN, preserving some premium property the conference can use for a Pac-12 network.