The SEC's television contracts are up and there were plenty of rumors that the conference would look to start up an SEC Network that would be much faster than the Big Ten Network and beat Ohio State in national championship games but ignore the fact that the two conferences were pretty much equal in head to head bowl matuchups. However, Florida's just signed a massive long-term deal with Fox-owned Sun Sports to produce a large chunk of non-football content:
The rights include tape-delayed football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and Olympic sports. One of Sun Sports' most profitable shows is "Breakfast with the Gators," a Sunday morning replay of the previous day's football game.Industry analysts say this doesn't necessarily preclude an SEC Network, it does knock out a lot of programming, especially Florida men's basketball, that would be a centerpiece of the hypothetical new channel.
So that's probably out. Also probably out: Jefferson-Pilot or Lincoln Financial or whatever the rinky-dink syndication producer that picked up lower-end SEC games. Who's in?
The SEC is set to announce its new television contracts in August, industry sources say. By all accounts, CBS will retain the broadcast portion and ESPN will retain the cable portion, with ESPNU and ESPN360 also getting rights that were previously reserved for syndication partners.Uh-oh. No one gets ESPNU. Man the battlements for another year of cable caterwauling.
