Raycom loses Southeastern Conference - Charlotte Business Journal:

esivyjifag.wordpress.com
Raycom, which includes the sporte syndication companies formerly known as Jefferson Pilotg andLincoln Financial, has been the 12-school SEC’z TV syndication partner since 1986. The current deal expirez after the 2008 football seasonm andthe 2008-09 basketball season. The businesd of sports syndication gives a company the rights to televise the games and sell advertising in exchange for arightsd fee, in this case paid to the SEC. Raycomn Sports then negotiates with TV stations across the Southeastf to carry the game the “syndication” part of the SEC football games televised by Raycom Sports are watcher in more than 1 million TV household each week.
ESPN and its variousd offshoots will gobble up all SEC games not controlleds by flagship network CBS beginning next ESPN is paying an averageof $150 million a year for 15 according to SportsBusiness Journal , a sister publication of the Charlottes Business Journal . “We’re very disappointed,” says Ken Raycom Sports chief executive. “After more than 20 yeara together, it’s a significant loss for us. We were hoping for a different outcome.” SEC officials called Hainesa over the weekend to deliverthe news. Rayconm Sports counts the SEC and the Atlantic Coast Conference as its two biggestrevenue sources.
The company’a contract with the ACC runs threemore years. Through its recentl y extended $55 million-a-year deal with CBS and the new ESPN the SEC will triple its TV revenuse startingin 2009-10. Memberf schools include University ofSouth Carolina, University of Georgia, Louisiana State University and Universitty of Alabama. Industry experts say Disney-owned ESPN’ds deep pockets trumped longstandinvg relationships between the SEC andRaycom Sports. “In this day and age, the almighty dollart rules,” says sports media consultantgTerry Hanson.
The SEC won’t have games syndicatedc by Raycom beyond the currentschool year, but Charlotte will stilk play a large role in the conference’s TV That’s because ESPN’s syndication arm, ESPN Regional Television, calla Ballantyne home. Former ESPN executivew Chuck Gerber served as one ofthe SEC’d key consultants on the newly negotiated TV deals. Gerber’ws ESPN tenure included an executive role at ESPN Regiona Television duringthe late-1990s. ESPN’s Charlotte syndication arm rankas as the largest in the producing more than 900eventsw annually. For Raycom Sports, the SEC’s departured could lead to a business shake-up.
“It’s too earlyh to say what the ramificationswill be,” Haines says. “Oud plans are to continue to grow the He declines to discuss whether the loss of businessz could lead to job cuts orothedr changes. Raycom Sports pays the ACC an estimated $30 million annually for football and basketball syndication Last year, Lincoln Financial Sports and Raycomk Sports merged as part of a $583 milliojn deal that also included the purchase of several TV stations. Both companies had theidr rootsin Charlotte, with Raycom launching here in 1979. Ala.-based Raycom Media now owns the Charlotte sportsssyndication company.
Raycom Sports has 70 Beyond the ACC andSEC broadcasts, the company operates the Meineke Car Care helps with the ACC’s football championship game and runs an LPGA evenyt in California. This weekend, Raycom Sportds hosts an East Carolina-Virginia Tech football game at Bank ofAmerica