From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
CBS plans to move on from the SEC following the 2023 season.
Per the Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand and Michael Smith, the SEC will more than likely move to ESPN/ABC after the 2023 college football season concludes. This follows CBS dropping out of negotiations after bidding $300 million to retain the package, which is a substantial increase over the $55 million that the network currently pays to stream college football’s most viewed package.
“We made a strong and responsible bid,” CBS Sports Public Relations office said to Ourand and Smith. “While we‘ve had success with the SEC on CBS, we are instead choosing to aggressively focus on other important strategic priorities moving forward.”
CBS plans on carrying SEC football until its current contract runs out, unless the network that wins the bid takes the reins away. That network is expected to be ESPN/ABC, though Fox Sports is expected to make a bid in January. The bid that ESPN/ABC is set to offer is “more than six times the $55 million per year fee that CBS currently pays.”
ESPN pitched the argument that it can schedule more games throughout the day and more top-tier games will be slotted into primetime.
It’s not all doom and gloom for CBS, the company is invested in UEFA Champions League and plans to fight to retain its NFL Sunday afternoon package.
The SEC football package has consistently been the most viewed in the sport for more than 10 years.