The silk gloves have come off at the media rights negotiations between Amazon and the Pac-12 conference. And here comes the steel fist that helped make Amazon the dominant e-commerce company in the country.
Amazon is playing “hardball” in media rights negotiations with the ill-fated college conference, sources told Front Office Sports.
The tech giant is on the lookout for the best fixtures and the best financial terms, sources said.
Founder Jeff Bezos’ Amazon didn’t grow to $513 billion in annual revenue by playing nice. If the Pac-12 thinks it’s going to get rich from Amazon, they’re wrong, sources said.
And the more bidders drop out of the negotiations, the more influence Amazon has on the conference.
Both CBS Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports are said to have dropped out of the bidding process Brett McMurphy of the action network.
All of this, of course, comes just days after the conference issued a statement saying they expected to create a new media rights package “in the near future” – and calling the negotiations “positive”.
That adds Amazon, Fox Sports, NBC and ESPN to a dwindling list of contenders for the Conference of Champions.
The problem for the Pac-12 is that most major media outlets have signed soccer deals in recent years. Or they hoard cash while the US advertising market is weakening and an economic recession is looming.
In August, the Big Ten inked a seven-year, $7 billion rights deal with Fox, NBC and CBS. So drop Fox as a longshot.
NBC is all in with the Big Ten and Notre Dame.
The Peacock network’s new Big Ten deal runs through the 2029-2030 season. His long-standing contract for Fighting Irish home games runs through the 2025 season, so they can probably be counted out too.
Amazon has already closed its big pro football deal with the NFL, paying $1 billion a year to exclusively stream “Thursday Night Football” through 2033. Do you need the Pac-12? Probably only on their own terms.
Then there’s Walt Disney Co. ESPN’s majority owner has outbid competitors for college football rights over the decades. But Disney suddenly discovered the virtues of frugality.
During a conference call with analysts, returning CEO Bob Iger warned that the entertainment giant would be “more selective” about expensive sports rights.
“I’ve had long conversations about this with (ESPN President) Jimmy Pitaro. And we have to make some decisions – not big ones, but a few things, and we just have to be more selective,” Iger said.
After all, ESPN has already climbed the Big 12 again. And the network has expressed an interest in retaining the media rights to the NCAA championship, sources previously told FOS. The NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament alone will likely be worth more than double the $34 million a year that ESPN currently pays.
The Pac-12’s current 12-year contracts with Fox and ESPN run through 2024 and have an average annual value of $250 million.
But USC and UCLA pounce on the rival Big Ten in 2024. The loss of these two prominent schools and most of the Los Angeles television market severely strains Commissioner George Kliavkoff’s negotiating options.
Both the Pac-12 and Amazon declined to comment.
Editor’s note: FOS reporter Amanda Christovich contributed to this story.