Friday Cannon Fodder: TV rights

CBS/Viacom/Paramount just agreed to a new, six-year deal to broadcast the UEFA competitions (Champions, Europa, and Conference League) in the U.S. The contract is worth $250 million a season. That’s a 150% increase over the previous contract. Last year, the Premier League re-upped with NBC for six years, $2.7 billion overall.

Compare those to the deal just inked by the Big 10 — the conference just signed a seven-year contract worth over $1 billion a year, a massive increase from the $430 million per-year expiring deal. Games will be on CBS, FOX, and NBC.

Those are all comically large sums of money. It’s a little peek behind the curtain, and I found the comparative differences in contract value interesting.

There isn’t some groundbreaking revelation to be found here. American football is more popular than European football in the States. I’m not even sure that soccer is truly catching up. Look at the increase on the Big 10 contract! But soccer is carving out a solid space for itself in the U.S. sports market. There are more leagues available across the various streaming platforms. And that makes me happy.