Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff’s strategy for the momentous media rights negotiations next year will focus on revenue opportunities, content distribution and competitive advantages, a nuanced component that could result in football start times being set a week before kickoff.
As Pac-12 fans know all too well, that process has existed for a decade: The conference’s media partners (ESPN and Fox) dictate which games are played in the various broadcast windows, either six or 12 days in advance.
But Kliavkoff’s plan comes with a twist:
The Pac-12, not its media partners, would determine which games are played in the various time slots in order to maximize exposure for teams in playoff contention — even if it means taking a little less money from the networks.
“One of the things I want to negotiate for, along with revenue and broad distribution, is the opportunity to have some flexibility with respect to when games are played and who plays in those games,’’ Kliavkoff said last week during a podcast with AJ Maestas, the CEO of Navigate, which provides data and analytics to clients in the sports and entertainment fields.
“You can imagine later in the season that I might still, as (a) conference, be able to provide the distribution partners with a prime-time West Coast game. But it may be negotiated — even if we leave some money on the table — that the conference gets to determine which of our schools plays in those games if you get yourself into position when there’s a potential (College Football Playoff) invitee or a kid in the final rounds of contention for the Heisman (Trophy).”
The current contracts with ESPN, Fox and the Pac-12 Network’s partners (Comcast, DISH, etc.) all expire on the same date: June 30, 2024. But because massive media deals are often consummated more than a year in advance, Kliavkoff likely will begin serious negotiations next winter.
Every shred of Pac-12 content will be available, but Kliavkoff isn’t dead set on chasing the highest bid. Revenue for the campuses is critical, but so is access to content.
“Whatever deal we do,” he told Maestas, “it’s my goal to have our content available on any piece of glass connected to the internet. Period, full stop.”
The competitive piece is also essential in order to best position the Pac-12 for the playoff berths and individual awards that are vital to keeping five-star recruits from leaving the footprint to play in the SEC and Big Ten.
Ultimately, Kliavkoff’s media strategy will be set by his bosses, the university presidents and chancellors who run the conference. Oregon’s Michael Schill is the current chair of the Pac-12 Board, but his two-year term ends this summer. Washington’s Ana Mari Cauce will be in charge when Kliavkoff takes a seat at the negotiating table in early 2023.
“This is all a balance, just like any negotiation,” Kliavkoff said. “And for me, the important part is No. 1, identifying what those tradeoffs are. You give up one, you get another. That’s No. 1.
“No. 2 (is) being incredibly transparent with my stakeholders, my presidents and chancellors, my athletic directors and coaches, and getting buy-in on where we should come out on that balance.
“And then it’s being incredibly transparent with our distribution partners or potential distribution partners about what’s important to us. And listen, they might end up saving a little money if they’re willing to give up some flexibility, and vice versa. That is all part of this negotiation, and we just have to be transparent about that.”
In a brief conversation with the Hotline on Tuesday morning before boarding a flight, Kliavkoff emphasized the inevitability of give-and-take.
After all, there’s an inverse relationship between media revenue and scheduling flexibility.
The conference’s broadcast partners will pay a premium for the right to control the schedule, slot games into prime-time windows on the West Coast (7:30 p.m. PT) and set the kickoff times one week in advance.
But those mechanisms make engagement difficult for fans and sequester important games in broadcast slots too late for much of the country.
If the Pac-12 takes back a degree of control and prioritizes what works best for the schools (ticket sales, kickoffs set in advance) and the competitive product (maximum exposure for the best teams), the cash flow assuredly would be impacted.
It’s worth noting that the current disparity in annual revenue between the Pac-12 and its peer leagues is comparable to the situation in 2010, when the university presidents directed then-commissioner Larry Scott to chase the money at the expense of exposure and fan-friendly scheduling.
That year, each Big Ten school received about $22 million in conference distributions, while the Pac-10 shipped approximately $9 million to its campuses. These days, the numbers are about $55 million for the Big Ten and $33 million for the Pac-12 (in non-pandemic years).
But after a decade of hard lessons, disgruntled fans and 7:30 p.m. kickoffs, the calculation isn’t as clear. A full-throttle pursuit of every last dollar would cost the conference dearly.
“It’s all a balancing act,” Kliavkoff said.
Kliavkoff addressed several other topics specific to media rights and scheduling during the hour-long Navigate podcast, including:
— The duration of the Pac-12’s deals with Fox and ESPN:
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“When our media rights were renegotiated nine years ago, we leapfrogged everyone (in revenue), and our conference basically accelerated into first place. The problem, which at the time probably seemed like a good idea, but the tradeoff for moving into first place was instead of agreeing to a five- or six-year deal, we agreed to 12-year deal that has two-and-a-half years left … Every other conference that’s had the opportunity to renegotiate in the last nine years has passed us.”
— On the value of sports rights:
“Their value has actually accelerated. When the original (Pac-12) deal was done, the assumption was there would be a 10-to-12 percent (increase) in the value of media rights and as long as we’re on that trajectory, we’ll be ahead of the curve. What’s happened is media rights in the last five, six, seven years have tripled in value.”
— On the interest in Pac-12 content:
“Every metric about it makes sports rights the most valuable kind of rights, and there are an unlimited number of new services coming online that all want that content. So we’re going to have multiple bidders for every tier of our rights going into renegotiation … We can slice and dice those rights and have multiple bidders for every package we put together.”
— On future football schedules with alliance partners:
“My nirvana in football is eight conference games, one game against the Big Ten, one game against the ACC every year — each of those being either home or away — and the last two games to make the 12-game season would be up to the athletic director and the football coach to decide who they want to play. It will take a while to get to that eight-plus-one-plus-one because of existing contractual commitments.”
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