The West Coast Conference’s relationship with ESPN will continue.
On Tuesday, a new multi-year deal between the WCC and ESPN was announced. ESPN’s linear networks will continue airing 17 regular-season men’s basketball games, along with six men’s and women’s basketball championship games and another four events.
CBS Sports Network will continue airing WCC men’s basketball games, with up to 12 regular season games earmarked for the network.
Per the release, there is also a significant ESPN+ component to the deal, with over 900 conference events heading to the platform.
Conference-owned regular-season events in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s water polo, baseball and softball that are not televised on ESPN networks or CBS Sports Network will be available on ESPN+ beginning with the 2023-24 seasons. The first live WCC events on ESPN+ will be five women’s soccer matches on Thursday, Aug. 17.
“I am excited to expand our longstanding relationship with ESPN,” West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson said. “While continuing our strong linear agreement, the ESPN+ platform and its more than 25 million subscribers provides exceptional visibility and access to showcase our regular season and conference championship events. ESPN provides the conference and our fanbase with great exposure to our events and I look forward to the launch of the WCC on ESPN+ this week.”
“We are thrilled that ESPN+ will be the exclusive digital home of the West Coast Conference through this expanded agreement, which offers a perfect complement to the men’s basketball games and other WCC events that are already available on ESPN networks,” said Dan Margulis, ESPN senior director, programming and acquisitions. “ESPN has enjoyed a strong, collaborative relationship with the WCC for more than two decades, and we will now have the opportunity to showcase the conference’s student-athletes across even more sports.”
The West Coast Conference’s previous digital home was Stadium, which operated the WCC Network. The WCC was the last Division I conference airing on Stadium.
Last summer, the monthly price of ESPN+ increased to $9.99 per month.
[ESPN]
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.