The Athletic had a great piece over the weekend with details about the Apple proposal rejected by the Pac 12. From the piece:
"According to three people with knowledge of the terms, Apple offered the members a five-year deal with an annual base rate of $23 million per school (a subsequent counteroffer lifted it to $25 million), with incentives based on projected subscribers to a Pac-12 streaming product akin to Apple’s MLS League Pass.
At 1.7 million subscribers, the per-school payout would match the $31.7 million average that Big 12 schools will reportedly receive from ESPN and Fox beginning in 2025. But Kliavkoff encouraged the room to think much bigger — at 5 million subscribers, the schools would eclipse $50 million per year, closer to the deep-pocketed SEC and Big Ten than the ACC or Big 12."
The new Big 12 schools are all coming in to that league with a full annual share of media revenue; $31.7 million per school. That means the Pac 12 was only $6 million apart from the Big 12, even if Apple's product didn't get a single subscriber.
For context, the current Pac 12 Network has about 15 million subscribers. It's not hard to imagine they could have converted around 10% of their current subscribers to the online product, and in doing so reach parity with the Big 12. ASU's annual athletics budget is $101 million. They helped blow up the Pac 12 over about 5% of their annual budget. It's insane. More than 100 years of history and regional rivalry were cast aside over, at most, $6 million per year. The greed involved is disgusting.
After this, no one should ever make a single word opposing athletes pursuing NIL deals. The "grown ups" have ruined college athletics. The athletes might as well get a piece of the pie.
theathletic.com
"According to three people with knowledge of the terms, Apple offered the members a five-year deal with an annual base rate of $23 million per school (a subsequent counteroffer lifted it to $25 million), with incentives based on projected subscribers to a Pac-12 streaming product akin to Apple’s MLS League Pass.
At 1.7 million subscribers, the per-school payout would match the $31.7 million average that Big 12 schools will reportedly receive from ESPN and Fox beginning in 2025. But Kliavkoff encouraged the room to think much bigger — at 5 million subscribers, the schools would eclipse $50 million per year, closer to the deep-pocketed SEC and Big Ten than the ACC or Big 12."
The new Big 12 schools are all coming in to that league with a full annual share of media revenue; $31.7 million per school. That means the Pac 12 was only $6 million apart from the Big 12, even if Apple's product didn't get a single subscriber.
For context, the current Pac 12 Network has about 15 million subscribers. It's not hard to imagine they could have converted around 10% of their current subscribers to the online product, and in doing so reach parity with the Big 12. ASU's annual athletics budget is $101 million. They helped blow up the Pac 12 over about 5% of their annual budget. It's insane. More than 100 years of history and regional rivalry were cast aside over, at most, $6 million per year. The greed involved is disgusting.
After this, no one should ever make a single word opposing athletes pursuing NIL deals. The "grown ups" have ruined college athletics. The athletes might as well get a piece of the pie.
Pac-12, Apple deal was $23M per school but hope remained to secure it: Sources
Oregon and Washington 'didn't want to have to do this,' a source said of the schools' exit after an underwhelming media rights deal.
theathletic.com
