As much as it pains people to hear it from the talking heads or see it from the writing... uhhh... heads, SEC football is king when it comes to both quality of football on the field and the TV numbers they pull in off of it.
With that in mind, FOX Sports Net announced today that they had acquired the rights to at least seven of the conference’s games each season beginning in 2009.
Last year, ESPN had purchased what wasn’t covered in the CBS/SEC agreement for an estimated $2.25 billion over 15 years. In turn, ESPN sold a handful of games to FSN.
It’s not yet known which games specifically have been handed over to FSN.
“FOX Sports Net strives to serve the local interest of sports fans across the Southeast by providing more coverage of the teams they are passionate about,”Jeff Genthner, senior vice president and general manager of FOX Sports South and SportSouth, said in a press release. “That commitment to local coverage is reflected in our partnership to televise SEC athletics. Our family of networks in the Southeast - FOX Sports South, Sun Sports and FOX Sports Southwest - has an 18-year history with the SEC and its member schools that has garnered the respect and trust of coaches, administrators and student athletes and we look forward to continuing that relationship.
“Sun Sports is pleased to bring sports fans in Florida this outstanding package of SEC programming, which supplements our extensive agreement with the University of Florida,” said Steve Liverani, senior vice president and general manager, Sun Sports and FOX Sports Florida. “The SEC is one of the most competitive and popular conferences in the nation. This package gives us a terrific, high-profile lineup of live SEC games in football, basketball and more, ensuring that Sun Sports viewers will continue to see a wide variety of SEC sports and additional Gator programming not available anywhere else.”