Pac-12 media rights negotiations: Potential partner 'unlikely' to make a deal with conference

The Pac-12's current TV deal expires in 2024 and the conference — after months and months of negotiations — is still in the process of trying to land a new one

Last December, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff spoke in Las Vegas saying “we’re in a good position" in regards to the Pac-12's impending media rights deal.

Six months later, there's still no agreement. 

The Pac-12's current TV deal expires in 2024 and the conference — after months and months of negotiations — is still in the process of trying to land a new one. 

The issue is that without USC and UCLA, the Pac-12's TV rights aren't as valuable and the league is struggling to find a new partnership in the wake of the Big 12 jumping the line and signing a new media deal last October. 

Talking on their weekly The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, reporters Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discussed the Pac-12's situation on Wednesday. 

The journalists began the segment virtually ruling out a deal with one potential partner.

"One name as a possibility that has been out there a lot is Amazon. I think that's very unlikely," Marchand said. "I never say never, but from what I'm told it's very unlikely there's a deal at all." 

Ourand then said that ESPN is still involved in negotiations, but that the network is looking for an "opportunistic" deal.

"I think that ESPN, they're not chasing after the Pac-12," Ourand said. "But if there's something opportunistic that presents itself, they're going to grab it. ESPN is available. They're talking pretty regularly and if they're able to get a deal, that will work out."

Adding some more context to the situation, Marchand responded:

"That's probably not great for the Pac-12 if everyone is looking at it as an opportunity to make a good deal."

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When the Pac-12 first began negotiating its media rights deal, conference higher ups were under the impression that the new $7 billion Big Ten deal meant that the Pac-12 would receive more money in their deal. That assumption was wrong, according to Marchand. 

"It wasn't like the conferences were equals and that was the new going rate," Marchand said. "It was more 'we're going to spend this amount of money and this amount is going to the Big Ten.'"