Pac-12: Don’t Expect DirecTV deal with Conference anytime soon

Arizona Wildcats fans and Pac-12 fans alike learned of bad news as Larry Scott and the conference announced DirecTV deal still may be a ways off.

As the Pac-12 media day dominated the headlines and the attention on Wednesday, fans of the conference learned of some bad news as the Pac-12 is no where close to reaching a deal with DirecTV.

Entering year eight of the conferences’ berth, the conference has had challenges in reaching a deal with DirecTV since starting the Pac-12 Network in 2012. A deal with DirecTV would help expand the exposure and viewership of the conference. immensely.

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In 2011, when the Pac-12 started, the conference signed a $3 billion deal with ESPN and Fox to air football, basketball and “Olympic sport” games. It was supposed to give each school an expected $20.8 million every year.

Sounds great right? Well, not entirely.

Two years later, the conference announced a partnership with AT&T/ U-Verse instead. Since beginning this partnership, AT&T has acquired DirecTV, but negotiations between the conference and the media conglomerate have broken down, and their relationship has been indifferent since.

Well, heading into 2018, we still don’t have a deal with DirecTV, and even more challenging is that it doesn’t look like one is coming anytime soon.

According to Jon Wilner of the Seattle Times, as the contract between AT&T and the Pac-12 expires this summer, there are two options at this point;

1. The Pac-12 and AT&T double down on their partnership, with a DirecTV carriage agreement as the centerpiece.
2. The parties end their relationship … and any chance of the Pac-12 Networks being shown on DirecTV for the foreseeable future.

During the conference’s annual media day, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott mentioned that the conference is nowhere near reaching a deal with DirecTV, but 2024 could open new possibilities.

2024? That’s a long ways off!

As it stands, the conference did earn $500 million in revenue this past year for the first time ever, but unfortunately that still pales in comparison to other Power Five conferences, and in fact the revenue sharing gap between other conferences is widening.

Over the next five years, our revenue share for each school won’t exceed $38 million. By comparison, the Big Ten will pay it’s schools $51 million this year alone!

So how much does this all fall on Larry Scott, the Pac-12 commissioner? Well, it’s hard to say, since I don’t know how much responsibility he has in setting TV deals.

One thing I do know, is that the optics of it all don’t look good! Even worse is that Scott is the highest paid conference commissioner in the country.

In my honest opinion, I feel this conference could and should do more to market itself! You have arguably the largest market outside New York that features two teams, and the conference has the most championships out of any other conference.

We can discuss the challenges of being on the West Coast and start times generally being later, but the Pac-12 is moving in the wrong direction and it doesn’t seem like it will change, at least not until 2024…

At Zona Zealots we hope that things can change soon, and this conference can really continue to grow even more! Bear Down, Arizona!