Here are some quick hitters from the SEC Network announcement:
- It's launching in August of 2014.
- The SEC's deal with ESPN will go through 2034, the longest such deal in sports according to ESPN president John Skipper
- It will air 1,000 live events per year: 450 on TV and 550 online.
- It will have 45 football games annually, three per week
- It will air 100+ basketball games per year
- AT&T U-verse is a carriage partner already
- ESPN will run all of the SEC's online operations, replacing XOS Digital
- ESPN and the SEC will not announce the ownership model today, as far as who owns what percentage of it
- The full release from ESPN is here
- A website for requesting your cable and satellite provider carry the SECN is here. ESPN says it's "early days" in negotiations with other providers besides AT&T. Skipper predicted the SECN would have very wide carriage on launch
- Slive says he doesn't anticipate talking about financials "in the near future", but "potential significant revenue" is coming
- "This is not a regional network. This is a national network." -Skipper
- CBS will still have the first pick of games, but it won't have the 3:30 pm ET slot to itself anymore. The SEC will air a noon, afternoon, and evening game each week.
- Pay-per-view for SEC football is dead
- It will be headquartered in Charlotte, NC, where ESPN has some studios that currently do ESPNU stuff
This is the official logo. The formal name, per the conference, is the "SEC ESPN Network".
