Conference USA and FOX Sports Media Group Announce New Television Rights Agreement
IRVING, Texas – Conference Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced today that the conference has reached a new multi-year agreement for national television rights with Fox Sports Media Group, beginning with the 2011 football season through the 2015-16 athletic year.
Sports Networks () will provide a variety of marquee C- events, including football, men’s and women’s basketball, and other C- sponsored sports. This agreement will provide a significant increase in revenue and, in conjunction with C-’s extended partnership with College Sports Network, an increase in the number of events distributed and the overall exposure for the conference.
According to terms of the agreement, will showcase a minimum of 20 regular-season football games per season, a minimum of 10 regular-season men’s and five women’s basketball games, and a variety of Olympic sports events. The C- football championship game will also be carried on , FX or the Network. programming is distributed nationally to more than 85 million homes through more than two dozen owned and affiliated regional sports networks.
Provisions of the new agreement also allow Fox to televise select Conference events on Sports, which reaches over 115 million households nationwide, and on FX, ’s flagship general entertainment cable network available in over 98 million homes.
“This is a huge step forward for our Conference and we are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Fox,” Banowsky said. “Our interests are aligned and we are very excited about the potential of this partnership.”
“Both parties will reap the benefits of this agreement,” said Sports Networks President Randy Freer. “Not only can Fox provide extensive national TV exposure for the Conference through a variety of outlets, but we can also serve the Conference’s member schools and local fans through our strong regional presence. A regional sports network like Sports Houston is a natural fit to distribute Rice and Houston games, while , , and Tulane are located in Sports Southwest’s footprint. We’ll have tremendous programming opportunities to explore, especially with cross-over match-ups with our other conference rights.”
The conference’s footprint is concentrated in nine states with 12 member schools, including East Carolina, Houston, Marshall, Memphis, Rice, , Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa, , and . That territory is served by nine Fox regional sports networks, including Sports South, SportSouth, Sports Carolinas, Sports Tennessee, Sports Southwest, Sports Houston, Sports Oklahoma, Sports Florida, and Sun Sports.
With the addition of Conference , Fox Sports Media Group now boasts the most comprehensive portfolio of college product in the country, with nearly 2,000 premier events showcased through national and regional platforms, including Sports, , the Big Ten Network and College Sports. Conference joins Fox’s impressive roster of collegiate conference partners that includes the Big Ten, Pac-10, Big 12, and .
Updated 01-05-2011
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