This is fascinating. A story in today’s Chicago Tribune says that the impetus for the Big Ten Network and conference expansion was a meeting between ESPN execs and conference leaders, including commissioner Jim Delany, back in 2004. Delany says that ESPN’s Mark Shapiro “lowballed” the conference during contract negotiations, saying “Take it or leave it.” The Big Ten left it and started its own network. The emergence of the Big Ten Network was a factor in the conference’s decision to add a 12th member.
“ESPN’s ‘lowball’ offer triggered Big Ten expansion”—Chicago Tribune
Excerpt:
[Jim] Delany had warned ESPN officials that without a significant rights-fee increase, he would try to launch a new channel that would pose competition both for TV viewers and the Big Ten’s inventory of games: the Big Ten Network.
“He threw his weight around,” [Mark] Shapiro said in a telephone interview, “and said, ‘I’m going to get my big (rights-fee) increase and start my own network.’ Had ESPN stepped up and paid BCS-type dollars, I think we could have prevented the network. In retrospect, that might have been the right thing to do. Jim is making a nice penny on that.”
Said Delany: “If Mark had presented a fair offer, we would have signed it. And there would not be a Big Ten Network.”
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