As conferences continue to push the boundaries of where their conference-branded networks can be made available, ESPN is giving the SEC a nice little push by launching the SEC Network in Mexico. In an announcement made on Thursday, ESPN is now making the SEC Network and ESPNU available in Mexico for the first time to customers using Totalplay in Mexico.
“ESPNU and SEC Network offer the best of college sports and we are excited to make both networks available to Totalplay customers in Mexico,” said Gerardo Casanova, vice president and managing director, Latin America North and ESPN Mexico, in a released statement. “Together, ESPNU and SEC Network will immediately offer college sports fans in Mexico more than 1,000 exclusive live events, including regular-season football games, men’s and women’s basketball games, soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, track & field, as well as unparalleled access To news and information shows and original programming.”
I don’t know how many SEC football fans there are in Mexico, but having the network available south of the border figures to be a nice little perk for a conference already swimming in the riches provided by the SEC Network. Since the launch of the network in cooperation with ESPN, the SEC has seen a big boost in revenue, similar to the Big Ten’s results with the Big Ten Network. In fact, the SEC Network is already more valuable than the Big Ten Network. According to a previous report from Al.com, the SEC Network was valued at $4.77 billion in 2015, and the Big Ten Network has a value of $1.59 billion.
There is a growing interest in football in Mexico, but this also seems to be a good opportunity for the SEC to showcase sports that may be more of interest in Mexico, like soccer and baseball. Football may be the big money maker when it comes to college programming, and that will continue to be the case, but the SEC is now in a nice position to capitalize on programming that college sports networks will tend to lag on compared to the football offerings.
As a result, the SEC could continue to widen the gap in the revenue game even more. As long as this means people in Mexico get a chance to watch “The Paul Finebaum Show” and call in with their rants, I’m all for it.