ESPN has announced a new agreement with the Theater Sports Network for new ways to disseminate college football content. While the network has worked with Cinemark over the last two seasons to televise the College Football Playoff semifinals and CFP National Championship games in movie theaters, it will now present part of its portfolio on a larger scale. Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) games airing on ESPN platforms will be available in away team markets throughout the 2023-24 college football season, an innovative means to view the action.
The deal covers the New Year’s Six slate of bowl games, which includes the Capital One Orange Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. Additionally, the CFP Semifinal games at the Allstate Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl Game, along with the CFP National Championship Game are part of the agreement, which includes nearly 75 games in total. The price for this in-person direct-to-consumer viewing option will be determined by participating movie theaters, which will soon be announced to the public.
“We believe movie theaters are the next great frontier for live sporting events, and we are elated with this unprecedented agreement with ESPN,” Scott Daw, president and chief operating officer of Theater Sports Network, said in a statement. “We look forward to bringing these games to ACC football fans [and] believe that theaters have the ability to generate excitement around live sporting events.
“These events will replicate the feel of a football stadium experience as fans gather and fill theaters to watch the games on the big screen. As we move forward, we hope to add games from additional college football conferences as well as other live sporting events.”
Theater Sports Network is partnering with MetaMedia to distribute these live streams of sporting events. The company is a revolutionary global, cloud-based entertainment secure delivery vertical that services out-of-home venues, including drive-in movie theaters and cinemas.
“We believe that Theater Sports Network has identified an unmet demand for families and fans to view live sports on massive movie theater screens,” Jason Brenek, chief executive officer of MetaMedia, said in a statement. “[We] are thrilled to be selected as their distribution technology partner.”
Entering the college football season, ESPN will televise games from the ACC, Southeastern Conference (SEC), Big 12 and Pac-12 – the latter of which does not have a rights agreement for 2024 and beyond. The Pac-12 will lose eight of its 12 current member teams, headlined by USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten Conference.
Starting on Thursday, the Big Ten will start regular season live game broadcasts under a record-breaking seven-year media rights contract worth more than $1 billion annually. Additionally, the Big 12 will add Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, bringing the conference to 18 teams. According to league commissioner Brett Yormark, its media rights deal with ESPN has a pro rata clause that will pay the conference more money when it adds teams.
