The Colorado Buffaloes, under the leadership of Deion Sanders, have become the centre of a fierce competition between ESPN and Fox for supremacy in college football broadcasting.
The Buffs' recent success has made them a hot commodity, and both networks are vying for the rights to broadcast their games.
George Kliavkoff, the Pac-12 commissioner, predicted last year that Sanders' arrival in Boulder would significantly increase the conference's media value. His prediction seems to have come true, as both ESPN and Fox are leveraging the Buffs' success to gain an advantage in their ongoing rivalry.
Daniel Cohen, Executive Vice President of Global Media Rights at global sports and entertainment agency Octagon, said:
“Prime Time coming to Boulder has been a major boon for Fox,”
The Buffaloes have become the focal point of college football, featuring prominently in debate shows, pre-game broadcasts on Saturdays, and game windows. The Pac-12 has contracts with both ESPN and Fox, and the rights to broadcast Colorado games are alternated between the two networks each week.
This arrangement will continue next year when the Buffs join the Big 12, the only Power conference with a future media rights deal involving both networks.
Fox has been striving to rival ESPN's College GameDay with its Big Noon Kick-off since its inception in 2019. However, last season, GameDay drew 70% more viewers than Big Noon Kick-off. Despite this, Fox has hosted Big Noon Kick-off at a Colorado game for three consecutive weeks, with two of those weeks in Boulder.
Rob Stone, commentator for Fox Sports, said:
“I think we’re more in the hunting mode, rather than being hunted — and it is fun being the hunter and coming up with new ways to attack. Our bosses have been behind it since the off-season and they have put resources into our product that are unheard of.”
Drew Gallagher, Producer at ESPN, said:
“When a team becomes a story, that’s what gets on our radar,”
Analysts throughout the industry have earmarked this Colorado team as arguably the biggest story in sports right now. It is therefore little wonder that access to their broadcast rights is such a hot property at present.
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