TNT recently lost its battle to broadcast NBA games to NBC. It appeared for a minute that they would be getting out of the sports business, at least with an exception, perhaps to the MLB and NHL deals for which they are already under contract. This was until they shocked everyone when they made a deal to broadcast some of the College Football Playoff games starting this year.
This is the first time that TNT has gotten into college football in nearly two decades, and some wondered what their next step would be, considering that all of the Power Conferences already have inked deals with other TV stations.
On July 1st, the same day that the Pac-12 officially went from 12 teams to just Oregon State and Washington State, we have our answer.
TV Contracts For Non-P4 Conferences Are Very Small
The P4 conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big 10, and SEC) all have massive TV revenue contracts with big networks like ESPN, FOX, NBC, and CBS. These contracts range from about $30 million per school per year to north of $75 million.
When we talk about college football, there are two divisions, the P4 and the Group of Five, or G5. The P4 schools get all the attention, headlines, and money. But that difference is stark. For example, the MAC, which is a G5 conference playing for the same National Championship as Alabama, Michigan, and Georgia, is paid only about $670,000 per school.
That is about 1% of what the SEC and Big 10 will make by the end of their media deals. Do you still think it’s a fair deal for them both to be playing in the same division?
However, this does open up the opportunity for other conferences to make more deals with other channels. This is because ESPN doesn’t want to broadcast six MAC games a week; they want one, maybe two games on a weeknight. CBS Sports Network loves a good Saturday night 10:00 PM ET kickoff, but they want to broadcast P4 games during the day.
TNT Agrees to Broadcast Mountain West Games
The Mountain West (MWC) is one of the bigger G5 conferences. After the AAC was torn apart the past two years, losing their four best teams, there is a real argument that the Mountain West is the best G5 conference left, with brands like San Diego State and Boise State leading the way.
The MWC already has a nice deal with CBS Sports and FOX Sports, which broadcasts 49 games throughout the season on FOX, FS1/2, and CBS Sports Network. This is a pretty good deal, but when you consider that there are 14 weeks and, on average, six home games per week, that comes out to 84 games, or about 35 games that would not be broadcast on TV.
Enter TNT.
TNT has agreed to broadcast an additional 14 games on TruTV and streaming on Max. These will be the first college football broadcasts since 2006.
Something that sticks out with the broadcasts is that, unlike CBS Sports and FS1, which like to broadcast games at 10:00 and 11:00 PM ET, the TruTV broadcasts will primarily be at 4:00 and 7:00 PM ET, or primetime. They will be going up against other big games but also provide fans of the MWC games to watch that don’t go into their Sunday mornings.
The exact cost of the deal is not known at this time. However, the exposure and deal will be very beneficial for all teams in the conference, particularly San Jose State, which will have five of their games on TruTV, and New Mexico, which will have four.
NBA Deal Becoming Less Likely as TNT Looks to College Football
As it is, the NBA and TNT seemed to be moving in opposite directions, with the NBA moving onto NBC after being a partner with TNT for decades. This move shows that TNT may be content with doing deals with more college teams for a fraction of the cost while probably bringing in more money per viewer.
In the case of TruTV, the station struggles to pull any ratings throughout the week. Their main program, “Inpractical Jokers’ along with the NCAA Basketball Tournament, seem to be the only shows anyone watches. By putting college football on TruTV, the station can promote its other programs, which could lead to positive dividends later.
Whether TNT will ever want to get into the NBA or really push for a bigger market for regular-season games is still to be determined, but what is clear is that TNT seems to be accepting its loss of the NBA and is now focusing more on college sports.
TNT Sports & Mountain West reach multi-year agreement for a full slate of live college football games to air exclusively on truTV & Max beginning this season
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 1, 2024
