Fox & ESPN Get Lucrative Big 12 Conference Rights

The Big 12 announced an agreement Friday with FOX Sports and ESPN on a 13-year contract reportedly worth $2.6 billion to televise football and men’s basketball through 2024-25.

As part of the agreement, both companies will jointly share the conference’s football air and cable rights.

FOX will have over-the-air access to Big 12 football with a minimum of six games annually on broadcast television and provides FOX with enhanced game selections through 2015.

“We’re very pleased to continue our long-running relationship with the Big 12, clearly one of the most successful and esteemed collegiate athletic conferences in America,” said Randy Freer, co-President and COO of FOX Sports Media Group, in a statement. “This expanded partnership gives FSMG several Big 12 football games to showcase as part of our first-ever over-the air schedule on FOX, while also providing a substantial number of games for our other platforms.

“It’s a win-win for everyone concerned.”

ESPN and FOX share rotating game selections beginning in 2016.

“The stability of the Big 12 Conference is cemented,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in a statement. ”We are positioned with one of the best media rights arrangements in collegiate sports, providing the conference and its members unprecedented revenue growth, and sports programming over two networks.”