SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference and ESPN have reached an agreement on a six-year contract running through the 2020-21 academic year, when the league will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Over the course of the six years, the SoCon and its member schools will have an opportunity to produce nearly 2,000 live events that would receive national coverage on ESPN3.
“We are very enthusiastic about continuing our valuable relationship with ESPN in such an innovative way,” Southern Conference Commissioner John Iamarino said. “Our members are positioning themselves to produce ESPN-quality content that will provide tremendous exposure for their athletic programs. The benefits will be shared not only by our programs, but by our alumni, boosters, fans and students, all of whom will be able to watch an unprecedented amount of Southern Conference sports.”
As part of the new pact, all 10 SoCon schools will develop production capabilities by 2017 that will be showcased on ESPN3. Previously, Mercer and Furman produced content during the 2014-15 campaign.
A minimum of 1,900 live events will be produced by the league and its members. In the final four years of the contract, a minimum of 45 SoCon football games and 200 league basketball games will appear on ESPN3 each season.
The men’s basketball championship will continue to air live on either ESPN or ESPN2, and the conference will receive several men’s basketball exposures on one of ESPN’s linear platforms (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPNEWS) during the contract.
ABOUT THE SOUTHERN CONFERENCE
The Southern Conference, which will enter its 95th season of intercollegiate competition in 2015-16, is a national leader in emphasizing the development of the student-athlete and helping build lifelong leaders and role models. The conference has been on the forefront of innovation and originality in developing creative solutions to address issues facing intercollegiate athletics. From establishing the first conference basketball tournament (1921), to tackling the issues of freshman eligibility (1922), to developing women’s championships (1984) to becoming the first conference to install the 3-point goal in basketball (1980), the Southern Conference has been a pioneer. The Southern Conference is the nation’s fifth-oldest NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association. The conference currently consists of 10 members in six states throughout the Southeast and sponsors 20 varsity sports and championships that produce participants for NCAA Division I Championships.
ABOUT ESPN
ESPN, Inc., The Worldwide Leader in Sports, is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities. Based in Bristol, Conn., with 4,000 employees (7,000 worldwide) ESPN Plaza includes 950,000 square feet in 16 buildings on 123 acres (116 contiguous), with additional office space (400,000 sq. ft.) rented nearby.The company is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.
ABOUT ESPN3
ESPN3 is ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network, a destination that delivers thousands of exclusive sports events annually. It is accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The network is currently available to more than 99 million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.
-www.SoConSports.com-